Confined to Quarters
Following his bold testimony at the Diet of Worms, for his protection, friends had Martin Luther imprisoned in Wartburg Castle. Initially, he did not know who captured him or the place of his confinement. While the drama of the Reformation raged on in the world outside, Luther remained in seclusion for nearly a year.
During this time, he endured bouts of depression through which the Lord taught him lessons of faith and humility. In addition, several convictions, yet in their infancy in his mind, matured to guide his life afterward. Perhaps most significantly, during this time he translated the Bible into German so the common man could read the Bible for himself. Luther’s biographer noted, “That same God who had conducted St. John to Patmos there to write his revelation, had confined Luther in the Wartburg, there to translate His Word.” The Reformer’s confinement in Wartburg castle protected him, refined him, and equipped him for greater service.
Luther’s experience is not unique. In the Bible, Moses spent forty years as a shepherd in Midian. David spent years fleeing from the vindictive King Saul. For over three years Elijah hid by the brook Cherith and then dwelt as a foreigner in Zarephath before returning to show himself to King Ahab. God made Philip depart a fruitful ministry in populated Samaria to go to the desert of Gaza. The apostle Paul languished for several years in an uncertain incarceration at Caesarea and later at Rome.
Why would God set such people aside instead of employing them in a way we might consider more useful?
For Moses and David, these were years in which God’s providence worked out circumstances according to God’s plan and God tempered the character of his servants to prepare them to lead the nation of Israel.
For Elijah, the years of hiding may have seemed long and pointless. Yet the widow and her son with whom Elijah dwelt were doubtless grateful to God that he came their way as they experienced through him miraculous provision and healing.
Why would God send an evangelist to a desert area with a sparse population (if any)? A passing chariot carrying a Ethiopian government official reading Isaiah the prophet was the answer. Philip led this man to faith in Christ. Eternity alone will reveal how many people this Ethiopian went on to influence with the gospel in his own country.
What possible design could there have been in Paul’s inability to travel and preach? His bonds in Christ encouraged others to be bold in their witness resulting in the furtherance of the gospel. (Phil. 1:12-14) During this time Paul wrote the prison epistles which have blessed the people of God for two thousand years.
I have often listened as people in nursing homes or confined to a hospital bed for an extended stay lamented feeling imprisoned. “What possible reason could God have for my being here?” “It seems as if God has forgotten me.” “I feel so useless.” Most of us in our lives will experience a season of confinement. But God has His way. Confinement may liberate us for service that we otherwise would not do. Or God may place us strategically where a Christian testimony is most needed. Confinement may also simply be God’s way of sanctifying us and weaning us from this world to look with greater longing for our heavenly home.
I have no desire for confinement. I have sympathy for those who suffer it. But remember that while imprisoned that Paul sat in prison, he wrote, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” (Phil 4:11) God is in control. God has a plan. God is present. God is good.
Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne wrote, “It has always been my aim, and it is my prayer, to have no plan as regards myself; well assured as I am that the place where the Savior sees meet to place me must ever be the best place for me.” May God grant such a spirit to each of us — especially when our lot is confinement through no choice of our own.
[Ed. Note: Pastor Oliver wrote this piece two years ago, having other restraints in view. He sent it in to us due to our almost universal period of enforced confinement as an encouragement for us to look to the Lord for some way to glorify the Lord in these weary days.]
David A. Oliver (B.A., M.A., D.Pas.Th) has been the pastor of Ashley Baptist Church in Belding, MI since 1994. He currently serves as president of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Fellowship of Michigan, and is also president of Proclaiming the Truth, Inc. (Neighborhood Bible Time). He also serves as chaplain for two west Michigan fire departments. He and his wife Penny have been married since 1987, and have three children and two grandchildren