Bad Decisions and Redemptive Results

Have you ever made a decision that changed the course of your life? Perhaps you took a new job, moved across the country, and good opportunities presented themselves to you. Or perhaps that decision brought you nothing but trouble and pain; looking back, you see it was the wrong decision—it profoundly impacted all areas of your life, rippling through your health, your finances, your emotions, your relationships with others, and even your relationship with God.

We’ve all made good and not-so-good decisions in life. Personally, I can sit here and quickly recall several bad decisions I’ve made. Some only impacted my life for a day or two. Others impacted my life for a much longer period of time. However, I can testify that not all of my bad decisions had only negative results. Maybe you’ve experienced the same thing.

Thanks to our loving God, who watches over us and guides our steps, bad decisions can lead to good results. Perhaps our bad decision brought us face-to-face with our need to repent, to repair our relationship with another person, or to take steps to become more aligned with God. Maybe the consequences of that decision caused us to grow in wisdom or insight about where we needed to change and mature. A bad decision can reveal our deep need for God and his amazing grace toward us.

And, of course, we in the modern world didn’t invent bad decisions. They go way back in time, all the way to the start of it all, to Eve…

 Eve (Genesis 3: 1-19)

In the Garden of Eden, Eve—along with her husband Adam—made the bad decision of all bad decisions. Her choice to pick the fruit God had forbidden her and Adam to eat altered her life and all human lives to follow, including yours and mine. With one bad decision she went from being an innocent child of God to a broken woman who unhappily discovered that evil existed alongside goodness. Her and Adam’s losing battle with temptation cascaded down to a battle for all of us: a battle to avoid evil and seek good, to center our lives on God rather than on ourselves. Pain, hard work, and death entered the lives of all humans.

But God had a gracious plan. Just as sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, it would exit through the sinless One, Jesus, who resisted all temptation and brought salvation through his life, death, and resurrection. We, like Adam and Eve, are prone to sin (see Romans 3:23). The heritage of our first parents has continued throughout history; the Bible text records a litany of wrong decisions made by both men and women that had longstanding impacts on the lives of others. Let’s continue our focus on some of the women involved in those choices. Next in line is Lot’s wife.

Lot’s Wife (Genesis 19:1-26)

Lot was the nephew of Abraham, the father of our faith; he and his wife and daughters lived in the city of Sodom. The very name of that place brings up images of vile, wicked living, and when God decided to destroy Sodom, he sent two angels to rescue Lot and his family (see Genesis 19:1). And Lot hesitated—after a warning from two angels. When the angels seized each of Lot’s family members by the hands to pull them to safety outside of the city, Lot’s wife made her fateful decision to look back. Genesis 19:17 warned, “Don’t look back . . . don’t stop.” Perhaps she hesitated just long enough in fleeing that she got caught up in the destruction. Perhaps she turned back not believing that destruction would truly come. Either way, the burning sulfur God used to destroy Sodom left Lot’s wife a “pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). Instead of turning toward the safety of God’s mercy, she disobeyed and turned away toward God’s judgment. Her choice ended in her death.

The choice of Lot’s wife to disobey offers a lesson of warning to all of us. A life given over to sin and turned away from God only leads to one thing: death (James 1:14-15). Never forget, however, that God waits with open arms to receive anyone who will turn back to him. Luke records Jesus’ words in this regard: “Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it” (Luke 17:32-33). So, we “remember Lot’s wife,” recognizing that some decisions lead only to the dead end of death. However, even in the throes of death, God’s mercy and grace wait for us to turn away from death. God longs for all people to repent and turn toward the eternal life that belief and a relationship with Jesus offers (2 Chronicles 7:14; Acts 17:30; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

Tamar (Genesis 38)

Tamar: Her two marriages produced no children, only the deaths of her two husbands (see Genesis 38:6-10). With two of his sons dead, her father-in-law Judah was unwilling to give his one remaining son to her in marriage; he feared this last son would die as well. Instead, he sent Tamar back to her family. There Tamar lived as a widow with no husband, no sons, and no future. But Tamar didn’t sit still and accept her fate. Instead, she decided to exact revenge. Her story is told in clear and explicit language in Genesis 38:12-30. Tamar decided to pose as a prostitute to lure her father-in-law into having sex with her. Together, their union produced two boys: Perez and Zerah.

Tamar’s sordid story could end there, but God intervened! Rather than let this story end in disgrace, God put it as one in a long line of redemptive stories leading to the revealing of his plan to redeem all creation. In an act of incredible grace, God gave Tamara place in Jesus’ genealogy (see Matthew 1:3). Her father-in-law Judah and her son Perez are part of the family line of “Jesus the Messiah” (Matthew 1:1). Sometimes God takes the worst of our actions and turns them toward his purposes. In this case, Tamar’s decision to deceive her father-in-law produced the best result: a place in the genealogy of Jesus, our Savior.

A Sinful Woman (Luke 7:36-50)

Next, let’s look at a woman who made a risky decision to change the course of her life. The Bible doesn’t give her a name, only a descriptor: “A woman in that town who lived a sinful life” (Luke 7:37). In her longing for forgiveness and healing, she chose to risk rejection and ridicule and entered the house of a Pharisee to get to Jesus. Her actions and tears drew Jesus’ loving attention and the Pharisee’s judgment. The Pharisee only saw her sin; Jesus saw her repentant heart.

This woman, desperate for true life change, took a risk and found forgiveness. After reprimanding the Pharisee with a story, Jesus told the woman, “Your sins are forgiven . . . go in peace” (Luke 7:48, 50). Most of us can see at least a bit of ourselves in the Pharisee—maybe more than a bit if we look deeply enough. But surely all of us can see ourselves in the sinful woman; we all stand in need of the redemption Jesus has to offer. Perhaps we should rename this courageous woman what she became: the redeemed woman.

Martha (Luke 10:38-42)

Oh, how easily I see myself in dear Martha. Frazzled, rattled, and stressed over what needed to be done, Martha looked at her sister Mary and saw the opposite: calm, patience, and peace. Delighted to have Jesus in their home and eager to serve him, Martha had several decisions before her. While she worked and Mary sat quietly at Jesus’ feet, Martha could have: 1) Gone to sit next to Mary and waited to prepare the meal together later. 2) Gone to Mary and whispered a request for help in the kitchen. 3) Gone to Jesus and angrily complained about the unfairness of it all. She chose option 3, saying, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (Luke 10:40).

Can you hear the anger and frustration in her voice? How easily we can relate to Martha, who prioritized service over her desire to be still and listen to Jesus. Can you also hear the compassion in Jesus’ voice as he utters, “Martha, Martha” (Luke 10:41)? The significance of this story isn’t whether a woman’s place is in the kitchen, or the boardroom, or even the pulpit, for that matter. It’s more about the beauty of the relationship between Martha and Jesus, a relationship marked by security and depth. Martha didn’t worry that Jesus would reject her, although he did rebuke her. What was probably a misstep on her part didn’t harm her relationship with Jesus. And neither will any misstep, mistake, or sin on your part if you’ve maintained as close a relationship with Jesus as did Martha.

As we ponder the decisions of our past, we can easily get caught up in regret and even shame. However, the stories of these women in the Bible reveal the truth that looking back is an exercise in futility (again, “Remember Lot’s wife!”). Through Jesus, the Bible invites us instead to look ahead: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

God, our gracious Lord and Savior, is the author of our stories. Even when we make decisions that have negative results, he can and often does choose to redeem those decisions and move us and his kingdom forward.

By Jean E. Syswerda

Drawn from the NIV Kingdom Girls Bible.