A PEOPLE AFRAID

“As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.” —Leviticus 26:36

An encounter with God changes people—but not always positively. For those who so choose, particularly for those who stubbornly persist in their rejection of God, encountering God becomes a cause for terror. It causes extreme anxiety—even the sound of a leaf rattling in the wind can cause alarm. This was the same God who had set the Israelites free, but their freedom could be undone if they continued to reject His liberating goodness. This was the kind of fear demonstrated when Adam heard God walking in the garden (see Genesis 3:8–10).

A relationship that at one time had been loving was transformed into a fearful experience. Adam and Eve sought to escape even the sound of God’s footsteps.

This was the distortion that sin brought with it—the wounded relationship that would need to be healed and restored. This was the reality that God was warning the people of Israel against. This relationship of fear was not God’s intention or desire.

Faced with the reality of an already broken and wounded humanity, God set out the consequences for the choices that each person—and, in this case, the nation collectively—would make. God was not coming to punish Adam and Eve in the garden; His mere presence caused their fear. He was pursuing them with a love in which they were no longer able to engage, nor could they return. God did not then and does not now want this experience for any of His people, thus His fearful warning. And even in this worst-case scenario, God assured them that He would still remember His promises and seek to restore them as His own (see Leviticus 26:44, 45).