Day 27 in the Wilderness: Fight for the right team.

“Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.” So the men answered her, “Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.””

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭2:8-9, 12-14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Roy "Wrong Way" Riegels (April 4, 1908 – March 26, 1993) played for the University of California, Berkeley football team from 1927 to 1929. In the 1929 Rose Bowl game (Riegels’ team versus Georgia Tech), Riegels snatched up a fumbled ball and then did the unthinkable: instead of running the 30 yards between him and Tech’s end zone, he turned and ran toward his own goal 70 yards away! He nearly made it into his own end zone but was tackled by his teammates on the 1-yard line. His team then chose to punt rather than risking a run so close to their own end zone. However, the punt was blocked and was run in for a safety, putting Tech ahead in the game. Although other plays were played, and other scores were scored, that blunder was seen as costing them the Rose Bowl victory in that Riegels’ team only lost by one point (8 - 7). This 69 yard wrong way run is often referenced as the worst blunder in college football history.

At the time, in an interview with the Associated Press, Riegels explained how this had happened: "I started to turn to my left toward Tech's goal. Somebody shoved me and I bounded right off into a tackler. In pivoting to get away from him, I completely lost my bearings.”

It’s always a bad thing when you run for the wrong team. For Riegels, it was disorientation, coupled with the intensity of the competition, that would lead him to run for the other team.

Sadly, it isn’t just in football that disorientation, brought on by a variety of dynamics (fear, jealousy, hurt, spite, need for vengeance, etc.), leads to someone “running for the wrong team,” or actually fighting against the “friendlies.” Never is this phenomenon more destructive, even deadly, than when people (for reasons stated above, among others) are found actually fighting against God!

As you may know, The apostles faced much resistance and persecution; but none more than what they experienced at the hands of the religious leaders. The religious leaders would have done well to heed the wise advice of Gamaliel (a leader among the Pharisees).

“And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.””

‭‭Acts‬ ‭5:38-39‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Indeed, Paul (Saul)—in his religious zeal—found himself fighting against the Lord.

“And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.””

‭‭Acts‬ ‭9:5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Today we find Rahab, a harlot in Jericho, asking the two spies (sent by Joshua to spy out the land) to spare her life. She explains to them that she has recognized that they are on the winning team of the Lord. Now, imagine how she must’ve felt about the prospects of all she had ever known, being destroyed. Yet, she didn’t allow the fog of that angst, to keep her from recognizing with whom she should be aligned. And sure enough, when it came time for the children of Israel to destroy Jericho, Joshua made good on the promise made to Rahab by the spies.

‭“But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, “Go into the harlot’s house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.””

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭6:22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

It’s very easy to allow the pressures of life, and the complexities of our own inner workings, to disorient us as to who are the “good guys” in our own situation. However, we must allow the Holy Spirit to keep us oriented toward the always-winning-team of the Lord, and not find ourselves fighting against God.

For today write this in your “wilderness journal”:

Stay on the right team.

#40daysinthewilderness