This week's Theme: Just and True
Day 1: Lean Not On Your Own Understanding
The traffic citation listed the details of my offense—date, time, location, my license plate number. And of course, the hefty fine. But I knew there had to be a mistake. I had not been in that area on that date. In fact, I had not driven in that locality for over a year or more.
I requested a hearing, and armed with my evidence, I arrived at traffic court several weeks later. When I was finally called, my case was almost immediately dismissed. My evidence had been accepted as convincing proof that I was not responsible for the traffic violation.
Several months later, I was asked to participate in a project at work. One of the incidental tasks involved evaluating time clock data in our department from our payroll processing system. As I began working with the data, I discovered an eye-opening tidbit of information—the time stamp at the end of day for salaried (non-hourly) employees was, with very few exceptions, a straightforward calculation of eight hours from the start-time-stamp.
How could this be? I wondered. I knew that many people in my department habitually worked more than eight hours (plus the extra hour required for lunch), and that once in a while, someone may have occasion to leave earlier.
The systems analyst explained that the information we were analyzing was for payroll purposes. For salaried employees, a full workday was five hours or more. As long as a salaried employee worked the minimum number of hours for a full day, the time stamp at the end of the day would count the daily required hours from the start time. That meant that if I clocked in at 8:00 am, my time stamp at clock-out would show 5:00 pm whether I clocked out at 1:00 pm or 8:00 pm!
I thought of the time stamp documentation I had confidently presented as evidence in traffic court several months earlier. Evidence, that was, in light of what I had just learned, quite faulty!
The fact that I was not guilty of the violation had not changed, but the documentation that “proved” it, was now revealed to be technically untrustworthy. The time data I had presented the court showed that I was at work from 8:00 to 5:00 on the day in question. Based on what I had just learned, I could have left work as early as 1:00 pm that day (which would have allowed me to be in the vicinity of the violation) and still have the same information on my time sheet!
Help! Perry Mason! Matlock! Columbo? Anyone? I did not set out to intentionally deceive. But I unwittingly provided evidence that was flawed.
In Joshua 9, on the other hand, we are given an account of intentional deception by the Gibeonites. Joshua and the leaders believed the faulty evidence before their eyes— moldy bread, worn out sacks, old wineskins cracked and mended... worn and patched sandals, old clothes... (Joshua 9:4-5).
Intentions notwithstanding, human judgment is fallible. Human systems and processes are full of unexpected errors, troublesome glitches, and faulty foundations. Not to mention the moving and the heaving of our times. I don’t think that even the most brilliant human minds are a match for the shifting and the shaking, the tottering and the wobbling, the blurring and the changing.
No wonder Solomon cried out to God for wisdom and discernment! (2 Chronicles 1:10). He would later write, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6 -NKJV).
Joshua and the Israelites leaned on their own understanding. The account tells us that the Israelites sampled [the Gibeonites'] provisions but did not inquire of the Lord (Joshua 9:14). The evidence, much like the evidence I presented in my traffic case, was flawed and untrustworthy.
But even—or perhaps especially—in these days—when we often cannot trust the underlying structures, principles, and assumptions of so much in our world—when we have just cause to doubt the very evidence of our eyes—it is encouraging to remember the example of a Saviour who showed us how to navigate falsehood, deceit, flattery, pretension, and treachery.
Always fully aware of human nature and human systems, Jesus would not entrust himself to [people], for He knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person (John 2:24-25).
He alone is righteous, just, and true. He alone knows the human heart (Luke 16:15), and can give us the wisdom and discernment we need to navigate the twists and turns of this life. May God direct our paths into the love, compassion, and humility of Christ and into the wisdom and discernment that guard against deception, falsehood and faulty evidence.
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