Announcing my weak attempt to preach from the Apocrypha elicited some wonderful responses. One text sent was a prophetic/Messianic text from the Wisdom of Solomon. It understand it can be taken as Messianic, but the passage (Wisdom 2:12-20) begins with, “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man…”

It is a passage speaking of the wicked who are tired of having someone righteous in their lives.

“…he is inconvenient to us…”

They are tired of the righteous example, so they want to be rid of him. Consider this verse: “the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.” (Wisdom 2:15)

These are challenging thoughts! I like to be liked. I really do. Yet, there are times when my life, my stance in life, my reaction to life, needs to be different. And being different will, at times, cause problems. We may, as believers, become a burden. Those who are unrighteous just may not like being around us! That is not to say we work to be obnoxious. It IS to say that there are times that our lives in Christ really do separate us from unrighteous living and that gets to be uncomfortable.

Lines of separation SHOULD appear from time to time! I fear we are so caught up with the desire to be liked, those lines aren’t quite so distinctive any more.

There are times our faith WILL be tested. There are dear brothers and sisters all over the world living in such situations. Their lives are a burden to some very unrighteous people, unrighteous powers, and these brothers and sisters are tested because of it.

Sometimes lines do get drawn and we need to understand that we will at some point be a burden to unrighteous people. In that day, we need to know in whom believe. We need to be fully persuaded of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And THIS springs from the Apocrypha!