Ezekiel 12:17-20 – Overcoming fear and anxiety

Panic and fear and two negative emotions that can be debilitating. For their wayward, careless lifestyle of living contrary to God’s stipulated standards, the house of Israel would be judged. God had the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem. Earlier in Ezekiel 4:9-17 God already instructed the prophet to show through a drama the scarcity of food supply and water, where rationing of food and water became a necessity. Now in Ezekiel 12:17-20, God told him to act out a message that demonstrates panic and fear,

Ezekiel was to eat food with trembling and drink water with signs of anxiety. He was to eat and drink as one who had been stricken with terror. He was to portray the feeling that they would be stricken when Jerusalem and Judah were filled with violence and chaos as they were being invaded. The city would be wasted, and the land made desolate. When all these happen the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah would be eating and drinking with a sense of great trepidation. The whole point was to make them come to realize who was their God and His true nature.

This was not something Israel was not warned earlier on in the book of Deuteronomy.  God said these curses would happen to them when they chose to disobey Him. Deuteronomy 28:67-67 says, “Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see.”

Fear can be a good thing when it keeps us from doing the wrong thing and going down the wrong path. It keeps us in check. But it becomes a bad thing when it paralyzes us and keeps living a panicky life full of anxiety and prevents us from living life without any foreboding. First John 4:18 assures us that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected love.”

 

The antidote to fear is faith in God. True faith in Him will inspire us to walk in obedience and be protected and guarded by the peace of God. Faith will help us turn to God in times of fear. This is God’s assurance in Philippians 4:6-7. Paul said, “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”