Proverbs 28 is a fascinating chapter, because it flows with one theme the entire time - power and power's effect on people. At despair.com, they make de-motivational posters which parody the motivational posters seen on office walls. One of my favorites is the power poster- "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it rocks absolutely, too." Power is a tough thing to balance, but one thing that is a sure sign that power is corrupting is the place of fear in maintaining that power.
Proverbs 28:1 "The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion."
We live in a world of fear. Fear is used to control people across the nations. One insightful book that I found incredibly valuable is "Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear" by Scott Bader-Saye at Calvin College. In it, Bader-Saye points to the evidence of fear as a controlling influence in our world. Dictators use fear of military/police might to control their subjects. Companies spend lots of money for advertising that make you feel afraid of the consequences of not buying their products. And sadly, churches drum up vivid expressions of hell to scare people into God's love. Certainly, the New Testament talks about the reality of wickedness and some kind of punishment for wickedness, but Paul and the apostles rarely used that as the intro in their messages about Jesus. More often it was the image of the cross and the resurrection which were used to convey God's love and the opportunity to be counted as righteous because of Jesus.
1 John tells us that perfect love drives out fear. And since our love is still being made perfect, it is the perfect love of God which has to do the driving. So today, as you are bombarded with messages designed to make you afraid of something (or someone), rest in the perfect love of God and let God drive that fear away.
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