Give ‘Em an Inch and He’ll Take a Mile

Have you ever convinced yourself (or maybe this is just my confession) that you can park in that fire lane because you’ll only be a minute to run an errand?  Or - now this for sure is a confession - that you don’t have to come to a complete stop at a stop sign because there is no traffic around?

Have you ever driven at night and seen all the drivers looking at their phones (you can see the light of the screen pretty easy at night if you didn’t know)?  I read an article once that suggested that looking at a screen while driving impaired a driver as much as being intoxicated!

There is probably thousands (again, probably just speaking for myself) of little infractions that I do all the time that I convince myself are okay for some reason or another. I guess I’ve been fortunate that, so far, none of these minor infractions have come back to bite me. However, I’ve seen pictures of fireman breaking car windows to get a firehose from a hydrant to a fire where a car blocks it. I have seen pictures of people getting involved in accidents due to one party not following the rules, sometimes fatally. 

I was thinking about these “minor” infractions this morning while I was reading my Bible.  It is amazing the lessons that God provided for us if we just listen:

“Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.” - Joshua 23:2, 4-8, 12-13 ESV

“Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.” - Judges 2:1-4

“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.” - Judges 2:11-15

The problem with “minor” infractions is our human nature.  We get away doing something and suddenly it becomes less, somehow, of an infraction.  My mom taught me the saying “give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile” to show the expansion of disobedience.  All you have to do is read the news about the pickles that famous people get themselves involved in to see the expansion of sin (yes, disobeying the parking rules is a sin) in people’s lives.

The above passages of the Bible may not be as titillating as the walls of Jericho falling down story but maybe, just maybe, there is more applicability to our lives.