What does the Bible say about the loneliness of a righteous man?
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. – Proverbs 12:10
Isaiah 51:7-8
“Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their reviling. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.”
The Conscience of a righteous man
There is that subtle conflict that faces a man doing his best to follow the ways of righteousness and order his life according to the laws of God.
Deep in his heart he knows that what he is doing is the right thing; the lasting and eternally profitable thing to do, but then the multitudes around him are making fun of him as if he is the stupid one.
They make him feel as if he doesn’t know what he knows. They deride him as if he’s behind, backward, and outdated. The pressure often comes from the fact that he is alone and they are a multitude. He alone sees the value of what he is standing on; all the others see value in something else. Worse still, the multitude can readily point to the benefits of their own way but he has to tell a long, boring story of someone else, who benefited from his own righteous way. And he and his principles look unreal, unreliable and in all sense, unreasonable. That is the problem. That is the pressure. That is the source of the “fear” that God was talking about.
Yes, the righteous way is a lonely way. The godly route is a narrow route. It doesn’t accommodate multitudes. It doesn’t, most times, accommodate “colleaguing”! It doesn’t allow conferencing!
No! It doesn’t allow comparisons and competition with mates and acquaintances. Those that must go that way must look straight on, focused only on Jesus and His demands. And that is a real pressure on mortal minds like ours.
Many times, we wonder if God “understands” this pressure. Many times we wish He will just allow us go the way of the multitude, and that as God, He would still bring His will to pass, after all, He can do all things. Can He not?
Why doesn’t God work through the normal easy way of least resistance that the world and her multitude normally advocate? It is simply because He is not a man! And He is not like the sons of men that will eventually buckle under pressure! He knows the way of the multitude is the way of men, slippery and untrustworthy! He knows that one day, these same confident and boastful crowd will come around to repent and say, “We’re sorry we goofed. After all, we’re only human.” So instead of bending to our cry to save us from the pressure of shame and kindred resistance, He simply looks us in the face and says:
Isaiah 51:12-13
“I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?”
Who are you . . . that you should be afraid?
I think this is where the problem is. I think this is the real issue! Most righteous men do not realize who they are. They probably know the value of the principles they try to live by, but they do not know the real value of being righteous!
That’s why God asks the question, “Who are you?” Or better still, “Who do you think you are?” Let’s put the question in simplified English:
Isaiah 51:12-13 – Bible in Basic English
“I, even I, am your comforter: are you so poor in heart as to be in fear of man who will come to an end, and of the son of man who will be like grass? And you have given no thought to the Lord your Maker, by whom the heavens were stretched out, and the earth placed on its base; and you went all day in fear of the wrath of the cruel one, when he was making ready for your destruction. And where is the wrath of the cruel one?”
Are you so poor in heart? Are you so unaware of the riches of grace available to the righteous man? Are you so disconnected from the reservoir of divine resources available in God and available to whosoever follows Him?
Why are we so poor in heart? Why have we undervalued our heritage? Why do we fear the multitude and shrink under their mockery and reviling? Is it not because we have lost sight of who we are and lost sight of who our God is? Is it not because we have forgotten His antecedents? The fear of man is a kind of poverty; the poverty of the heart!
The poverty in our hearts is a reflection of the poverty in our memories. The fact is that we forget.
We forget our Red Sea and the “standing wall of water” which we passed through! We forget that He did it again in Jordan through another way. So He can be trusted to do it again and again in a million and one ways, if He says so!
We forget the Manna which our fathers freely ate and knew not how it came! We forget the water flowing from the Rock inside an acclaimed Desert! We forget the pillar of cloud by day, for shade; and the pillar of fire by night, for protection!
We forget, we forget! That’s the problem. We always forget! And so we focus on the wrong things and fear the wrong people!
Why fear man if you fear God? Why succumb to man’s pressure if you have yielded to God’s command? Why shrink under the multitude’s reproach, if you have accepted God’s assurances?!
The poverty of our hearts is often also a poverty of faith and confidence in God! We believe men more than we believe God. We fear more than we have faith.
Meanwhile, fear is faith in the opposite direction. Fear and faith are equal and opposite.
Faith says, “I believe God is able to do what He has promised. Fear says, “I believe the devil is able to do what he has threatened. Fear is the exact reciprocal of faith. As fear increases, faith decreases.
As faith wells up in the believer’s heart, fear ebbs out from his thoughts and emotions! As you feed your fear with the words of men, you starve your faith of the word of God. So, really, it’s up to the righteous man to decide what he allows to fill his mind.
So, let’s turn around today! Let’s give honor to WHOM honor is due and fear to WHOM it is due! Let’s change the focus of our hearts and redirect the thoughts of our meditation.
Let’s dwell on the law of God hidden in our hearts. Let’s dwell on the righteous principles we already know. And the fear and reproach of the multitude will soon lose their pressure on us.
Isaiah 8:12-14
“Say ye not, a confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, a confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”