But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

“What were they thinking?” rises to my consciousness when I learn about the indictment of prominent persons for an egregious white-collar crime.  “Did they by some inexplicable twist in their thinking believe that they would get away with their misdeeds?”  Without addressing the morality of the acts, the criminals’ foolishness astounds us.  Incredulous, we ask, “Were they oblivious to the perennial parade of professionals and politicians dragged through the news and courts?  Have they never seen the executives taken from their plush offices by federal marshals and carted off to jail in handcuffs?”

The truth is that the lure of riches, power, and pleasure blinds those who choose to grasp what they want, though it causes them to flout the law.  They believe their crimes will remain hidden, and having covered their ears against wisdom’s cry to refrain from all manner of evil,[1] they justify shunning God’s call to walk in integrity.  Otherwise, they would know that light always breaks through sin’s covering to expose impure, unholy, and illegal acts performed in darkness. 

Seeing well-educated, intelligent people behaving as those who have no sense by illegally pursuing treasures they must so soon relinquish, teaches us about the deluding power of sin and the trickery of the rulers of darkness in the world.  Temptation seduces those who linger with it.  It leads them along a way that seems right for them because they think no one will find out about their transgressions, but their path leads not to social status and comfort, but to exposure and death.[2]  Before they recognize the snare, the jaws of the trap spring shut, enslaving them to their sin, and they find themselves waiting for the day when dread will come upon them like a storm, and calamity like a whirlwind.[3]

Not so, with those who fear God.  Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and they keep their way according to the Word.[4]  The path of their life leads upward, reaching higher, ever higher.[5]  They need not fear the knock on the door, the warrant for their arrest, the public display of their base and corrupt actions; rather, they know the sweet sleep of those who have pure hearts, good consciences, and sincere faith.[6]

 

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[1] Proverbs 1:20, 23

[2] Proverbs 16:25

[3] Proverbs 1:27

[4] Psalm 119:9

[5] Proverbs 15:24

[6] 1 Timothy 1:5