What Am I Trying to Hide
And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard chamber.
1 Kings 14:25-28, KJV
Have you ever tried to conceal something? Maybe you knocked over that small brass statue in the living room when you were 12, all because you were messing around when you were told not to. Then, as you went to stand it back up, you realized not only did the nose break off, but the entire head was cracked off. So, you do what any good 12-year-old would do, you try and hide it. Grab the Elmer’s glue. Did that work? Sure it did, if you were on the other side of the room, but when you got close, you could see the collar wasn’t lined up correctly from his body to his head. And his nose, well, it wasn’t exactly straight anymore. Days passed, then a week or two, but one day those dreaded words were heard in the house, “what happened here?” Let’s just say it didn’t go all that well for that 12-year-old.
We try to conceal all kinds of things. They sell skin blemish concealer, pimple patches, hair color, beard color, the list is endless. We will do what we have to do to try and maintain an appearance that everything is perfect. Some things are to stay out of trouble. Some things are just plain vanity.
In 1 Kings, Rehoboam had been invaded by Egypt and all the gold and valuables of the kingdom had been taken. His great plan was to replace the golden shields that had been taken with brass ones. Not only did he replace them with look-a-likes, he would take them down and store them when not in use so that no one could really get a good look at them and see that all was not so well in the kingdom.
Sometimes when we think back to some of the things we try, or have tried to conceal, it may be humorous. But let’s look at ourselves spiritually now. Is there something we are trying to hide? Is there a sin or shortcoming that we have a concealer for? Oh, we may look the part on a Sunday at church, but Monday… not so much. Or perhaps we say all the right things and hang with the right people, but in our hearts, it is quite the opposite.
Truth be told, we might be able to fool people for a while, but we aren’t going to conceal anything before a Holy and Righteous God. Proverbs 15:3 says, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” So, Rather than trying to conceal things to maintain an appearance, let’s do an honest evaluation of ourselves before God and allow Him to show us areas of hypocrisy and insincerity in our lives so that we may be the real deal for others to see.