Proverbs 29.25: When People Seem Bigger Than God

Introduction: Have your parents or anyone else ever said to you, “If you learn THIS ONE THING, your life will be much better!”? Well… here it is… “If you learn THIS ONE THING, your life will be better!”

God is BIGGER than people!

How do we know this? God tells us so…

Fear of man will prove to be a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe. (Pr 29:25)

When you boil it all down, our problems revolve around this one idea… we fear people way too much! We don’t fear God enough. In fact when I say, “God is bigger than people,” you may intellectually agree with that statement. Living it out is an entirely different animal.

He is INFINITELY bigger than people!

  • He is bigger and greater than the punks you deal with in school.
  • He is bigger and stronger than the bully you deal with constantly.
  • He is bigger and stronger than your need to feel like you have to be the bully instead of being bullied.
  • He is bigger and smarter than that gaggle of girls whispering behind your back.
  • He is bigger than and knows more about that threat you got recently.
  • He is bigger and greater than all of your quirks, deficiencies you worry about when you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror.
  • He is bigger and greater than the mistakes you made yesterday and has greater forgiveness right now!

God is BIGGER than people!

 

What is this fear?

It may be an explosive dread, trembling fear that can become a panic leading you to paralysis (which we call a panic attack). A person with this kind of fear is described as quaking, anxiety, shudder, startle.
It may be a slow, simmering uneasiness, causing anxiety.
Either extreme, a fear of man is to be dealt with properly.

Where does this fear come from?

A modern bird snare

A modern bird snare

It is called a “snare.” A snare is a small wooden trap to get birds. Only this trap we set ourselves. “will prove to be.” That means the fear produces the trap. You know what that means? Your fear produces the trap. You built your own trap. You set the snare and your own fear causes you to run right into it.

Now that we realize that the fear is something we produced, let’s look at it a bit more closely.

  • It comes from a heart that has unreasonable fears. A lazy person develops this kind of fear. It is called agoraphobia, literally, “afraid of the marketplace.” Proverbs 22.13
  • It comes from a heart that that wants to please man more than God. The heart fears rejection. Doesn’t it seem, to us, that most of the rewards we seek to get in this life come from men? 1 “…any situation in which one is anxious about not offending another person.” 2
  • It comes from a heart that wasn’t prepared for an unusual, scary event.
  • It comes from a heart that fears the rejection of others. Are other people controlling your life? Do they prevent you from speaking the truth? Do they keep you from doing the right thing?

How do you deal with this fear?

The World’s Solution for Dealing with Fear. Psychologists, educators and people who study people have great minds. They are able to look at a problem and IDENTIFY it and give it a name that we connect with. The writer of this Proverb calls it “fear of man.” The world calls it by many descriptive names. The problem is the world offers the wrong SOLUTION.

  • “You need more self-esteem.”
  • “Stop the bullying”
  • “Stand up for yourself”
  • “Surround yourself with people stronger than yourself”

These solutions are not bad. They just don’t go far enough. They don’t place God in the equation.

God’s Solution for Dealing with Fear. The writer of this Proverb highlights the solution to dealing with fear. He names, “The LORD.” “The LORD” is repeated in the second line of each of these verses. He is capitalized L-O-R-D. YHWH: Our God who keeps His promises because He is so great and so infinitely bigger than anyone or anything else, His is called our covenant keeping God. He can be and is to be — trusted. He is trustworthy because of His remarkable salvation (v 25).

If you spoke the Hebrew language, and you wanted to say that your were “safe” as strongly as you could, then this is the word. “Safe” is an intensive form of the verb 3 It means to be “set on high…. placed in an inaccessible tower.” When the fear of man strikes, trust God, because He will place you into a place that is far out of reach of man.
Making this a Reality in Your Life: So, the conclusion is this. When people seem bigger than God, don’t try to solve this out of fear. Trust in God, and God alone. God is bigger than man.
This Proverb was not written by Solomon. It was included in Scripture by Hezekiah and a group of wise men. Why? Because it is so powerful and true. Adults struggle with this! Why? Because, from their teen years, they have always believed that man is bigger than God.
For this reason, God’s word sets this straight.
  • Proverbs 1.7: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”
  • Psalm 56:11: “In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?”

“Trust in the LORD and experience his protection and find life.” 4

Tomorrow morning, when you wake up and look in the mirror, tell yourself, “Today, I believe that God is bigger than man and I will trust Him! “In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?” God will put me up into a tower, far out of reach of all men.

  1. Alden, Proverbs, 203.
  2.  Garrett, D. A. NAC, , 233
  3. Kidner, Proverbs, 177.
  4.  Waltke, B. K., NICOT

Comments

  1. AMOS ODIPO says

    This is abig blessing

  2. Kayando Muyatwa says

    Thanks for this wonderful sermon, it has really helped me to understand God’s word on fear

  3. Akano Adedotun says

    Its indeed a blessing to me and the church of Christ. God bless you.

Speak Your Mind

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.