Scheming is never a good idea

Judges 21: ¹⁸ We can’t give them our daughters as wives, since we Israelites have taken this oath: ‘Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjamite.’¹⁹ But look, there is the annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, which lies north of Bethel, east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

²⁰ So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, “Go and hide in the vineyards ²¹ and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, rush from the vineyards and each of you seize one of them to be your wife. Then return to the land of Benjamin. 

²² When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Do us the favor of helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war. You will not be guilty of breaking your oath because you did not give your daughters to them.’”

²³ So that is what the Benjamites did. While the young women were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them.

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²⁵ In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

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Holding my breath and wishing everything would go well, I sat next to my potential buyer. He drove around the parking lot and everything seemed to work just fine.  He agreed to give me the maximum asking price and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I mean just a couple of week prior, the car stopped on the side of the road.  “It’s not my problem anymore” I thought to myself as I handed him the keys.  He called me two weeks later asking if I knew the car had major issues. “What [lie] should I say to this guy to get him off my back?”

• There is a way that seems right to me that is not.
• There is a path that is very wide and sometimes I choose to remain on it.
• There is a pile of money that sometimes drives my deepest decisions.

It seems like when I want to do something wrong, I can find a crowd to support my efforts.  They will look and act like me and I can do as I please because everyone else is doing it this way. BUT GOD wants something different.

• GOD wants me to follow HIM no matter how many people agree to do wrong.
• GOD wants me to do what’s right not what’s popular.
• GOD wants me to understand HIS plan instead of making up my own.

There is a way that seems right to a man, BUT GOD’s way in infinitely above mine.

• Are you thinking of a gimmick to bring people to GOD?
• Are you worried that your efforts are failing?
• Can you allow GOD to thin your tools and grow you HIS way?