“Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks!” (Matthew 18:7).
The word skandalon in Greek means a trigger of a trap, snare, or any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall. It is a rock of temptation that causes people to sin or to lose faith.
Therefore Matthew 18:7 could be translated as “How terrible for the world that there are things that make people lose their faith!”
In the context of today’s message, we shall examine two common stumbling blocks that continue to hinder the progress of Christians in faith and the negative impact on their overall well-being.
These two blocks precisely described as Skandalon are fear and guilt.
Guilt is a heavy burden, a consequence of sin which drives the conscience to despair. The guilty conscience cannot have a conversation with God without feeling unworthy, and a fearful heart cannot take the word of God at face value without countering it with logic.
Now, Skandalon was originally the piece of wood that kept open a trap for animals, and similarly our sense of fear and guilt, constantly triggered by the enemy, and the things going on around us in our world, entrap us and hold us in a firm grip of bondage. They prevent us from marching forward with the good promises of God concerning our well-being.
Take the case of Joseph’s brothers after they sold him to slavery. They said one to another, “We verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore has this distress come upon us”. (Genesis 42:21).
Take the case of the fearful, Gideon and his people when they found themselves at the lowest point in their lives, at the mercy of the Midianites.
Gideon and the Israelites were weak, impoverished, and fearful. This state of fear beclouded Gideon’s sense of faith even when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him with the word of hope and power, saying “ The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour”.
Instead of responding to this word in faith, his weak and fearful condition made him respond in distress saying: “Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?”.
As in the case of Joseph’s brothers and Gideon, we see how the trap of guilt and fear work, and this is how it continues to work in many lives today.
But to the glory of God, we also see how Joseph’s brothers turned around from guilt to repentance and sorrow over their sins, leading to their eventual deliverance in Egypt. We also see how fearful Gideon transformed into a confident and mighty deliverer in Israel after believing and acting on God’s word concerning his destiny.
Guilt and fear are the two most common human despair (and I will call them despots); they oppress and interfere with what God has for his children. They have driven people far away from where God wants them to be and from what he has for them.
Guilt says I am not worthy and fear says I am not capable even in the face of God’s assurance.
When one is trapped in guilt, and God says, “Cheer up your sins are forgiven”, he would rather prefer to continue his pity party. When God tells the fearful, “Fear not”, he would rather focus on his fearful circumstances and doubt the word of faith.
What is God calling the guilty to do? He is asking you for godly sorrow and repentance over your sin, and after that, a sense of belief that your sins are forgiven and not looking back again in guilt ever again.
What is God asking the fearful to do? He is asking you to take his word of faith at face value, look up to him and not to the crumbing world around you but to believe that his faithfulness will never fail you.
We cannot find deliverance from guilt and fear by fixing our attention on the world where the power of guilt and fear resides but only by looking up to God in faith who has the power to break the bondage of these two stumbling blocks.
If you are stumbling on any of these two stones, be assured of your deliverance as you look up to God in confident assurance today.
Reading
Judges 6:11-23.
