Preparing For Persecution XV

 It’s not as though those who conferred on what Peter and John’s punishment should be didn’t want to throw them in a dark cell and forget about them, or better still, silence them permanently. There were ways, and surely, they were privy to them because it wasn’t the first time they had to deal with people they perceived as a threat to their power and authority.

They would have gladly done either or both, but they had the people to think about. They had to consider those who had seen the miracle and witnessed the power of God, and they couldn’t figure out a way of explaining Peter and John’s disappearance without stirring their ire.

They understood the pressure the crowds could exert and weren’t willing to endure it just to get rid of two fishermen. You can tell a lot about an elder board or a group of men in authority by what they prioritize and deem existential. The absence of reflection as to what it meant that two uneducated men with no formal training were able to do what their entire retinue could never dream of doing, that Jesus of Nazareth, whose murder they’d had a hand in, was identified as the source of the power, or that Peter and John insisted God had raised Him from the dead on the third day didn’t factor into their decision. One thing mattered above all else: how to keep it from spreading.

These were not seekers of truth, open-minded souls looking for the light. They just wanted to retain the power they’d consolidated, and if that meant ignoring bonafide, demonstrable miracles, so be it.

When those in power, whether religious or political, are confronted with something they can’t explain away, their first recourse is to ignore the thing they can’t explain. The second is to silence and do away with anyone they deem to be in opposition. They know they can’t win in a fair fight, and a fair fight is not what they’re interested in. It’s all about the win. How they get there is not a concern. If they have to lie, cheat, steal, obfuscate, and gaslight, so be it. The ends justify the means, and if a few lives have to be ruined and a few innocents have to spend the rest of their days in dank cells eating skewered rats, so be it.

Because of what Jesus had told them about their future, Peter and John understood that there was a noble purpose for which the fires of persecution were being stoked. This is one of those perception-altering revelations that the Western church has yet to glean because we’re too busy worrying about our flesh to be concerned with our spiritual man.

Often, fire is necessary to burn away the things we are bound with. In order for us to move freely in the midst of the furnace and be unencumbered, the fire must do its part and burn away those things that choke off our ability to grow.

If you’ve read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego carefully, you’ve noticed that the three weren’t simply marched into the furnace but bound in their coats, trousers, turbans, and other garments, like so many human burritos that were set to be grilled alive. It would not make for a civilized spectacle to have three human torches leaping about trying to put the fire out, so they were bound and hurled in.

It seemed like all was lost—three men bound and falling in the midst of the burning fiery furnace—yet God had other plans. Whether the world counts you out is irrelevant as long as God is still on your side. Even when the enemy is getting ready to pop the cork on the champagne and celebrate your demise, God can turn the situation around in such a way that it will leave everyone who knew of it speechless and befuddled.

It may not have been pleasant for them at the moment, but the fire was a necessary component of their victory. It was the fire that burned away the garments with which they were bound so that they might walk freely among the flames. The fire freed them, and the thing the enemy attempted to use as the means of their destruction was used as the means of their freedom.

 To know the character of our God is to know that He is with us even in the fiery trials. To know the character of our God is to know that He will use any situation or circumstance for the good of those who love Him, even if, at the moment, it seems unlikely or impossible to human reason.

Rather than fear the flame and obsess over how to best avoid it, our time would be better spent discovering its purpose and resting in the knowledge that there is a purpose to it that God knows of beyond what we can see in the moment.

There was nothing Peter and John could have done to affect their current situation. There was no higher authority in the land they could entreat, there was no powerful or influential person they knew who could put in a good word, and they didn’t have money to buy their way out of their predicament. All they could do was trust in God and be faithful to the message of the cross, boldly proclaiming the risen Christ.

Our hope is not in politicians, political parties, people of influence, denominations, or net worth. Our hope is in Christ, and if our hope is in anything other than Christ, whatever else we place our hope in will fail us at some point or another. We are faithful to Him! Not the televangelist on television or the sleep-deprived guy on the internet who posts long-winded articles before the crack of dawn. Jesus is Lord; everyone else is either a servant and co-laborer in His harvest field or someone sowing tares among the wheat.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.