No sugar-coating here, just the brutal reality of conspiracies against political leaders: “His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla.” (2 Kings 12:20). One definition of “conspire” is to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act. That definition most certainly applied in that situation!
And take a look at the perspective of one to whom conspiracies were targeted. King David wrote this: “For my enemies speak against me; those who wait to kill me conspire together.” (Ps 71:10). Imagine living as a political leader knowing that you could be surrounded by conspirators just looking for the right opportunity to get rid of you!
Conspiracies have been occurring for millennia and continue today. But perhaps overshadowing and outnumbering actual conspiracies are conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are defined as a belief that some influential or controlling organization or group is secretly responsible for a notable event or phenomenon. Such theories, reject the standard explanation for an event and instead try to credit a covert group or organization with carrying out a secret plot.
But even conspiracy theories are actually nothing new. The prophet Isaiah wrote this in Isaiah 8: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (Isa 8:12-13)
That was written about 735 BC when Judah was worried about a coalition between Syria and Israel and how it would impact them. The Bible Ref website notes this about the account: “Now Isaiah quotes the Lord telling him not to believe the conspiracy theories that circulate among the people. No specific conspiracies are mentioned, but human nature has always tried to explain difficult circumstances in overly simple terms. Sometimes those explanations have no basis in what is real. Conspiracies usually involve assigning secret motives to those in power. When such conspiracies take root among a people, they can cause immense panic and damage. The priority of knowing what is true gets lost as people get caught up in fear. One result of buying into conspiracies is to stop trusting in the Lord and His control over all things.”
Immense panic and damage! Caught up in dread and fear! Not trusting the Lord! The phrase "Do not say, 'A conspiracy'" warns against adopting the panic-driven narratives of the majority, which often overlook God's power. And what occurred so many thousands of years ago is very much going on today.
But more importantly, the solution that was communicated to Isaiah is also so very applicable today. The Lord told Isaiah to fear and dread only God Himself and not what the people feared and dreaded. In the Biblical context, the "fear" of God involves the idea of respect, honor, obedience, and reverence. Isaiah was supposed to revere God and not worry about the fears expressed by others in Judah who were caught up in conspiracy theories.
For us today, it seems likely that the fixation with conspiracy theories can cause us to live in fear of the forces we cannot understand or control. And, if we are not careful, we can quickly descend into a devastating downward spiral. The more we fear what we cannot control, the more our fears control us. And the more our fears control us, the more we feel out of control.
But an upward spiral could look like this: the more we trust the One who controls all things, the more our fears subside. And the more our fears subside, the more our trust in the One who controls all things can grow and thrive.
This fear/trust stuff is complicated and yet simple at the same time. But it is of crucial importance if we don’t want to get caught up in all the conspiracy theories floating around and live in a state of constant fear and dread!
And yes, it does need to be acknowledged that conspiracy theories can prove true. If that is the case, they become actual conspiracies.
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