Gave over
“So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.” Psalm 81:12
Gave over – Fly-fishing with God is a little different than the usual rod and reel exercise. God instructs us to “cast away” our acts of disobedience. He tells us that the “bait” found in sin is not to be used for fishing. He spends a great deal of time teaching us how important it is to throw this bait away and He encourages us to do it often. Practice taking the bait off the hook and throwing it away. It won’t catch anything but more trouble.
If we don’t learn how to fly fish God’s way, then we will be faced with another kind of “casting”. It is found here in this verse. It is the “sending away” that God does to those who refuse to throw out the bait. God will have to “drive away” those who continue to fish with bait that only catches more sin. He won’t stop you from fishing. He just won’t let you fish in His streams.
Here the Hebrew verb shalah means, “to let loose”. In Exodus and Isaiah it is used to describe releasing captives. Here God lets loose those who don’t want to obey Him. He lets them go their own way. God never insists that we play the game of life according to His rules. We can always decide to make up our own ways of using bait. But God absolutely controls the consequences. He is in charge of the end game, no matter what rules we try to use.
It is a sad day in heaven when God lets go of someone. There is more than one way to be free. There is His way of freedom that leads to peace and joy. Then there is our way. Freedom to do whatever we want. For a little while. Both kinds of freedom ultimately depend entirely on God. He lets go of those who want their own way so that they will experience the consequences of their freedom. Those consequences are always intended to bring about repentance and a return to the freedom of voluntary submission.
Don’t ever get in the way of God’s letting go. He knows that life on our own terms will lead us to chaos and hopelessness – and an opportunity to come back. How many times did I intervene and prevent God’s consequences from having their full impact? How many times did I rob someone of the opportunity to return to Him because I tried to ease the disaster? If God gives them over, who am I to hold them back?
