“Not My Game” is Historically Powerful

“Not My Game” is Historically Powerful October 2, 2016

Joshua_sees_a_man_by_Jericho_optWhen Joshua was faced by the Captain of the Lord’s Army, the new leader asked the Captain: “Are you on our side or our enemies?” The answer is one for this time:

And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.”

Many evils have been justified by the claim that we face a “binary choice.” We must be on the side of Israel or on the side of Jericho: pick or lose. When confronted with this choice the Captain of the Lord’s Army said: “No.”

That is the answer we must always be prepared to give.

When I was a boy, there was a game played on a teeter-totter. On one side a group of boys would pile their weight, while on the other side another group would try to surpass them. The side that touched the ground first won. Oddly, the game also had a girl sitting on both sides. There was an element of chivalry to the game.

As a skinny (oh the days!) nerdy kid in glasses, I was generally not picked for such games. One day, however, a girl I liked was sitting on one side. Sadly, her team decided to run away and a fit of chivalry struck me. I tried to catch a teeter totter as it fell. This went badly and my arm ended up broken. I had not learned an important lesson: it was not my game. I got into a game where there was nothing I could do, but break my arm. Perhaps a fifth grader can be admired for a childish honor, but it did no good to anyone and broke my arm.

What is admirable in a fifth grader is foolish in a grownup. Sometimes it is not our game: we cannot win and we might break our arms. Of course, if all we were to suffer was a busted wing, then there might be some good in it. Grownups facing false choices that choose end up losing something greater than physical pain: the loss of our sacred honor. We choose a side in a wicked game out of the pressure to be on a team and then discover there was no winning.

At times the choice seems not so bad: aren’t the children of Israel God’s people? They are God’s people, but they are not God. We must never put anyone or anything before God, not even His people. We stand with God’s people, but only because of God. We are for the Lord and members of His Army and His truth goes marching on when other lies fail. God’s people can become an idol only more subtle since there is seeming good in the choice.

Yet sometimes we do even worse. We enter the pagan’s game and choose between the children of Gibeon and the children of Canaan. They come and ask for an alliance, even seeming in need, and we hastily grant their request only to discover that we have sold ourselves too cheaply. We should not have chosen the lesser evil, but waited for orders from the Captain of the Lord’s army.

If we ever see a game where people demand we pick sides, but it is not our game, then may we respond like Joshua:

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”


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