Proverbs 28:28 ¶ When the wicked rise, men hide themselves:
but when they perish, the righteous increase.
When dictators and tyrants come up men
who believe in liberty must operate in secret. Thus, it has been all through
history. Finally, when the monster in charge either dies by natural causes or
is assassinated, if a good person takes his place, the righteous flourish. Now,
this isn’t just a political statement referring to the oppression of tyrants
versus freedom loving people. This, in the Bible, is a reference to the wicked,
as in Satan’s minions, those who care not for God, God’s ways, or His people.
They achieve power and the faithful to God are forced underground until the
wicked is overthrown.
1 Kings 18:1 ¶ And it came to pass after many
days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go,
shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. 2 And Elijah went
to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria. 3 And Ahab
called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the
LORD greatly: 4 For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD,
that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed
them with bread and water.) 5 And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land,
unto all fountains of water, and unto all brooks: peradventure we may find
grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts. 6 So
they divided the land between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way by
himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself. 7 And as Obadiah was in the
way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said,
Art thou that my lord Elijah? 8 And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord,
Behold, Elijah is here. 9 And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest
deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? 10 As the LORD thy God
liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek
thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and
nation, that they found thee not. 11 And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord,
Behold, Elijah is here. 12 And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from
thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so
when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy
servant fear the LORD from my youth. 13 Was it not told my lord what I did when
Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD’S prophets
by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now thou sayest,
Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. 15 And Elijah
said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew
myself unto him to day. 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab
went to meet Elijah.
The Hebrews who had to hide from a wicked king weren’t hiding
from an Assyrian, an Egyptian, or a Persian. They were hiding from one of their
own, someone who should have been extolling God but who was a murderous
hypocrite, brazen enough to claim God’s blessings but foolish enough to worship
other gods, including himself. Beware of the leader who proclaims faith in God
with his mouth but with his actions causes Christians to hide just as you would
rail against a Communist or Muslim controlled government that persecuted
Christians as in Indonesia or Vietnam. (Sometimes the wicked is a system and
not just a person, as in the medieval Roman Catholic Church.)
Throughout major and minor persecutions of
Christians under Roman emperors, including some who wanted to steer the empire
back toward paganism and away from the paganized state Christianity that their
predecessors had created; Christians who escaped the burnings, tortures,
crucifixions, and being eaten by nearly starving wild animals in the arena had
to hide themselves until such despots died or were overthrown, praying the next
pagan would be more tolerant or at least nominally one of their own.
Paul says in 2Timothy 4:17 Notwithstanding
the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be
fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of
the mouth of the lion.
Christians today, the righteous only by virtue
of having the Spirit of Christ implanted in them by the new birth, are being
martyred at a much higher rate than in the Roman Empire rivaled only by the
murders committed by the spiritual Roman Empire in the Vatican in the Medieval
period of Western history. Perhaps Islam will experience a Reformation of its
own which will make its governments more tolerant of other religions
politically. Perhaps Vietnam and China will morph into modern, secular
democracies with an impartiality toward religious expression, even if a
negative impartiality as in Europe and America.
As it stands today in the United States, you can
still say your Merry Christmas’s, you can still pray at work even if not
openly, you still have a legal right under the Civil Rights Act to your
particular day of religious observance that you can demand free from your work
responsibilities without fear of retribution, and you can still unite together
as a church, the body of Christ, and even command tax benefits if you don’t
venture too far into political demagoguery. In fact, many politicians proclaim
their faith in Christ, on both the left and the right, although it’s more
fashionable to express that faith on the right. Enjoy it while you can because
a day will come when you or your spiritual descendants will be driven
underground if the Lord doesn’t return first to call His church out. Of course,
we can rejoice that when the wicked Beast of Revelation, who is popularly
called “The Antichrist”, is vanquished by Christ and He sets up His millennial
reign on earth the righteous will not only increase but will flourish under His
authority as the faithful believers rule with Him for the thousand years before
eternity begins.
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