Pastor's Blog
Standing at the Crossroads Posted 4.15.2010If all goes according to plan, as you worship, I will be relaxing on the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee. After a long flight and a night on the Mediterranean coast, our group should have spent today at Ceasarea (a port built by Herod the Great) and then up to Mt. Carmel and Megiddo and Nazareth, with a first-view of the Sea of Galilee from Mt. Arbel. What a day!
As we spend time at Megiddo, we will see lots of rocks strewn across a hill with it’s top sliced off. We will walk through gates built in Solomon’s day. What is most amazing every time I do that is to realize that as a fortified city of Solomon (1 Kings 9:15) he most likely took time during his reign to inspect the work. So at some point in the past King Solomon walked through the very gate I walked through today. That is overwhelming!
But as you stand atop Tel Megiddo you get a view of the Jezreel Valley below. It is not quite as spectacular as the high point of Mt. Carmel, but it is a wonderful panorama. And that view is one of the reasons this mighty city was planted right there. It stood at a crossroads. Higher than the area around it. Ancient travelers would pass below. I wish I could have just such a view life. We call it perspective.
The first steps we take in making a decision and the final outcome of that decision often seem disjointed. We lack perspective. For example, when Solomon wrote Proverbs 2, we wonder how a lack of wisdom regarding adultery relates to the wicked being cut off from the land. What connection does the land have with morality?
The answer lies in Proverbs 2:17, the immoral woman “forgets the covenant of her God.” Adultery at the physical level reveals what has already begun at the spiritual level. The way one chooses to lead the spiritual life has physical results. Not choosing wisely has a domino effect that leads to far greater consequences than imaginable.
King Solomon possessed the wisdom to govern all Israel. But King Solomon lacked the will to govern his own heart. His many wives introduced many gods to Israel – the beginnings of compromise that ultimately led to the nation’s exile from the land. Solomon’s wisdom could not override the effects of his defiance.
Proverbs reveals the outcome of pathways chosen. It offers us hope as it looks to the desired end of our lives and challenges us to think backward along its logical course. How do we want our lives to end? In what areas do we really want to succeed at all costs? The path we take today will lead us there. It attempts to provide us some perspective.
As I stand atop Megiddo, I will think of Solomon. And I will remember as I gaze at the crossroads below, that I must be careful which path I choose. Am I walking on a path that leads me where God wants me to go? Are you?
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