Bad Choice #1 or Bad Choice #2...

Suggested Reading: Ezra 9:1-5, 10:1-6

If you hang around me long, you will discover that I am a big Sci-Fi fan. My wife likes to say, "He watches anything that starts with Star…Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate…" Well, there is an episode in the last season of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "The Pegasus." In that episode, we discover that Commander Riker, as a young man, supported his first captain in developing illegal technology. When their ship was lost in an accident, he thought that the incident was forgotten. But when his old captain showed up announcing that they had found the lost ship (and the illegal technology it probably still contained), Riker was faced with two bad choices - admit his own part in the crime and thus betray his old captain or keep his mouth shut and allow the crime to continue anew. When Riker finally admitted to what he had been a part of, he wished that he had done the right thing in the first place and not aided his old captain in breaking the law.

The Israelites found themselves in a similar situation in the book of Ezra. Ezra had been sent by King Artaxerxes to oversee the rebuilding of the Temple and to serve as governor for the Israelites. In Ezra chapters 9-10, it is brought to Ezra's attention that the Israelites, including the priests, have been intermarrying with the other peoples of the land who worshiped idols and practiced religious abominations.  Intermarrying had been strictly forbidden because God did not want the Israelites introduced to these hated religious practices and the worship of idols. So, now the people were faced with two bad choices; 1)  get rid of these foreign wives they shouldn't have married in the first place and break up their families or 2) continue allowing idol worship to happen in their homes (keeping the wives and stopping the idol worship didn't seem to be an option).  What would you have done in their place? Given two bad choices, which one would you choose? Toss your spouse (and, apparently, children) out in the cold? Or continue living in sin?

We find ourselves in similar circumstances all the time. Having messed up somewhere along the way, now we have to make the best of a bad situation and choose between two bad options. Having made bad financial decisions, we have to choose between paying our tithe and being late on bills or paying our bills and stealing from God. Having chosen to engage in pre-marital sex and create a child, we now have to choose between giving our child up for adoption or bringing it into a less than ideal home-life. Having chosen not to study, we now have to choose between cheating or getting a bad grade on our test.

Instead of wrestling with those bad choices, however, we do have another option. We can do the right thing in the first place. Just like Commander Riker wished he could have done, we can choose, up front, to do the right thing. It may be hard or even painful, but it saves us the agony of facing two bad choices down the road and of knowing we could have avoided the entire situation by doing the right thing in the first place. What choices are you faced with today? Are you tempted to ignore what you know to be right based on what is easier or more desirable? Do the right thing, it will save you heartache down the road. 

Helping Lex Luthor Send His Dad to Prison

Suggested Reading: 2 Kings 5:14-27 (or read the whole story: 2 Kings 5)

In the television series Smallville, before Lex Luthor became a full-fledged villain, he tried to send his dad to prison for murder. Clark Kent had witnessed some things that would help convict the elder Luthor but Lex was worried he would not appear to testify because Lex and Clark had gotten into a fight. When Clark showed up to testify, Lex tried to thank him but Clark rebuffed his gratitude saying, "I didn't do this for you." The implication was clear: Clark testified because putting Lionel Luthor in jail for murder was the right thing to do, not because Lex deserved his help.

In 2 Kings 5, the prophet Elisha helped to heal an Aramean soldier named Naaman. The soldier was immensely grateful and wanted to give Elisha a gift but the prophet refused to accept anything. As Naaman and his entourage left, Elisha's servant Gehazi watched them go without understanding the exchange. Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said to himself, “My master should not have let this Aramean get away without accepting any of his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and get something from him" (2 Kings 5:20, NLT). While Elisha was concerned with what accepting the gifts would say about God and his miracles, Gehazi was concerned about whether Naaman deserved to be healed without paying (and with getting something for himself).  The focus of each man was different and Gehazi simply didn't understand Elisha's mindset.

Quite often, we simply don't understand why in the world people do what they do. Why does he let her get away with that? Why doesn't she speak up for herself? Why won't he call her on her crap? Why won't she leave him? Every day we encounter people who act in ways that make no sense to us. Sometimes we are Elisha wondering rightfully how Gehazi could be so selfish but sometimes we are Gehazi, so wrapped up in our own desires and so focused on the wrong things that we miss motivations that should be obvious. Lex should have known Clark would show up because it was the right thing to do. And Gehazi should have known Elisha would never accept a gift for performing a miracle of God.

When we just don't get why people are acting the way they are, there is probably an angle we haven't considered. Before we go off about how unreasonable or unrealistic someone is, we should first consider our own mindset to make sure we're not acting like a Gehazi.

Stopping Exploding Ferries of Wickedness

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 28:4-10

In the movie, The Dark Knight, there is an incredibly powerful scene involving a couple of ferries. The Joker has stranded two ferries out in the middle of the water and given the passengers of each ferry a detonator to blow up the other ferry, promising to blow them both up if no one has pushed the button by midnight. The Joker wants to prove that people are selfish and self centered but he also wants to use the ferries to distract Batman from coming after him and to throw the city into turmoil. Batman ignores the ferries, believing the people on those boats will choose to do the right thing, and focuses on taking down the Joker. The people on those boats do choose to do the right thing or, at least, not to do the wrong thing, and were a part of beating Joker at his own game.

There is a Proverb that speaks to that scene. Proverbs 28:4 says, To reject the law is to praise the wicked; to obey the law is to fight them (NLT). By simply doing the right thing, the people on those ferries were fighting back against the Joker, but that same dynamic can be seen throughout life. When people set up prejudicial rules that penalize people for existing, we can fight them by doing the right thing and refusing to treat people differently. When people seek to change the moral fabric of society by redefining right and wrong and painting those who disagree as bigots, we can fight them by living moral lives and loving those who would smear us. When people try to provoke us by stealing from us, cheating us, or lying about us, we can fight them and prove them wrong by refusing to stoop to their level, by continuing to live lives of faith and righteousness.

When the wicked seem to win, it can be tempting to "fight fire with fire," but the nature of the fight means we can't win that way. Just as darkness can only be banished by turning on the light, wickedness can only be fought with righteous living. If someone has been attacking you or your family, don't give in to the temptation to fight them back on the same terms. Do the right thing. Fighting like the wicked only validates them, but righteous living will ultimately defeat them.

Junior High Pranksters and Suffering Heroes

Suggested Reading: Genesis 39:7-23

When I was in junior high, our theater teacher invited the cast of the most recent play over to his house for a cast party. Several of us were standing around in the front yard talking when a couple of guys decided it would be fun if they moved the teacher's car down the street. I warned them not to, told them it was stupid and, even once they had the door open and were pushing it down the block, I was urging them to put it back before something unexpected happened. Sure enough, a few moments later they realized that the steering wheel was locked, the car was picking up speed. And the open door was heading right for a massive brick mailbox. All the pranksters panicked.

I ran for the car, reached it right before it hit the mail box, stuck a foot in and pressed the break, and got pinned between the door and the brick mailbox. I managed to save the door but it did get a little bent. But even though I had argued against moving the car and had managed to keep the door from being completely popped off when the pranksters themselves panicked, the following week I got a bill in the mail for damages to the car. It didn't seem right. I could have walked away when the pranksters began, instead of trying to talk them out of it. I could have gone to the back yard when the car started picking up speed instead of saving it. In either case I would have avoided the bill in the mail. But for doing what seemed to a junior high kid to be the right thing I ended up getting lumped in with the bad guys.

Joseph knew even more about that than I did. When Potiphar's wife propositioned him, Joseph did the right thing. When she let all the servants have the day off so she could seduce Joseph in secret, Joseph ran away so fast that he left his cloak in the grasping hands of the temptress. She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, but when I screamed for help, he left his garment with me and ran outside.” (Genesis 39:16-18, HCSB). As a result, Joseph ended up in prison, forgotten for years. The frustrating thing for Joseph must have been knowing that if he had become her lover she probably would have protected him instead of turning on him.  But Joseph did the right thing and he suffered for it.

We live in a fallen, sinful world where it doesn't always pay to do the right thing, at least at the time. Doing the right thing means that we will sometimes be taken advantage of, be fought against with nasty, vicious attacks, and suffer when we could easily have walked away and remained unscathed. We must be under no illusions that doing the right thing will make our lives easier or safer. If we only choose to do the right thing because it will make our lives easier, our integrity will falter when life gets tough. We must be committed to doing the right thing whether it is safe or not, whether we prosper or suffer for it. Our motivation for doing the right thing is pleasing God, maintaining our relationship with God, and demonstrating we are children of God. Any motivation based on how things work out for us will eventually cause us to walk away from our integrity when we should be standing firm.