My father was a very patient man… except when he got behind the wheel. He drove like Mario Andretti even when there was no emergency. Now, he could be helpful with his Jeep Wagoneer pulling people out of the ditch or taking someone to the hospital in the snow, but he could also use the 4 wheel drive feature to do some crazy things. While hunting one time we took an old wagon road that became so narrow he drove with one set of wheels on the path and one set on the embankment… all I saw was grass, rocks, and red mud out my window from the passenger side and when I looked to the driver’s side my father was in his seat way above my head and I saw trees and sky out his window. When my family went to a stunt car show and the car went up on two wheels and drove around. I said “aw shoot, my Dad and I did that in the woods last year.” Apparently, there were few rules for my father who grew up with fewer cars on the road and fewer laws on the books. He drove out of necessity way before he was 16 or had a license. Once, when he was trying to get to the hospital, the traffic was stopped, so he hopped the median to try another route. However, he didn’t notice the police cruiser on the other side. He got pulled over. When he tried to explain that he was a physician who was trying to get to the hospital, she did not care. She wrote him a ticket. He did not think that was fair, so he tried to appeal. The man who was trying to help him with the process said, “I don’t know what you said to that officer when you got pulled over, but she refuses to tear up that ticket and is determined that you will pay the fine.” Being the child of my father, I too thought that there were few rules I needed to follow when driving. I definitely got my share of tickets, jumped medians, and rolled through stop signs. But it finally dawned on me that maybe I shouldn’t drive like that. I had just started seminary and was interning at a church in Ft. Worth. One day the traffic was very slow leaving the church parking lot, so I jumped a landscape median and a curb and pulled out onto the road. The next week, a new friend who helped with the church’s building and grounds team, said, “I saw you pop the curb last week.” I said, “yes, that is one benefit of having a 4Runner.” Then he clarified saying, “we don’t do that around here.” With an entitled edge to my voice I said, “Why not?” He then let me know “Why not! And What for!” He said it was rude, it ruined the landscape and irrigation, and it was not a good look for a church intern to be impatiently driving over medians. I said, “oh, I guess you are right, never thought about it that way.” Sometimes we need to be reminded that our thinking is twisted.
“Iniquity” is thinking that wrong behaviors are okay when they are clearly not. The Hebrew word for iniquity is a word that means twisted. In iniquity, we have a mistaken view that self-serving, distorted, or harmful actions are okay for us to do. We may have learned them legitimately from generations before us, but they are still wrong. When God introduces Himself to Moses, He makes sure that Moses knows that iniquity can be forgiven, but it is never okay and that we are to behave differently when we belong to Him or it can affect our families generations later. Exodus 34:6-7 says, “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7 ESV) Wow, that generation stuff is convicting, because I rode with my son a few years ago and guess what? He drives a little bit like his dad and his granddad. My son and I have both chilled out in the last few years, but when triggered, I can still pop a curb with the best of them. Only now I have remorse, I have to confess my iniquity, that I have behaved in a way that doesn’t look like the actions of someone who belongs to Jesus. I’m praying that the driving iniquities will end with this generation.
Hang in there people. God is glad to be with us. I’m praying for us all.
