Autophobia

READ: EXODUS 29:42-46; 32:1-4; 1 CORINTHIANS 3:16

What are you afraid of? Heights? Snakes? Public speaking? Chickens? Yes, alektorophobia (the fear of chickens) is a real thing! So is coulrophobia (the fear of clowns), dentophobia (the fear of dentists), and microphobia (the fear of small things). A person with helio- (sun) and herpeto- (reptile) phobias might not want to live in Florida, and if you happened to have papyrophobia (the fear of paper) and arithmophobia (the fear of numbers), that math homework is never getting done!

Autophobia is the fear of being alone, and while most of us probably won’t be diagnosed with this phobia, I think we all know what it’s like to dread the thought of being left out, abandoned, or forgotten. And apparently, so did the Israelites.

After four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, by His mighty hand the Lord rescued His people. But as they walked away from all they had ever known, fear set in. Their leader, Moses, went up to meet with God on Mount Sinai, but the meeting took so long the people wondered what had happened to Moses. So they built a golden calf to worship and called it their god. It seems they were afraid that the Lord, who’d just rescued them out of Egypt, had left them all alone.

What the people of Israel didn’t know was, in that very meeting on Mount Sinai, God was giving Moses instructions for the tabernacle. He said, “Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). This tent would be a tangible reminder to the Israelites that the one true God was always right there with them.

Yet, there had to be a curtain in the tabernacle (and later in the temple) to separate the place where God’s presence dwelt from the place where the people could come and worship Him, or people would die. But when Jesus died on the cross, that curtain was torn in two! Because He rose from the dead, the presence of God now dwells wherever followers of Jesus are. Cleansed by His grace and indwelt by His Holy Spirit, we are now the “sanctuary” where God dwells on this earth!

My instincts may tell me to bolt headlong in the other direction when I see a chicken, but I never have to fear being alone. Wherever I am, God is right there with me! • Mandy Desilets

• Jesus is “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), and He promises never to leave us (Hebrews 13:5). Whenever we feel alone or afraid, He wants to reassure us with His love. According to Colossians 3:16, what are three ways we can be reminded of God’s presence with us?

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)