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“How can you say to me, flee like a bird to your mountain” (Psalm 11:1 NIV). “I take refuge in the Lord,” was his reply. Yet, they continued to warn David, “But, they are preparing their bows, even now they are taking aim at your heart.”

David’s reply is astounding. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

If the righteous leaders flee when the wicked are dangerously seeking to destroy them, on what foundation can the righteous build a future for the nation and a hope for their families?

A great question; it is a critical question.

It is a question that has been faced generation after generation. Some leaders have stood the test well while others have failed miserably.

The leaders in Judah are a sad testimony of not standing for truth and failing to provide righteous leadership at an hour of moral landslide.

“The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 22:25-31 NKJV).

The fifteenth and sixteenth century A.D. was another crisis time.

The foundations of the faith were being crushed through Aristotelian philosophy, distorted theology, greedy leadership, and  moral bankruptcy.

Into this foray came the clarion voices of John Hus, Savonarola, and the giant of the Reformation, Martin Luther.

When being faced with the threats and condemnation of a Papal Bull at the Diet of Worms, Luther stood for truth and was bold to answer.

Quoting from his own writings, he declared, “I am bound to the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. God help me. Amen.” (Martin Luther, Eric Metaxas, Viking, New York: 2017, p. 216).

In the seventeenth century the Church of England was awash with distorted theology, bishops preaching politically correct sermons, and drunkenness.

Again men of God rose to the occasion proclaiming truth as the Puritan movement sought to right the Church of England.

Little known Gospel preacher, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress at this critical hour.

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