“In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” (Judges 17:6, NIV)
I opened the sports page this morning and saw that the Houston Astros won the American League Divisional Series, sweeping the Cleveland Indians. That wasn’t what caught my attention. It was the accompanying photo. The photo showed a typical post-game locker room celebration with champagne spraying – but these big, tough athletes were all wearing safety glasses!
It made me laugh. When I was a kid, we rode bikes without helmets. We made ramps to jump – and our buddies would lay under us as we flew over them. We rode in the back of pickup trucks. We never wore seat belts. We drank from garden hoses. We lived on the edge, man!
I’m not saying that today’s emphasis on safety is a bad thing, I’m just saying that sometimes maybe you shouldn’t wear safety goggles. I guess it’s human nature to try to find the safe and easy way.
There’s a story in Judges 17 about a young Levite who wanted to become a priest. Rather than go about it the right and more difficult way, he is offered a job that paid well. The job offer was the proverbial “bird in the hand.” The young man would get silver, clothes, and food – a solid job, great benefits, and wouldn’t have to pay his dues first. But he would have to break God’s Law in order to do so.
The author includes the story for us as an illustration of the fact that people were doing what they wanted…not what God wanted.
This week you’ll be confronted with the choice of compromising or going God’s way. Pray and put some thought into it. “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well (Theodore Roosevelt).”
