“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
The bitter lament penned by the inspired prophet describing Israel’s cruel attitude toward men of God is, regrettably, an accurate description of our society in this twenty-first century. The similarities between the Israel of Isaiah’s time and our world today are undeniable and worrisome. Similar to Israel, we live in a culture where to speak out against sin is viewed as “promoting hate” and to remain silent before it is to “love thy neighbor.” Lamentably, the needle of our moral compass has been switched around by those men who only strive to serve their own lusts and attempt to debase God’s truth as a means of accomplishing this. Like Israel, the mouths of godly men are constantly pursued to be silenced through means of intimidation. Therefore, it is valuable to keep in mind two things as we ponder upon this reality. First, wicked men have tried to silence holy men before and second, they have always failed in succeeding. Observe that despite Israel’s futile attempt to silence the prophet, he continues to speak on behalf of God today, several centuries later. Yet, where are his adversaries who obdurately opposed him? What we must understand is that these malevolent people misunderstood whom they were opposing. Where they believed it was man himself they contended with, Holy Scripture replied “O children of Israel, do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper” (2nd Chronicles 13:12, emphasis added)! In the first century, the religious leaders of Judaism made this same mistake. After having crucified Jesus of Nazareth and being told by the soldiers guarding His tomb that He had indeed resurrected, Holy Writ reveals that the chief priests “had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, ‘Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept’” (Matthew 28:12-13, emphasis added). This, in their minds, would put an end to all their troubles with Jesus and His followers, once more making the mistake to believe that this was man’s doing and rejecting it as an act of God. But God’s truth cannot be silenced by men, and the inspired Luke recounts of how Jesus’ chosen apostles bravely carried on the Lord’s Gospel. When news of the great wonders and miracles that took place by the hands of Peter and the eleven reached their ears, they discovered that their attempts were done in vain. Thus, they surmised that “so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:17, emphasis added). It would be unwise to believe that Peter and John were not afraid of these threats for this would greatly diminish the Divine lesson taught in their example. What Holy Writ makes manifest in this pericope is not the absence of fear, but rather Whom the apostles feared most. Luke scribes that their response to the Sanhedrin’s threats was “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20, emphasis added). Notice the bold proclamation made by these men of God as to why they could not stop preaching the Gospel. Peter and John truthfully heeded the Master’s words advising them “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28, emphasis added). In their answer to the Jewish council, the apostles were exhibiting precisely the greater fear they had of not obeying God’s commandment to preach the Gospel over anything man threaten to do! Both of these men were convinced that their ministry came from a greater authority than the Sanhedrin and were ready to lay their lives down for it. Behold, the reason wicked men fail to silence the voices of godly men! We must recall that before the Savior taught His disciples Whom to fear most, He had warned them “you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22, emphasis added). It is fascinating to know that even though they were fully aware of the dangers they would endure for Christ’s sake, they were not dissuaded from announcing to the world His Gospel. The lesson given to us by the Holy Spirit is not that they were unafraid; its how deeply rooted their faith was to control that fear in a godly way. Through Paul, our God enlightens the source of Peter’s & John’s bravery to be their solid faith. As he describes the spiritual Armor of God, Paul explains “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand…above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:13, 16, emphasis added). Because this is true, the importance of fully developing our faith into maturity becomes abundantly clear. This imperative lesson is emphasized in the Master’s Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23). Remember that the focus of this parable is the ground upon which the sower’s seed fell. One of the descriptions provided by Jesus is the seeds that “fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up there were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away” (Matthew 13:5-6, emphasis added). Further into the text, it is revealed to us that this is he who quickly abandons his faith because “he has not root in himself, but endures for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles” (Matthew 13:21, emphasis added). Thus, the jeopardy of having shallow roots is to have an underdeveloped faith that will easily crack under the enemy’s attack. It is astounding to witness how much Peter’s faith had matured when we bring to our memory that the man now boldly confessing Jesus as Lord publicly, was the same man who had previously denied Him out of fear of death (Matthew 26:69-75). Truly, “blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8, emphasis added).