And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 1 Kings 16:30
It seems to me that it is quite natural for the rules of a family to become more lenient from one generation to another. My parents, for instance, never went to the movies when they were growing up. It simply wasn’t proper. When I was a kid though, we did go to a few movies. Crocodile Dundee stands out, even though it was a little racy. With my kids however, movies have become one of our favorite family outings. While they were growing up, we couldn’t wait for the next superhero movie. On Sundays, we even meet for church in a movie theater. In just two generations, the rules regarding movies have drifted so far as to become unrecognizable. I’m sure it doesn’t apply to every rule, but it seems to me that, with time, there is a natural drift away from strict and towards leniency.
Obviously, I don’t lament this drift when it comes to my family’s rules about movies, but this phenomenon can have a darker side, as is displayed in today’s passage. In the story, we’re told of the successive kings of Israel, with each king wandering further from God than the generation before it. The king in today’s passage, Ahab, was the worst of all, doing even more evil than any of his predecessors. In wandering further from God, we’re told he also provoked God’s anger more than any king before him.
I’ve observed that this natural drift away from God is also present in my own life. It simply isn’t natural for me to abandon my way to follow God and so, if left to my own nature, I just gradually drift towards myself and away from God. This doesn’t happen in big leaps. I didn’t go from seeking God’s will for my life one day, right into drug addiction the next. Rather, I just drifted away in small increments. This is why I often now hear myself saying, “The little things matter”. Daily now, I must keep an eye on those little indiscretions to which I’m prone. When I see myself sliding away from that which I know to be right, even when it involves something small, I must correct my course. The temptation is to see every little unhealthy choice as trivial or insignificant, but little diversions add up over time. If I don’t daily turn myself back towards God, I’ll eventually find my life going in a direction I never meant for it to go. The little things matter. It is my nature to slowly turn away from God and so daily, I must make a conscious effort to turn my life back towards him.