Don't Sit On The Fence - Cynthia Saladin 2.21.2016

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 1 Kings 18:21

When I was lifeguarding for the Sioux City municipal pools, I would occasionally see a kid who was just learning to dive. He would stand in line to go off the diving board all afternoon. First he’d jump off, feet first. Then he’d dive. Eventually, exhausted, but unwilling to do something else, he’d run to the end of the diving board and do what looked to be a combination of diving and jumping: his body was shaped in an upside-down U, committing neither hands nor feet to being first, which resulted in a painful belly flop.  He had halted between two opinions. He had not fully committed to a dive or to a jump, and the consequence was enough to make him stop going off the board for the rest of the day.

The people of Israel, to whom Elijah was speaking that day on Mt. Carmel, were similarly conflicted. They were trying to serve the Eternal while simultaneously serving Baal. Elijah told them they couldn’t do that. The first of the Ten Commandments says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). Maybe the people knew that; maybe they just thought that our God and Baal could be served equally.

But Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Loving God with everything you have and everything you are leaves no room for another pagan, false god alongside! The people should have known better.

We know better.  We often make intelligent evaluations . . . when looking at the situation, actions, and choices of others. But, unfortunately, when it’s our choices, our actions, our situation, we have a harder time making an intelligent call. Oh, we may not be serving Baal, but we pander to others gods: ourselves, money/possessions, or anything else which we set up in importance before the only true God. Think about it: you know what you’re supposed to do to follow God and to serve Him only, but you sometimes choose differently. Why? We have all these excuses: It’s not convenient. It’s not comfortable. God understands. It’s just a little thing. I’ll only do it once. 

Calling ourselves a Christian, when we excuse ourselves from doing what we know God has said we should do, with any of these reasons or the myriad of other reasons which we invent spontaneously to fit the situation, we have, in essence, done a huge belly flop. We haven’t whole-heartedly served our God. We haven’t submitted our will completely to Him. We haven’t truly acknowledged Him as Sovereign, as the Lord of our lives. We’ve tried to put one foot into a relationship with God and leave one foot in the world. That doesn’t work any better for the Christian than it does for the kid who tried to do a dive and a jump simultaneously, or for the person who tries to put only one foot on the elevator.

You can’t halt between two opinions. You can’t do a dive and a jump. You can’t put only one foot on the elevator. You are either wholly devoted to God or you’re not. Here’s what Jesus said, “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:14-16). God’s reaction to not being wholly committed to Him is pretty definite: He will spit you out! You have to be wholly devoted to God; that’s our reasonable worship!

Here’s another idiomatic expression to encourage us to make a decision and then live that decision: Don’t sit on the fence.  During the Revolutionary War, a prominent New Jersey jurist, Judge Imlay, hadn’t yet committed to either the revolutionaries or the loyalists. So when Washington encountered one of Imlay’s slaves he asked him which way the judge was leaning. Washington was so amused by the response that he retold it enough times for it to become part of our language. He said, “Until my master knows which is the strongest group, he’s staying on the fence.” (superbeefy.com)

Don’t go limping between two opinions. Serve God only. Don’t belly flop. Be wholly devoted to God. Don’t sit on the fence.