Mt 8:23-27 - And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Where God commands the Israelites to not fear, Jesus asks the question, “Why are you afraid?” The obvious answer would be the winds and the rain and we are going to die. Jesus then does as God did throughout the whole old testament, do a miracle that gave the disciples some perspective about the sovereignty and power of God. The answer to why are they afraid is that they have little faith. We are afraid when we are not in control and someone greater is not in control. We are afraid when what we value is threatened. Therefore, being a afraid is merely an alarm to remind us that we are not in control and we need to have faith that God is in control. We must cry out like the apostles in Lk 17:5 - The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
Ps 33:17-20 - A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
This is a perfect complimentary verse in that it shows how useless man’s help is but also how helpful God’s help when He is our hope and we fear Him only. He will deliver from death and keep us alive in famine. We wait in hope of the Lord and He is our help and our shield. We must trust in Him only as the antidote of being afraid so that God can work in us t accomplish all that He wants through our lives.
