CHAPTER NINETEEN
COMPROMISE ISN’T A DIRTY WORD
Mercy Trumps Sacrifice
Compromise isn’t a dirty word.
It can be.
But it isn’t always.
Unfortunately, for many of us, compromise carries a negative connotation. We see it as something the weak and the disobedient do. But in reality, it’s something the wise do as well. They know what battles they can win and what battles need to be fought later.
Daniel obviously had to make some tough calls in regard to what he participated in and what he avoided. If we could go back and be flies on the wall, I’m not sure we would agree with every decision he made. We might even see some as inappropriate compromises. But the important thing is that God was good with them. He knew Daniel’s heart, so he blessed his decisions, even if some were a bit sketchy.
This is something that fear-based Christianity misses. It tends to see God as an angry god looking for reasons to nail us. It forgets that Jesus was nailed to the cross for our benefit. He’s not looking for reasons to punish us. He’s looking for reasons to bless us. He values mercy over sacrifice.1
When it comes to navigating the tough calls of life, fear-based faith is terrified of making a mistake. That’s why it has all those extra rules and boundaries. It’s convinced that any accidental misstep or compromise will be dealt with harshly.
Blind Spots
The fact is, we all have blind spots. And while the important commands of Scripture are crystal clear, there are plenty of things in Scripture that are far more nuanced and hard to understand.
Anyone who has ever changed his mind about a biblical or theological issue has by definition corrected a blind spot. And unless we want to claim we now know it all and will never again be corrected or shown anything new, we have to admit we still have some blind spots we’re unaware of.
When we obey the light we have, God promises to give us more. The Bible describes the path of the righteous as being like the rising of the morning sun. At dawn it’s hard to see much. At midday everything becomes clear.2
But in the meantime, sometimes all we can do is make our best guess and then trust God to understand our heart or to enlighten us if we’re missing something.
Daniel didn’t worry about what he didn’t know. He worried about obeying what he knew. In situations where God spoke clearly, he did what God said. In those areas where it was less clear, he did what seemed best. He understood that there are some areas where God doesn’t care what path we choose. He cares how we walk the path.
Meat Offered to Idols
For instance, in the early days of the church, there was no consensus about whether it was okay to eat meat that had been blessed by the pagan priests in a pagan temple. There were good arguments on both sides. Some said eating meat was tantamount to participating in demonic worship. Others said it was no big deal. After all, the idols in the temple were nothing more than man-made objects. They had no real power.
So they wrote to ask the apostle Paul who was right. He shocked them by saying both were right. God had not laid down a specific command. Each side needed to do what seemed best to them and to avoid judging those who chose a different path.3
Solomon’s Blind Spot
There are also some times when we take the wrong path unintentionally. Our heart is right but our actions aren’t.
That’s what happened to Solomon. When he wanted to show his love and devotion to the Lord, he chose to do so at Gibeon with a massive sacrifice of a thousand burnt offerings. The only problem was that Gibeon was a high place (actually the most famous high place) and God had forbidden the Israelites to worship at high places.4
The high places in Israel had previously been dedicated to idol worship. When the Jews entered the Promised Land, they were supposed to tear them down. Yet for some reason they failed to do so. The people and the kings who followed continued to worship at them.
There’s no way around it. Solomon was not supposed to be offering sacrifices to God at Gibeon. Yet it was there that God met him in a dream and promised to give him whatever he asked for.
When Solomon asked for wisdom to lead God’s people, God was so pleased with his answer that he also gave him the things he didn’t ask for: wealth, a long life, and victory over his enemies.
Why would God bless Solomon in the midst of his sacrifices at a forbidden high place? It must have been a blind spot instead of high-handed disobedience. And God chose to respond to Solomon’s heart rather than his unintentional sin.
Frankly, that gives me great hope. Even when I don’t get it right, God sees my heart.
Compromise
In addition to understanding our blind spots, God also understands our weaknesses. He never asks us to do the impossible. He knows there are some situations so dicey that they call for compromise. There’s no other viable solution. In a fallen world, sometimes we’re forced to choose the lesser of two evils.
Two Midwives and a Prostitute
I think of God’s command that we always tell the truth. Our yes is to be yes and our no is to be no. He’s rather clear about it.
But when Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill every Hebrew boy at birth, they had no choice but to lie. They told Pharaoh that the Jewish women were so robust that they gave birth before the midwives could arrive.5
It was the same for Rahab the prostitute. She had no choice but to lie about hiding the Hebrew spies and the direction they departed. Otherwise they would have been killed. So she said, “They went that way,” when they went this way.6
God rewarded the midwives with children of their own. He rewarded Rahab with a family and a place in the lineage of Jesus. Apparently he understood that sometimes we have to choose the lesser of two evils.7
A Guy Named Naaman
Then there’s the strange story of Naaman, commander of the Aram army, one of Israel’s enemies and tormentors.
He came down with leprosy and through a series of strange events found himself in the presence of the prophet Elisha. Then through a series of even stranger events he was healed. As a result, he became a believer in the God of Israel.
But when it was time to return home, he faced a dilemma. His master and king worshipped a false god named Rimmon. In his role as the commander of the king’s army, Naaman had to enter the temple and bow down when the king did. So he made this request of Elisha:
Your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD. But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this.8
Now you’d expect Elisha to say, “No way. You have to make a choice. You can’t bow down in the presence of another god.”
But that’s not what he said. He told Naaman, “Go in peace.”
In other words, he allowed him to enter and bow down in the temple of Rimmon when his master did so. He chose mercy over sacrifice.
That’s what wisdom does. And that’s what God wants.9