Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Wrong Turns

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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.

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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> 

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