Good Game

“The joke is told of the deacon whose property adjoined that of a golf course. One Sunday morning he decided to skip church and take in some golf. He slipped over the fence onto the third fairway and began to play. As in the case of Job, Satan was standing before God and asked what God intended to do to punish the deacon’s dishonesty. ‘Just wait and see what happens on the fifth hole,’ God smiled. The fifth hole was the most difficult on the course and often was responsible for scuttling the hopes for a good game. On this particulary Sunday morning, however, the deacon (whose handicap was a barely mediocre 33) drove the ball straight and true. Not only did it find the green, but also it took the curve of the terrain and went right in the cup: a hole-in-one. Satan was aghast with incredulity. ‘Why have you rewarded this unconscionable conduct with such remarkable success?’ ‘It looks like success now,’ replied God, ‘but who is he going to tell?’” (John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary, [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001], 567). God’s blessing in our lives does not always mean he condones our actions.