The Hide and Seek of Nations Text: Proverbs 28:28
Introduction: The Moral Barometer of a Nation
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It does not give us abstract platitudes for personal devotion that float three feet off the ground. It gives us the gritty, concrete reality of how God’s world works, from the kitchen to the king’s court. The proverbs are divine generalizations, telling us how life generally goes when you live in the grain of God’s created order, and how it generally goes when you try to saw against that grain. They are the manufacturer’s instructions for reality.
And one of the recurring themes in Proverbs is that the moral and spiritual condition of a nation’s leadership has a direct, observable effect on the populace. You cannot have rampant, public wickedness in high places without it affecting the man on the street. Righteousness and wickedness are never private affairs; they are public, they are contagious, and they set the cultural tone. A nation’s rulers are a kind of moral barometer. You can tell what a people truly worships by looking at the men they elevate.
This proverb, the last in this chapter, serves as a capstone to this theme. It gives us a stark, two-part diagnosis of a society’s health. It presents us with an inescapable antithesis: a society is either a place where the righteous flourish in the open, or it is a place where good men have to keep their heads down. There is no third option. This proverb is a diagnostic tool. If you want to know the spiritual state of your nation, you don’t need to consult a pollster. You just need to ask a simple question: are the righteous hiding, or are they increasing?
We live in a time when many Christians feel the intense pressure to hide. They hide their convictions at work. They hide their faith from their neighbors. They hide their children from the godless ideologies being pumped through the schools. And they do this because wicked men have risen to power. They have taken the microphone, they control the institutions, and they have made it plain that dissent will not be tolerated. This proverb speaks directly into our cultural moment, giving us both a diagnosis for our condition and a promise for our future.
The Text
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves;
But when they perish, the righteous increase.
(Proverbs 28:28 LSB)
The Great Evasion (v. 28a)
We begin with the first clause:
"When the wicked rise, men hide themselves;" (Proverbs 28:28a)
The verb "rise" here refers to rising to a position of authority or prominence. When men who are fundamentally at war with God take the levers of power, whether in government, media, education, or business, a predictable consequence follows. Ordinary people, "men," go into hiding. This is not just a physical hiding, though it can certainly come to that, as we see with the prophets hiding from Jezebel. It is a cultural and moral hiding.
When wickedness is normalized from the top down, public life becomes dangerous for the decent man. To speak the truth becomes a revolutionary act. To live according to a biblical ethic is to paint a target on your back. The wicked do not just want to sin; they demand that their sin be celebrated. They require public affirmation. And when a man of conscience cannot give that affirmation, he becomes an obstacle. He is a walking, talking rebuke to the new order. So, he learns to keep quiet. He hides his thoughts. He self-censors. He hopes the Eye of Sauron passes over him and his family.
This is a natural, almost instinctual reaction. When a corrupt and perverse regime takes over, the cost of integrity goes up. You might lose your job. Your children might be taken from you. You could be publicly shamed, fined, or imprisoned. The wicked rule by fear, intimidation, and the constant threat of ruin. And so, men hide. They withdraw from the public square. They keep their heads down and try to wait out the storm. This is what happened in the days of Ahab, when Obadiah hid a hundred prophets in caves. It is what happens under every totalitarian regime. The wicked rise, and the good men disappear from public view.
But we must see that this is not presented as a strategy for victory. It is a description of a society under judgment. It is a sign of cultural decay. When the salt of the earth has been swept into the corners and the light of the world is hidden under a bushel, the world gets very salty and very dark. This hiding is a symptom of the disease, which is the elevation of wicked men.
The Divine Reversal (v. 28b)
But the proverb does not leave us there, cowering in our caves. The second clause gives us the glorious hope of a divine reversal.
"But when they perish, the righteous increase." (Proverbs 28:28b LSB)
Notice the contrast. The wicked "rise," but they also "perish." Their ascent is temporary. Their authority is borrowed. They are men of dust, strutting and fretting their hour upon the stage, and then they are heard no more. God is sovereign over their rise, and He is sovereign over their fall. He sets them up, and He casts them down. Think of Herod, struck down by an angel and eaten by worms because he did not give glory to God. And what happened immediately after that wicked ruler perished? Acts 12:24 tells us: "But the word of God grew and multiplied."
This is the principle. When the oppressive weight of institutionalized wickedness is removed, the righteous don’t just come out of hiding. They "increase." They flourish. They multiply. The word here implies not just a numerical increase, but an increase in influence, in prominence, in fruitfulness. When the wicked perish, the cultural soil is suddenly able to breathe again. Righteousness is no longer a liability. Truth can be spoken in the open. Good men can once again take up their cultural and civic duties without fear of reprisal.
This perishing of the wicked is a work of God. Sometimes He does it slowly, through the patient work of His people proclaiming the gospel and building faithful institutions. Sometimes He does it suddenly, through a dramatic collapse of the corrupt system. But either way, He does it. The wicked will not have the last word. Their kingdoms are temporary scaffolding, destined for the bonfire. God is building His kingdom, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
This is why our response to the rise of the wicked cannot be one of permanent retreat. Hiding may be a temporary necessity, a tactical withdrawal. But our long-term strategy must be one of faithful endurance and patient building, knowing that the day is coming when the wicked will perish. We are not simply waiting for them to die off. We are actively working, praying, preaching, and living in such a way that we are ready to fill the vacuum when they are gone. We are preparing for the increase.
The Gospel Application: From Hiding to Reigning
This proverb is a beautiful illustration of the gospel’s effect, both in the individual heart and in the world. Before Christ, every one of us is ruled by a wicked tyrant, the tyrant of our own sin. Under that dominion, our true selves, the selves God created us to be, are in hiding. We are enslaved. We are hidden from the light of God’s presence by our guilt and shame.
But then, at the cross, our wicked ruler perished. Jesus Christ crushed the head of the serpent. He disarmed the principalities and powers. He triumphed over them in His death and resurrection. The tyrant is dead. And what happens when that tyrant perishes in the life of a believer? The righteous principle, the new man created in Christ, begins to "increase." We are brought out of hiding and into the marvelous light. We grow in grace. We begin to bear fruit. The very pattern of the proverb is the pattern of our salvation.
And what is true for the individual is true for the world. The world is currently under the sway of the evil one. Wicked men rise to power because the prince of this world is a wicked prince. And so the church, in many times and places, has had to hide. We have been a persecuted minority, a remnant.
But the gospel promises a day when the ultimate Wicked One and all his minions will perish forever. Christ has already secured this victory. He is reigning now, at the right hand of the Father, putting all His enemies under His feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. When He returns, the wicked will not just perish; they will be cast into the lake of fire. And on that day, what will happen to the righteous? We will not just increase; we will inherit the earth. We will reign with Him forever and ever.
Therefore, do not lose heart when you see the wicked rise. Do not be dismayed when you feel the pressure to hide. This is a temporary state of affairs. Their rise is the prelude to their perishing. Our current hiding is the prelude to our future increase. Our task is to remain faithful in the shadows, to refuse to bend the knee, and to be ready for the morning. For when their corrupt and temporary kingdom finally crumbles, and it will, the righteous will not just emerge. They will increase. And the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ will fill all in all.