Nothing to fear but fear itself? I don't think so.

St. Julians

Lilac blossoms are back in town.

I know a number of people for whom riding in a car when someone else is driving is cause for nervous, apprehensive stress. I empathize with them; I ride in airplanes (which I avoid whenever possible) in an adrenalin-fed, tense state. The immediate, simple explanation is that we have vicariously lived the horror of physical death in reports of crashes, and when we’re passengers—which by definition leaves us with no control over the situation—our unease is heightened.

“And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8; Moses encouraging Joshua to enter the promised land boldly. KJV)

Every soldier going into combat must fear physical death; how could it be otherwise when the possibility—in some situations, the probability—of being torn to pieces by bullets, shrapnel, explosions must have been imagined over and over in training? “Fear not, neither be dismayed” indeed.

But the possibility of violent deaths in car or airplane crashes or war’s catastrophes represents only a few of many reasons for apprehension, for “dismay.” Fear of cancer, of earthquakes, of floods, of rapists and muggers, of any number of imagined apocalyptic scenarios is directly proportional to the likelihood of its happening to me, inversely proportional to the control we imagine ourselves having in a given situation.

Seems to me.

I very much doubt that Moses and Joshua knew anything about the mechanics of the adrenalin rush that triggers the fight or flight response in us, that raises our alertness and stress to uncomfortable levels. It’s biological, and it would take another two and a half centuries, for instance, before William Harvey would describe blood circulation. To Moses and Joshua, human anatomy was a black box. Reading Deuteronomy as if the writers had the same knowledge base as we seems to me to be an interpretation error of vital importance.

BUT, there might be some insight to be gained from Moses and Joshua’s conversation: confidence in God’s ultimate purposes can be an antidote to fear. The premium we place on our physical survival is understandable, but where the conviction of God’s leading and guidance are engrained, physical death can be accepted as a very brief—if painful—transition to something better than our bodily survival.

At least, that seems to be implied in Moses’ message to Joshua plus, of course, the assumed certainty that if God is on your side, you can’t lose.

(The battle strategy of luring the Aian military out of the city with a small force and then attacking from the rear has probably informed military strategy ever since, but that’s another story. The killing of all the women and children as well as the soldiers is a difficult read for those who conflate the god of the conquest of Ai with the god of Jesus. Read all about it HERE)

In more modern times, the “Moses message” to generals and soldiers is one of a number of versions of an old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country. Throw in the “God is on our side” shibboleth and a uniform and the camaraderie of many men and women being taught to hate a people they don’t know, and you have what I call a Moses war message: a package of incentives that help to quiet fear, make of killing a patriotic game as opposed to the bloody slaughter it always turns out to be.

We provide pharmaceutical or emotional palliatives for natural fear at our peril. Fear of cancer can persuade us to live cleaner lives, for instance; fear of flight may make it easier to rein in our wasteful practice of trading our very environment for speed and convenience; fear of injury in battle could help us to see negotiation and compromise as attractive alternatives to the military “solution.”

Let’s think about that before we take a tranquilizer, allow ourselves to be seduced by patriotic or religious rhetoric.

Let’s revisit our biology; the adrenalin-fed stress response is creation’s way of protecting us from harm. The same creator that gave us eyes to see . . . gave us this.