Adolf Hitler is the go-to guy. He is everyone’s “favorite.”
We keep the name ‘Hitler’ in our back pocket as an example of the worst person who ever lived. His name comes up this way in conversations every day:
“Well, if you had Hitler on the one side and Ghandi on the other—”
“My English teacher was the Adolf Hitler of grammar Nazis—”
“My roommate in college was the worst. It was like living with Adolf Hitler—”
Before Hitler became everyone’s favorite uber-villain, a man from the Bible wore the crown for 19 centuries. Any guesses? It was Herod the Great, responsible for ordering the “Slaughter of the Innocents” reported in Matthew 2:16-18.[1]
Similarly, who do we name when we want to offer up the ultimate good guy? The usuals include Jesus, Ghandi, Santa Claus, and Mother Theresa. Interestingly, God uses this comparison language while speaking through the prophet Ezekiel some 600 years before Christ. Can you guess who God names as ultimate examples of good men?
“Son of man, if a land sins against Me … and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its supply of bread, to send famine through it, and to wipe out both man and animal from it, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness…. If I allow dangerous animals to pass through the land and depopulate it so that it becomes desolate, with no one passing through it for fear of the animals, even if these three men were in it, as I live… they could not deliver their sons or daughters. [Noah, Daniel, and Job] alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate” Ezekiel 14:13-16.
God goes on to explain that if Israel sinned so greatly that He was forced to send famine, wild animals, war, and a plague, Noah, Daniel, and Job would escape because of their righteousness—but their righteous lives would not be enough to rescue their children. But there would be survivors, nevertheless, Ezekiel 14:22.
God always has a remnant.
The question is, would that be you? Would it be me? Are we living righteous lives? Do we follow God as faithfully as Noah, Daniel, and Job? Those were men of great faith and great prayer. May God make each of us more like them. May we obey during 100 years of silence like Noah. May we set aside multiple times to pray daily, like Daniel—no matter how much opposition we receive. And like Job, may we earnestly pray for our children and families, and never allow suffering to draw us away from God.
ΑΩ
[1] An interesting discussion of the ten worst Bible villains can be found here: https://record.adventistchurch.com/2017/06/07/the-ten-most-evil-bible-villains/
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