Choices Matter

“When someone sins unintentionally against any of the Lord’s commands…” he must bring a young bull or male goat, then the elders must lay their hands on it and slaughter it before the Lord. (Leviticus 4)

That’s a pretty big and gruesome command. Wow, if every time we unintentionally sinned we had to do this, we would be hyper aware of all our actions…as individuals, leaders and as a nation. There are not enough bulls or goats on the planet to cover all our unintentional let alone intentional sins.

I find it interesting that despite our own unawareness of wrongdoing, there is still a cost. There is always a consequence to our behavior, positive or negative. Some call is karma; I’d say the Bible reveals it as the consequence of sin being alive and active in our world. Sin is simply anything less than what God intends. It is a virus that we invited into our world the moment we decided to do our own thing and go outside the protective covering of our God. It is lying, gossip, murder, worry, fear, jealousy, resentment, insecurity…None of these things were in God’s original plan. Our disobedience allows for sin to rule our lives and hearts…and there is always a consequence.

The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23 

That means the death of something: a dream, life, hope, relationship, company, plan, body, intention…the list goes on.

It is not until we acknowledge our sin and trust that Jesus paid the price for it, that we can get cleaned up and experience life as He intended…But we can never forget that it comes at a cost.

In Mark 1:40-45, Jesus heals a man with a serious skin disease and “sternly warns him…see that you say nothing to anyone; but go to the priest…”

Sternly – that’s pretty serious. It’s a warning, and Jesus seems very passionate about it.

It goes on to say, “yet he (the man) went out and began to proclaim it widely and spread the news.”

The man did not obey. Maybe he thought it wasn’t logical – why would Jesus not want him to advertise for him? Maybe in all his excitement he didn’t hear the passion with which Jesus said it or recognize the authority with which it was said. Maybe he thought it was just a suggestion. Regardless, Jesus knew the cost if not obeyed.

In verse 45 it says, “Jesus could no longer enter a town openly.” The man did advertise for Jesus, but because the timing was wrong, it then prohibited Jesus from being able to go openly into the towns.

How disappointing that must have been to no longer be able to live life-on-life with his creation; to no longer be able to move freely among the very people he came to love. He was forced to stay in deserted places and now the people would have to come to him.

Our choices really do matter. To not listen to God as He speaks through his Spirit or through the Bible, whether intentionally or unintentionally, always has an impact on us personally as well as it impacts the people around us.

“Then Moses presented Aaron + his sons and washed them with water. He put the tunic on Aaron, wrapped the sash around him, clothed him with the robe…” and did the same to his sons. THEN Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the alter (already sacrificed) and sprinkled them on Aaron + his garments, as well as on his sons + their garments. (Leviticus 8:6-13, 30)

Did you catch that? They went through the whole big deal of dressing up, anointing everything, doing the sacrifice and then, despite their best efforts to keep themselves clean, Moses sprinkles blood on their clothes. Their clean clothes were now stained because of the sacrifice that had to be made for sin.

Oh, that we would remember there is a consequence for each time we are disobedient and that there was a high cost paid to then cover that disobedience; whether intentional or unintentional.

In The Meanwhile…

Jesus, thank you for cleaning us up when we sin. Thank you for sprinkling us with your blood as a constant reminder of the sacrifice you made to keep us clean. And thank you for walking with us through our consequences. May we keep our ears to your mouth and listen intently as you direct us, sometimes sternly, on the path you have carved for us each day. Whether it makes sense to us or not, may we obey you with a heart that trusts that you know what is best for us.

Our choices matter.