Exhortation, February 6

The author of Kings tells us that Ahab considered it a �trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.�ENo wonder. Israel has been worshiping golden calves at Dan and Bethel for generations. It�s become customary, traditional. No one is shocked by it anymore. Worship at golden calves has become so engrained that it would be shocking to stop. Golden calves are for kids; breaking the second commandment has become pass�E Ahab wants to graduate to full-scale, adult, first-commandment idolatry. So he marries a foreign woman who worshiped Baal, promotes Baal worship within Israel, and persecutes the few who object.

A nation�s high court declares abortion a constitutional right. At first, it is appalling. Over the course of thirty years, the numbers become numbing, and we adjust to the sheer precedent causes us to adjust to living in a world where babies are legally cut in pieces and extracted from their mothers. Soon, it�s a trivial thing to slaughter babies by the millions, and we begin to talk freely about partial-birth abortions, infanticide, and euthanasia.

A man indulges his greed, pursuing money and financial success above everything else. After years, it�s a trivial thing to cut ethical corners to increase his income, and he begins to steal more boldly. Parents speak harshly and angrily to their children. The children tolerate it, if only out of fear. And soon it�s a trivial thing for them to be full of wrath, and other sins come crowding in.

To protect his reputation, a man tells a small lie, then another to cover the first, and another and another. Before long, a small lie is a trivial thing, and he has become a liar. A child secretly resents obeying his parents, grumbling in his heart about their unfairness and old-fashionedness. Soon, it�s a trivial thing to resent his parents, and he becomes openly rebellious.

Every tolerated sin opens space for more sins. �If I can get away with this,�Ewe tell ourselves, �perhaps I can also get away with that, and that, and that.�EEvery demon that�s allowed to enter begins to clear the house to welcome seven of his cronies, each worse than himself. So the last state is worse than the first.

This is not how God treats sin. He does not adjust to it. He does not get used to it. We are surprised by the intensity of God�s fury against sin, but that is a reflection on us, not on God. He is a holy God, and instinctively and completely hates sin with all of His being. If we are to be His children, we need to cultivate the same hatred and hostility to sin. We must never permit the thought, �It�s a trivial thing.�EBecause it never is.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, February 06, 2005 at 08:12 AM

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