On June 28, 1914, Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie,
visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Awaiting the visiting royal couple
were six Bosnian-born Serb terrorists, strung out along their route. They were
seeking to avenge Austria’s recent annexation of Bosnia, which once had been
part of the long-vanished Serbian Empire.
A terrorist threw a hand
grenade at the open car carrying the archduke and his wife, but the grenade
only wounded members of the archduke’s entourage. Later that day, the archduke,
and his wife decided to visit the wounded in the hospital. En route, the driver
took a wrong turn and, in the course of backing out of the street, came to a
stop in front of a sidewalk cafe where one of the frustrated assassins,
19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, was getting drunk.
Astonished at his
opportunity, Princip stepped out of the crowd and fired two shots. The first
severed the archduke’s carotid artery, and the second hit his wife’s abdomen.
Both died within minutes. This event precipitated WWI as allied nations
declared war on each other. Four years later, more than sixteen million people
were dead from the World War ignited by that assassin.[1]
But it can all be traced
back to a wrong turn. Big events of history swing on small hinges. Wrong turns
can lead to tragic consequences—even death. That’s why the Bible warns in
Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the
way of death.”
The tantalizing prospect
of misadventure which takes us out of God’s will comes in all shapes and
sizes—that mid-life crisis which brings on years of regret; the ill-advised
investment which ends in financial ruin; the moment of unguarded pleasure which
leads to an adulterous affair; the move and job switch that throws a monkey
wrench into the next five years.
One thing is for sure, the
most expensive trip you’ll ever take is a detour from the will of God.
Just ask Abram. When Abram
was on his way to the land of prosperity that God had promised him, he decided
to take costly bypass south into the land of Egypt (Gen 12:10-13:4). Abram
should have checked with God before he took the turn leading south. The Lord
could have warned him of the impending disaster ahead. What followed from the
patriarch’s blunder was collateral damage which ultimately changed the course
of history and caused problems for Abram that plagued him the rest of his life.
Instead, Abram returned
from Egypt with baggage that he would regret for the rest of his life.
Everything that Abram received in Egypt later caused him trouble. Because of
the great wealth he acquired from Pharaoh, Abram and Lot could not live
together and had to separate (13:5-6). Hagar, the Egyptian maidservant that
Pharaoh gave to Abram brought division and sorrow into the home (16:1-16).
Abram attempts to build a family through Hagar. This was not God’s plan. Hagar
becomes the mother of the Arab nations. Sarai becomes the mother of the Jewish
nation. Today, we live with the international tensions between these two
countries, and the origin of the struggle goes back to Egypt.
When a saint sins, they can
be forgiven and given a fresh start, but the Lord does not magically remove the
consequences of our detours. Abram would rue the day he thought it a good idea
to turn his caravan south. That is why we must count the cost before we decide
to take detour.
-DM
[1]
Gregory J. Wallace, “The Wrong Turn That Changed a Century -- and Still Haunts
Us Today,” Forbes, 27 June 2014 <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/06/27/the-wrong-turn-that-changed-a-century-and-still-haunts-us-today/#617a6f165e16>
No comments:
Post a Comment