whatever is right

Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa's heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life. 2 Chronicles 15:17

In everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. 1 Kings 22:43

At first glance, it seems like high praise. Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord. Jehoshaphat did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Yet, something is a little off. Neither father nor son removed the "high places." And the people continued to sacrifice to their idols.

We might say that they did the best that they could. That they spent their time being obedient and that should be enough. But were they obedient? Not according to scripture. I counted ten times from Exodus to 1 Samuel that God forbids idol worship. Their failure to completely eradicate idolatry in Judah would have tragic circumstances. Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, "walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord." (2 Chronicles 21:6) I have to wonder if the outcome might have been different if Asa or Jehoshaphat had removed all idols from the land.

I desire to walk a life that is pleasing to God. I want to have a heart that is fully committed to the Lord. I want to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. And yet, I find myself "overlooking" certain areas in my life, assuring myself that they are too small to bother God. (impatience, irritated driving, and so forth.) However, scripture reminds me that "It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread." (Galatians 5:9 MSG) If I continue to allow these "minute" sins to persist in my life, they will eventually "permeate" my entire being and my witness. From that point, who knows how it might affect future generations of my family. After all, it only took one generation for Judah's kings to go from "doing what was right" to following in the footsteps of one of the most wicked kings in Israel's history. What a sobering thought.

Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious. 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 MSG