The old curmudgeon is coming out again with the sitting at home and social distancing and the constant fear mongering.  The wonderful line comes to my mind about the corona virus and the time that the networks give for answering the questions folks have about it – everything we know about it has been said, it just hasn’t been said by everyone.

So I said something that the Cardinal of New York had mentioned when he shut down all the Catholic churches in New York City and that was the words “don’t be afraid” or “don’t worry” occur 365 times in the Bible.  I might have said the occurrences were in the New Testament and if I did I was wrong. There is one admonition about worry and fear for everyday of the year in the Bible, Old and New Testament.

It is true but not as simple as just looking for “worry”, or “fear” in a concordance There is actually many more words about worry in the Scriptures, but winnowing down to 365 was a cute device.  Direct statements demanding not being afraid are around 146.  Statements about worry are harder to put together because there are admonitions about “worry” that might be translated as “anxiety” or “care”, or “fear” So when Paul say’s in the original “be careful about nothing”, Philippians 4;6, it can be translated as anxious, concerned, worried, etc.

So the curmudgeon in me wants to say that if you don’t know what a concordance is you haven’t been paying attention.  The curmudgeon doesn’t like to think he might be to blame for your ignorance so………

There are many Bibles that have a Concordance in the back pages.  There is a huge Concordance called “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance”. that tells you where certain words are used in the Bible and lists them all. There are also concordances on the computer.

Some of you wanted me to do the work for you and list them.  Do you want me to come to your home and read them to you too?  Oh that’s right, I forgot, “concern” about the virus.

So here are the 146 “fear not”, or “don’t be afraid” passages

Genesis 15:1, Genesis 21:17, Genesis 26:24, Genesis 35:17, Genesis 43:23, Genesis
46:3, Genesis 50:19, Genesis 50:21

Exodus 14:13, Exodus 20:20

Leviticus 26:6

Numbers 6:24 to 26, Numbers 14:9, Numbers 21:34

Deuteronomy 1:17, Deuteronomy 1:21, Deuteronomy 1:29, Deuteronomy 3:2, Deuteronomy 3:22, Deuteronomy 7:18, Deuteronomy
20:1, Deuteronomy 20:3, Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 31:6, Deuteronomy 31:8

Joshua 1:9, Joshua 8:1, Joshua 10:8, Joshua 10:25, Joshua 11:6
Judges 4:18, Judges 6:23

First Samuel 4: 20, first Samuel 12:20, first Samuel 22:23, first Samuel 23:17, first Samuel 28:13, Second Samuel 9:7,

first Kings 17:13, Second kings 1:15, second kings 6:16, second kings 19:6, second kings 25:24,

First Chronicles 22:13, first Chronicles 28:20, second Chronicles 20:15,
Second Chronicles 20: 17, second Chronicles 32:7

Nehemiah 4:14

Job Joe 5:21, Job 11:15, Job 21:9

Psalm 3:6, Psalm 4:8, Psalm 16:7 to 9, psalm 23:4,psalm 27:1, psalm 27:3, psalm 29:11, Psalm 46:2, Psalm 49:16, Psalm 56:3–4, Psalm 56: 11, Psalm 78:53, Psalm 91:5, psalm 94:19, Psalm 118:6, Psalm 119:165

Proverbs 3:24, Proverbs 3:25

Ecclesiastes 11:10

Isaiah 7:4, Isaiah 8:12, Isaiah 10:24, Isaiah 12:2, Isaiah 17:2 Isaiah 26:3, Isaiah 35:4, Isaiah 37:6, Isaiah 40:9, Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 41:13, Isaiah 41:14, Isaiah 43:1, Isaiah 44:2, Isaiah 44:8, Isaiah 51:7, Isaiah 54:4, Isaiah 54:14

Jeremiah 1:8, Jeremiah 10:5, Jeremiah 17:8, Jeremiah 30:10, Jeremiah 40:9, Jeremiah 42:11, Jeremiah 46:27, Jeremiah 46:28, Jeremiah 51:46

Lamentations 3:57

Ezekiel 3:9

Daniel 10:12, Daniel 10:19

Joel 2:21- 22

Zephaniah 3:16

Haggai 2:5,

Zachariah 8:13, Zachariah 8:15,

Malachi 3:5

Matthew 1:20, Matthew 6:25: Matthew 10:19, Matthew 10:26, Matthew 10:28, Matthew 10:31, Matthew 14:27, Matthew 17:7, Matthew 28:5, Matthew 28:10

Mark 5:36, Mark 6:50, Mark 13:11

Luke 1:13, Luke 1:30, Luke 2:10, Luke Luke 5:10, Luke 8:50, Luke 12:4, Luke 12:7, Luke 12:11, Luke 12:32

John 6:20, John 12:15, John 14:26, John 16:33

Acts 18:9 Acts 20:10, Acts 27:24

Romans 5:1,

Hebrews 3:6
Philippians 4:6

First Peter 3:6, First Peter 3:14, first Peter 5:7

First John 4:18

Revelations 1:17 Revelations 2:10

Now wash your hands and get off my lawn.