Today is Day #44 in Counting the Omer. On the fourth day of "creation week" God completed the material world. In the created world, there are "four points" geographically: North, South, East and West. Thus, one could say that
44 symbolizes a GLOBAL perspective encompassing the entire planet or "world-wide."
I've never been a fan of those "Fruit of the Month" clubs. You know...the type of gift you send to your mother-in-law because you never know what to buy for her birthday. They start out well-intentioned, perhaps offering a nice varietal selection of apples from all different regions. MacIntosh, Granny Smith, Red Delicious and so on--yummy! But by the 12th month, it has run its course on the more traditional fruit and your mother-in-law is up to her ears in kumquats. Needless to say, at that point, she is not pleased with you.
This got me thinking about two amazing historical stories of "unexpected consequences." The first story is regarding Madalyn O'Hair. Most people may recognize this name as the woman largely responsible for removing Bible reading and prayer out of the American public school system. However, like me, you probably didn't know much about her personal life.
It seems that young Madalyn had an affair with a married Catholic man. Apparently, she fell in love, got pregnant and wanted him to leave his wife. He refused to do so because of his faith. One wonders why he didn't consider his Faith to help prevent him from getting involved in an extramarital affair in the first place. But anyway, let's just take for granted he somehow succumbed to temptation of "sin"--a concept which is not very popular anymore.
When I first read this story, I was immediately struck with an understanding of what circumstances probably created an individual like Madalyn O'Hair. Is it really any wonder that this woman, later on in life, demonstrated such a hatred for Bible principles that she doggedly pursued, with deep antipathy, removing scripture and prayer from the public sector? Truly: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
So, it's conceivable that ONE man's abandonment of God's law--Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery--was quite possibly the instigating factor in defining an issue which 50 years later has arguably left public school systems, and perhaps Western Civilization, in shambles.
Amazing story right? Truly "unexpected consequences"--Just sayin'.
C'mon...you may argue. Seriously, isn't that a bit of a stretch? OK...if you think that's far-fetched, how about one sin that caused
97 million deaths?
Are you kiddin' me?
It has been called "The Shot Heard 'Round the World." One single man's sin (giving in to the sin of wrath), literally was the catalyst for TWO WORLD WARS! On June 28th, 1914, a formerly unknown 19-year old named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria along with his wife Duchess Sophie. It is believed that he committed this assassination in order to impress his radical friends that, despite his small stature, he was a man to be reckoned with. So, filled with misguided youth, pride and hate, he set out to prove himself.
Appropriately titled as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," historians agree that this assassination eventually led to a series of events which directly fomented World War I. A total of 37 million civilian and military casualties resulted from World War I. After World War I, Germany was subjected to the stipulations in "The Treaty of Versailles." Its terms were deeply resented by the German people as overly punitive in laying "war guilt" on their nation. This resentment ultimately led to the success of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler and started World War II. World War II was the deadliest military conflict in all of recorded history with over 60 million civilian and military deaths. All in all, the total death count from these two massive wars was
NINETY-SEVEN MILLION MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN!
All of this carnage began from the sin of one insignificant, unknown person. I bet not one of us would correctly name this guy on a history exam. How's that for "unexpected consequences?"
So, what am I trying to say here? Today, it's fashionable to be lackadaisical about our Judeo-Christian foundation and biblical definitions of sin. Much of Western Civilization has strangely adopted some weird dichotomous national "split personality" on morality. It goes something like this:
Well, I personally don't believe in _____________ (fill in the blank with some immoral social issue or choice), but I believe in the freedom to allow everyone to do what they want. I will also support laws that encourage and allow people to make these immoral choices.
So, the new religion of human secularism starts out, like the Fruit of the Month club, with very good intentions. Words like "tolerance" and "choice" and "fairness" sound so initially pleasing...so humanly reasonable. However, we have merely substituted Man's reasoning for God's Laws. Even young students know that when there is a "substitute teacher" in place, everyone just uses it as an excuse to go wild. It signals an "open season" to act up. In society the "fruit" of such lawlessness is called ANARCHY.
Remember the old commercial for a hair gel called "BrylCreem?" The slogan, for those of you under the age of 50 who don't remember, was "a little dab'll do ya." So it is with sin. Based on the Garden of Eden story, it doesn't take much sin to set in motion a serious chain of events that has the ability to damage all of mankind. Even recent history has shown us that not only will "a little dab do ya" but that a little dab will "do us in."
So, with most of Western Civilization slaughtering innocents unabated, redefining morality and genders, removing the One True God Almighty from the public square and pressuring Israel to give away their God-ordained land...what unexpected consequences might be coming next? Like the Fruit of the Month Club, let's start counting...World War I, World War II...
A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump. ~ Galatians 5:9
