Avoiding the fool's bargain

While working on my sermon for this week, I was reading Matthew Henry’s commentary on II Chronicles that was written in 1708.  The text tells of Levites who left their homes and land in the northern ten tribes of Israel and migrated south to Judah because their new king, Jeroboam, had replaced worship of the LORD with idolatry in order to keep his people from going to Jerusalem to worship.  Jeroboam’s political decision proved to be utterly disastrous as it started Israel down a road of moral decline that ended in the destruction of the kingdom in 722 at the hands of the Assyrians.  The Levites, seeing that they were no longer welcome, and that they could not continue to serve God as they had done, decided to leave the land that had been given to support them while they ministered.  It was a costly decision for them, one that took away a certain income and left them hoping for the best in a new land.  It was also clearly a wise and brave decision, to choose morality over money, a choice that continues to be put before God's people in our world today as it was when Matthew Henry commented on the decision of the Levites three hundred years ago.  In response to their choice, Henry wrote, “No secular advantages whatsoever should draw us thither, or detain us there, where we are in danger of making shipwreck of faith and good conscience.”  Whether that advantage is money, fame, or influence, it just isn’t worth it.  To risk your reputation, your honor, and your faith in God for such things will always be a fool’s bargain.