May 27 Unintended Consequences

May 27

Unintended Consequences

Ps 107:17  Fools because of their transgression,

and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.

They leaped to the ground as the blue flames shot from the engine. But I am getting ahead of the story. 

They had been trying to restart a military truck that was climbing a 3 mile long hill in southern France when it ran out of fuel. Normally a driver would switch to his full tank before making the climb but Charlie had neglected to do that. When a group of soldiers gathered to help Charlie, they decided to take the top off the carburetor and drizzle some gasoline into the engine to get it started.

That’s when an unexpected backfire had shot a blue flame from the mouth of the carburetor which was now on fire. The fire was quickly put out by a well-meaning soldier. When he saw the flames erupt he scooped up a double handful of road gravel and threw it onto the open carburetor. His quick response put out the fire. But his lack of understanding ruined the engine as gravel was sucked into the engine and broke intake valves, and damaged pistons and cylinder walls.

The more knowledgeable men explained that it was not an emergency. They would have simply dropped their hat over the flames and the fire would have gone out.  The soldier who had thrown the gravel on the fire had the best of intentions, but the result was bad consequences. It was a classic case of unintended consequences.

The Bible has a lot to say about people who did things that resulted in unexpected consequences. Let us learn from their mistakes so we do not throw handfuls of gravel into God’s plans for us.

Moses was a man with a bad temper. One day when Moses saw an Egyptian mistreat an Israelite he got angry enough to kill the Egyptian. The consequence was he had to leave the luxury of Pharaoh’s palace and hide out in Midian for 40 years.  (Ex 2:11-15)

Another time Moses came down from receiving the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments from God and saw the people were naked, dancing and worshipping a Golden calf. He was so angry he threw the tablets of stone down and broke them. The consequence was he had to go get another set only this time God told Moses,

Ex 34:1  And the LORD said unto Moses,

Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first:

 

Moses had to make the stone tablets the second time. I wonder how long that took, and if he had a chance to think about his need for anger management.

The Israelites in the wilderness were complaining again. They were thirsty. God told Moses to speak to a rock and it would send forth water.  But instead of speaking to the rock Moses was so angry at the complaining Israelites that he smote the rock twice with his rod.  As a result of not doing as God directed him, Moses lost out on entering the promised land. (Numbers 20:8-12) He would get to see it from the mountain top where God would bury him, but Moses would suffer an unintended consequence of his actions.

David sent for Bathsheba with the intention of having a night of adulterous pleasure. His unintended consequence was Bathsheba’s pregnancy, the death of the child, the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, and the loss of God’s favor.

2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart

from thine house; because thou hast despised me,

and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. 

When Abraham and Lot needed to separate Lot made a bad choice. He chose to live near Sodom.

Ge 13:10  And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where

He had not intended to live in Sodom, or marry a woman of Sodom, or to become homeless and live in a cave. He had certainly not intended to commit incest with his own daughters. But that is what happened to him. He had only intended to live near Sodom. The rest was unintended consequences.

But unintended does not mean there is no connection between what people do and the consequences that follow their decisions. A person may not know anything about gravity, or may not believe in gravity, or may be 100% sincere in thinking gravity will not affect them. But if they step off the top of a 30 story building they will fall to their death. Falling is the natural consequence of such foolishness.

Even as there are natural laws like gravity, there are also spiritual laws. You may not know what they are, may not want to obey the ones you do know or have little interest in learning any of them. There are millions of people who have problems, strife in their families, and think of themselves as unlucky, but they are simply reaping the consequences of violating spiritual laws. The Bible says it this way.

Ga 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked:

 for whatsoever a man soweth,

that shall he also reap.

Ga 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh

shall of the flesh reap corruption…

How often do we see people who are suffering the ill effects of worry, depression, anger, covetousness, bitterness, bad moods, and other negative ways to live? Who would deliberately choose to have such problems? No one. But these are the results of not knowing or not caring what the Bible says about spiritual laws.

Our meditation for today is to consider if we are having any difficulties in life that are the result of ignoring spiritual laws. Unintended consequences in life are often the results of our not knowing or not obeying the scriptures that tell us how to live a Godly Christian life. There are many scriptures I could end this devotion with. But for those who ignore scripture a quote from John Wayne seems most appropriate.

Life is hard  -  it’s even harder if you’re stupid!

And for those who do try to obey the Scriptures

Ps 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments….