Four reasons why we must not be afraid

Deuteronomy 1:29-31 (ESV)
Then I said to you, ''Do not be in dread or afraid of them. [30] The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, [31] and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.''

Moses in this passage gives several reasons why Israel "should not be in dread or be afraid of them". Firstly, the LORD their God went before them. Our God is like an army that goes before us, to prepare a way for us, to be as a 'buffer' for us, protecting us from heading straight into harm. Our God always goes first, and surveys the area for us, so that we can follow Him by the way that He paved for us. He is our Commander, our General, our Captain, our Leader who goes first. We never have to lead the way, or seek out a place for God to stay. For He does it all, and He knows where He ought to go:
Matthew 26:17-19 (ESV)
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?" [18] He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ''The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.''" [19] And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

We ought to be so glad that we have a God who "goes before us". It is a great comfort to know that we don't have to face the future first, but God faces it for us first. Our God holds our future in His hand, as the scroll in heaven in which is written whatever will happen in the future:
Revelation 5:1 (ESV)
Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
God has written His future for us and how our days will be spent even before we were born:
Psalm 139:16 (ESV)
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Knowing this, we have great assurance that all things will work for the good for us whom He has chosen, who loves God:
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
And the next verses in Romans explain what this "good" is. It is becoming like Jesus Christ. There is no other "good":
Romans 8:29-30 (ESV)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. [30] And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God has predestined us whom He has chosen to be conformed to the image of His Son. This is the glorification God has destined us His children to receive. This is the future that God has mapped out for each of us whom He foreknew.

Jesus Christ our God has gone before us:
Mark 14:28 (ESV)
But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee."
He has gone before us to heaven to prepare a place for us:
John 14:2-3 (ESV)
In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus Christ has also gone through the fire of suffering before us, so that we may also follow Him, and go through suffering as He did, that we may be glorified with Him:
Mark 10:38-39 (ESV)
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" [39] And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized
Romans 8:17 (ESV)
and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Knowing that Christ has gone before us and suffered before us, it gives us great courage for the suffering that is waiting us by God's grace. It makes our pain bearable, because we remember the greater pain that Christ suffered, for us. It makes us not to be afraid of suffering, for we know the greater glory that awaits us in our resurrection, as it was given to Christ:
Romans 8:18-19 (ESV)
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [19] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Let us then hold fast to the Gospel, which shows our Lord's path that He walked, and let us walk in that same path of suffering to glorification.

Second argument Moses gives makes is that "God Himself will fight" for them. Moses is saying, in effect, 'HE will do the fighting, through you. Just offer yourselves to God as weapons through faith'. This agrees with this verse:
Romans 6:13 (ESV)
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

We are the ones doing the fighting, but it also will not be us, but it will be God, if we offer bodies to God as a living sacrifice. We are like a sword that is in the hand of a Mighty Warrior. A sword does not fight the war himself, as though it has life. By no means: it is DEAD. In another example, a musical instrument does not play itself, as though it was the musician. But the best it can do is to be still, and to yield itself to a great Musician. Likewise, through our deadness to our selves, God will work through us. To understand this mystery, this word helps:
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

God Himself fighting for us also means that the battle will be a spiritual one, in the unseen realms, and thus through God's Spirit alone we shall be victorious:
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (ESV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. [4] For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. [5] We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, [6] being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Because the battle is spiritual, but since we are but flesh, we cannot fight the battle at all ourselves:
Romans 7:14 (ESV)
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
When Israel was in Egypt, the battle was to break Pharaoh's hardened heart that he may let go of Israel. No one could do this spiritual work but God. Likewise, when we are struggling with sin, we must realize that the battle is beyond our ability. It is impossible to suppress our sin by modifying our outward behaviour. This is an INWARD work that must be done by the Holy Spirit. He must melt our hearts and He must free us from the chains of our sins. Christ alone has the keys to take us out of the prison. He alone has the Blood that can cleanse us from all our sins.

When Israel later did invade Canaan, was it because of Israel's great military strategy that defeated the great armies of giants? No. God had gone first by His Spirit, and disturbed the spirits of the Canaanites that they had no left strength within them at all. As Rabab testifies:
Joshua 2:11 (ESV)
And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.
It was a spiritual battle, and God was doing the fighting with their spirits before Israel had fought them in the flesh. Could Israel have done this? Impossible. It was the working of God. The realm of the impossible is the spiritual realm. Therefore we must put our trust in the God alone in our spiritual battles, knowing that we are spiritually invalid apart from His Spirit. Therefore it is written:
1 Samuel 17:47 (ESV)
For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand.
God Himself will fight for us our spiritual battles, and our job is to entrust ourselves to Him. We must depend on Him in prayer, being humble and knowing that apart from the Spirit we are nothing.

Just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. In this third argument that Moses makes, he appeals to victories that God wrought for Israel in the past. Memories of what God has done in the past for us should give us great courage for similar troubles we face in the future. God had destroyed Egypt before Israel's eyes, so they may see and remember God's salvation whenever they found themselves in trouble. If God had saved them with great salvation, what will stop Him from saving them from smaller troubles? We Christians must also remember how they were rescued from the world, sin and the fate of hell by such a great salvation and power. If we were so rescued from the Kingdom of darkness and slavery and sonship to Satan, why should we be afraid or anxious of minor captives that hold us? God will rescue us from them all, if we remember our salvation, and trust again in God's salvation.

And we have assurance since God does not change, and is forever the same:
Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
If He saved us yesterday, He will save us today, and He will save us forever by His eternal life. If He gave us strength in the past, He will continue to give us strength. If He has loved us in the past, He loves us today and will love us forever. Whatever Christ has done for us yesterday, we know that He will do for us now and in the future. Therefore our past walk with Christ gives us great confidence to face today and tomorrow. We don't know what troubles we are going to face today and tomorrow, but we rest assured, because we know our God, that He is immutable, and that He can deliver us from every situation. It is because of God that we take courage, because of the certainty of His faithfulness, that we can face the uncertainties of life.

And in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son. Fourth argument that Moses makes for Israel to not be fearful was that God was their heavenly Father. God, as a Father, has fed them, given them water, clothed them and provided shelter for them, defended them and disciplined them in the wilderness. They were being cared for, as a babe is cared for in his father's arms. They were indeed but a babe in a Father's arms. What were they afraid of? Just as God had carried them up until this point, He was going to carry them all the way inside the promised land. He would indeed always carry them, even unto their old age, as it is written:
Isaiah 46:4 (ESV)
even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you.I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

What the Spirit is saying is, then: we will never outgrow from being a baby in God's arms. We will never cease to be God's children, and He will never cease to be our Father. In this world, we are dependent of our fathers until we reach a certain age, then we become adults, independent from our parents, able to sustain ourselves without their help. And later it is US that need to help our fathers, and to carry our fathers since they become old and fragile. But not so in the case of our relationship with God our Father. There will never be a time when we come so mature that we no longer need to depend on God for help. We will never reach a point where we will become self-sufficient that we don't need God to provide for us. We will forever be carried and cared for and fed and provided for by God our Father. We will grow, for sure, but we will also always be little children in God's sight. We will never outgrow God, since God is eternal. Neither will God grow old that He needs to be carried by us, for He is immortal and dwell in eternity. Hence God is called our EVERLASTING Father, we being His everlasting children:
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be calledWonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

All the way that you went until you came to this place. God had been carrying Israel from the moment they came out of Egypt, all the way in the wilderness until they had come to the land of the Amorites. But now Israel's problem was that they were refusing to be carried by God any further. If they had continued to entrust themselves to God, their fight with the Canaanites would have been like as easy as a baby being carried in the arms of a father. But Israel refuses to be carried, since they see themselves as they see themselves as adults and see fit to carry themselves, they are refused entry into Canaan. Only those who humble themselves and are converted to be children will be carried by God into the Kingdom of God:
Luke 18:16-17 (ESV)
But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. [17] Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

Pride is the fruit of unbelief that hinders people from entering into the Kingdom of God. Pride is the opposite of faith, this idea that one does not need to depend on God. Pride is destructive: it is like a baby that hates being in the arms of his father, exposing himself to the dangers of being outside the father's protection. Faith is humbling, because it is relying on the power of another, but it is what keeps us in the safety of God's arms.

If we have once placed our trust in Jesus Christ to save us, then we ought to keep on trusting in Jesus Christ to save us. This first generation of Israel trusted Him through the desert, but gave up their trust when they saw the Amorites. But what was that saying about their God? That God was not able. It is impossible to please God without faith, because God created all His creatures to depend on Him for everything. We were created to trust in Him, and we were saved by this faith, and we will continue to be saved through faith. Failure to do this is to fail at the main purpose of our existence, and to miss out on salvation.

We must trust in Jesus even unto our old age, and especially then, as we draw nearer to our death. At the face of our enemy death we can't be scared, but trust that Christ can even bring us through this Anakim of our souls. Though death looks like a fortress that is walled up to heaven, we remember that Good News, how Christ died for us, and we put trust in Christ our Lord and Saviour. And death will crumble before us like the walls of Jericho the moment we enter into glory and into His joy forever. Praised be to God, our trust!