How Are We Doing? Part 14

How Are We Doing? Part 14
Wednesday, January 29, 2025 by Dr. James W. Walraven

For 2025, how will respond to God? Will we be quick or slow to obey Him, to do what He tells us? Will we follow after Him or ignore Him?

A character from the Alaska gold rush stampede from 1897–1898 comes to mind: Soapy Smith. He was a notorious conman who gained control of Skagway, the gateway to the goldfields. He fleeced many new arrivals out of all they possessed. Sometimes he’d give them enough money so they could return back home. He even built churches and opened up his saloons to preachers on Sundays. He once taught a Sunday School class about what sort of person not to be, using himself as an example.

Did these church related actions make any difference in his own life? No. He never changed. He met his end when he was killed in a gun duel.

Do we respond to God’s leading, do we delay, or do we go so far to ignore Him, as did Soapy Smith? Sometimes we keep doing things we know we’d be better off if we stopped. While sometimes that can involve doing things that God calls sin, other times they can be non-sinful things that have assumed a wrong place in our life. For example, sports are ok, but not when sports takes the place of God, when that hobby or activity becomes the main focus of our lives.

I’ll admit times when I’ve sought to hold on to a hobby that God asked me to stop (playing Forge of Empires). Was that activity sin? In and of itself, not at all, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was obedience to God. Did I stop? Yes, after delaying, after dragging my feet. That isn’t ideal, is it? It would have been better if I’d obeyed immediately. Have I become biblically more productive after stopping? Yes, and it has been a major change.

We will look at two biblical examples: two biblical characters who approached obedience to God in opposite ways: Lot and Joseph, the husband of Mary.

Their circumstances were similar in a number of ways. Both were living under oppression, both faced hostile cultures and/or oppressive political leaders.

Lot ended up in Sodom. When he separated from Abraham, he saw that the plain of the Jordan was well watered. Having much livestock, the water he saw dictated his choice. Ho looked at the outward circumstances. What he failed to take into account was the sin of the cities and that those cities were under the thumb of a foreign political power. War was going to break out, he’d be taken captive, though Abraham would rescue him. Later, the men of Sodom would threaten his life for daring to object to their desire to rape the two angels who had come under his protection.

Joseph faced an equally dire situation. After the Magi came, gave their gifts, and then departed, God warned him that King Herod would seek to kill the baby Jesus. He was to flee (to Egypt). Although an inference, maybe he and Mary would be killed as well. Talk about being under political oppression!

How did Lot and Joseph respond to their challenging situations? We’ll turn to that in the next post.

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