I have enjoyed watching football since I was a freshman in high school – that was 1960, nearly six decades ago! So, this past trip to California to visit family not only included Grandparent’s Day for our 10-year old grandson, but it also included a football game for him and one for his older brother—a high school varsity game that required a 3 ½ hour trip into the mountains. When we arrived that night, it was cold, damp, bone-chilling windy cold.
That was the good part. What followed was anything but good. In six decades of football, this was one of the worst officiated games I have witnessed. The officials called fouls that weren’t there and missed ones that were. They got penalties wrong, moved chains when they should not have, and lost control of the game mid-way through the second quarter. That was evidenced by the fact that the third quarter (15 minutes of playing time) took more than an hour.
The officials threw flags constantly and then stood around and talked about them – all the while visitors who had driven more than three hours to witness this fiasco were turning into popsicles in the stands. I can honestly say that this was anything but a good game.
And that is perhaps the most telling statement of all. It was the one job these officials had – to make this a good game for everyone. They were supposed to follow the rules, hand down justice (penalties) when and where earned and be impartial. They failed to do that, but they did remind me of something we recently studied at The Way Assembly – the Justice of God. “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face.” [Psalm 89:14 NKJV]
Thankfully, our God is just. Our God is righteous. Our God is good. The rules (God’s moral law) don’t change according to any whim, nor any political or social climate. It is God’s job to set the rules for His creation, and to mete out justice when and where earned. It is because God is just that God is also good. If he were not just, He would not be good. He’d be like those officials who were anything but good last Friday.
