Healey's Law

Mr. Ben Light.

Well, thank you, Mr. Miller, and good afternoon, everyone!

It is truly wonderful to be over here with you guys. We missed you last month.

You know, we had a situation there with that last, the 4th Sabbath of the month, where you guys were going through that Steps to Passover series. And so we were able to take a break and not drive the mountain pass on that 4th Sabbath, which was nice, but we missed your smiling faces. And, boy, we missed the beautiful weather. What's the over-under here? We think spring's starting, or are they just bluffing at this point? Bluffing. It's a bluff. Okay. I remember, it must have been, it's probably been a couple of years now, but I remember coming over here at one point in time, and there was still snow on the ground and ice on the roads near the end of April. And so, yeah, I'm not so sure that I'm buying it, but we'll take it. We'll take what we can get, and we'll take it for the time that we can get it.

Well, brethren, there are times in our lives where through our own actions, or perhaps our inaction, we find ourselves in a bit of a quandary. Perhaps we've opened our mouths and said something stupid. Maybe we've gotten ourselves into a difficult situation, or perhaps through our own inaction, we've allowed an issue to spin out of control. And before we know it, we're confronted with a situation that really is spinning under its own power, with no indications of stopping. And what we've really done is we've created almost a tornado of sorts out of the situation. And the direction that it's going to go, the damage that it's going to do, there is really no way of knowing. And sometimes it seems that no matter what we try to do, we find that we seem to make it worse with our every attempt to fix it. In the modern vernacular, we've found ourselves in a hole.

And as we try desperately to claw our way out, we find that the sides might be just a little too steep. And maybe with every attempt with our feet and our hands to gain traction to climb our way out, we seem to do nothing more than to shower dirt down on our heads. Now, these holes in our life can be relational between ourselves and other people. They can be financial.

Sometimes we dig ourselves into financial messes that it seems are very hard to get out of. And they can also be spiritual.

But whatever form they take, they represent the times in our life where we recognize that we have to stop doing what we're doing, and instead rely upon God to get us out because we truly can't do it on our own.

We do have to recognize that His intervention in these types of situations is absolutely necessary to get us out alive.

But it's also crucial for us to recognize what got us there in the first place and to stop digging. This is often referred to as Healy's first law, or the first rule of holes. When we find ourselves in a hole, we must stop digging as the first rule of hole goes. And the rule doesn't go any further than that. It doesn't discuss the shovel that we use to get ourselves into this mess. It doesn't discuss the size of the hole that we've dug, the composition of the soil that we find ourselves digging in. It simply provides us with the simplest of solutions. Stop digging. And this rule is attributed to British politician Dennis Healy, who is recorded to have given this first of Healy's laws in 1986 in an interview with the New Statesman magazine. Since then, it has taken on a life of its own, and as many of these things do once the internet became big, everything takes on a life of its own, it seems, nowadays.

But there have been two additional laws put into place regarding holes. And as far as I'm aware on these, just kind of in full disclosure, Dennis Healy had nothing to do with these other two. Dennis Healy was the first one, but the rest of them I think were made up as people went on. Kind of like Murphy's law, you know, originally Murphy's law started out as just one law, and now it's 25 or 30 that people have added to it.

But the whole package together is referred to as the three laws, or the three rules, I'm sorry, of holes, or Healy's laws. Kind of like Newton's laws of motion, Healy has some laws as well, and they are as follows. Healy's law number one. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. That's the one that we're most familiar with. Law number two. If you have an open hole, fill it to avoid it becoming a hazard.

If you have an open hole, fill it to avoid it becoming a hazard. And the third law, a hole not filled in will cause more damage in the future than if it were to be filled in now. The third law, once you all go through all three again, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. That's law number one. Law number two. If you have an open hole, fill it in to avoid it becoming a hazard. And then hole number three, or I'm sorry, law number three, a hole not filled in will cause more damage in the future. Then it would if it were filled in now. Today, with the time that we have remaining, I'd like to explore Healy's three laws with a real special emphasis on how they apply to our spiritual lives, particularly with the upcoming spring holiday season. So the title of the message this afternoon is Healy's Laws, The Three Rules of Holes. And so we'll begin with the most familiar rule, the one that all of us know. And truth be told, many of us have probably been given advice at one time or another to stop digging. I know I have.

So rule number one, again, was when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. And the assembly of ancient Israel began their relationship with God in a hole.

The assembly of ancient Israel began their relationship with God in a hole. We all know this story. Many years before the account of Moses and Aaron, Jacob and his sons came down to Egypt in order to survive a famine and to be rejoined with Joseph, who was a young man who literally found himself in a hole.

But the Israelites remained. They prospered. They grew. But eventually a pharaoh came along that didn't remember Jacob's son Joseph. And they were ultimately enslaved.

Bondage is exactly that. It's not voluntary. This wasn't something they signed up for. This wasn't something that they could just decide, well, you know, I've been doing this now for my entire life. I'm 65. I must be done. I put in my good years. Where's my pharaoh care and my retirement plan? No, they toiled their entire lives. They toiled their entire lives. And the next generation did the same. The next generation after that. And on and on it went with no end in sight. But clearly, as we can see from Scripture, God had other plans. Let's go over to Exodus 3. We'll start today in Exodus 3. And we'll pick up the account in verse 7 after God has spoken to Moses through the burning bush. Or as, rather, he's speaking with Moses through the burning bush. But Exodus 3, verse 7. And we'll go ahead and read through verse 10.

So Exodus 3.7 says, And the LORD said, I've surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. This wasn't a pleasant thing that the Israelites were going through. This was not a pleasant situation. This was a difficult situation. They cried out to, in some cases, a God that they didn't fully understand at this point in time.

So I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and with honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parazites, the Hibites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Moses' response to God is classic. It's like he's looking around going, who, me? Me? Really? Me? But God planned through Moses to redeem his people. He planned to use Moses to get them out of that hole that they found themselves in. And this time of year, as we near the Holy Days, we reflect on the ultimate events of this passage, the subsequent plagues that God sent on Egypt, and the Lord's redemption of his people from their bondage. They were unable to leave on their own. For Israel to get out of this hole, it required God to lower down a ladder, and a way to kind of give them away for his people to climb out. There was no getting out on their own. They had to rely on God, and they had to let him provide them with their salvation and their redemption. The ladder that was lowered was the sacrifice of Christ, pictured in that time by the Lamb without blemish that was offered the evening of the Passover. Let's go over to Exodus 12. Just a few passages or a few pages towards the back of the book here. Exodus 12, and we'll pick up the command in verse 3. Exodus 12, verse 3.

Exodus 12, verse 3 says, Now, this is important. Verse 5.

Now, you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. God instructed the Israelites to take a lamb as a type of Christ, a young male lamb without blemish, to spend time with it living amongst them, then sacrificing it on the evening of Passover and placing its blood upon the doors of their house. We see in verse 13.

God went through the land of Egypt on that evening exacting judgment on the nation, on its people.

And the only houses spared the death of the firstborn were those who applied the blood of the lamb to their doorposts. God specifically told the Israelites that he would see the blood of the lamb applied upon their home and he would pass over them, that he would show them mercy.

The Israelites walked out of Egypt the next day. The Lord had redeemed his people. He'd brought them out of that hole. And brethren, when we were called by God, when we were called by God initially, we were called from the depths of a hole as well. We were called from the depths of a hole. We had gotten ourselves into a place in our life that we were unable to get ourselves out of.

Now, we may not have even known the trouble that we were in.

We may have just been happily digging our way down, just whistling as we went, you know, just shoveling dirt here and there, doing everything we could. We may have had no idea, completely oblivious, to the trouble that we found ourselves in.

Or, we may have known full well what we were doing and dug that hole intentionally.

Regardless, we were living a life apart from God, and a life where we may not have fully understood God or understood what his expectations were.

And as a result, we were separated from him.

Now, we may have made efforts to get out. We may have consulted, you know, tried to find ways to be happier, tried to consult the wisdom of the world, tried to, you know, ask ourselves questions like, what is the purpose for life and why am I here?

We may have tried to rely on our own wisdom to get ourselves out of the hole that we were in. But when it came down to it, God needed us to realize how much we needed him.

God needed us to realize how much we needed him, that he was our way out.

That only through him could that rope ladder be lowered down and that we could climb our way out.

The blood of Christ applied in our lives, just like the blood on the doorposts at the ancient Israelites, the doorposts of the ancient Israelites' homes, was the ladder that was lowered into that hole to get us out.

But if we look at the next set of instructions in Exodus 12 to the ancient Israelites, we see that God not only gets them out of the hole, he tells them to step away from the shovel.

So he gets them out of the hole and he tells them to step away from the shovel. Let's look at Exodus 12, verse 15.

It says, Seven days you shall eat on leavened bread, On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day that person shall be cut off from Israel.

On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, And on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you, No manner of work shall be done on them, But that which every one must eat, that only may be prepared by you. So you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, For on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

God had them put the shovel down and walk away from the shovel. Whatever it was that was causing them to continue to dig that hole, God had them put it down and walk away.

And you know, while they may not have fully understood the ramifications of this type that this symbolized, it's hard to tell in these passages whether they knew exactly what this represented at the time or whether they kind of went through the motions at this time so that we could understand it later, comprehend it later on. But regardless, we in the modern era of the church are aware of what this represents and what it entails. Leaven is representative of sin.

And ancient Israel was asked to put it out of their homes prior to Passover. In the modern era, we search it out, we discover it, every nook and cranny of our homes. We find places in our house that we didn't even know existed as we search for leaven. You know, you open a cupboard and you find a little shelf back there somewhere where there's a speck or two of crumbs, and you go, how'd that get back there? And as we look through our homes, we also start to look through our lives. And we begin to examine our lives, and we begin to just dig into not just the parts of our lives that we know, but every nook and cranny of our life. We pray to God to let Him to see us as He sees us. Man, what a scary sight. But we look for those branches of our life that aren't bearing fruit so that we can carefully prune them away and cast them into the fire. This entire process looks forward to a time when God will come and remove that sin completely. Unfortunately, today, our human nature at the bottom of that hole looks at the ladder, looks at the shovel, looks at the ladder, looks at the shovel, and wants to just pick the shovel up and keep digging. Digging's comfortable. Digging's fun. Digging's what we're used to.

And even if God takes that shovel away, we just reach into our coat pocket and find our other shovel. And the other shovel that we got hidden in our back pocket, the one that we got up our sock, and we just keep finding these shovels.

If we run out of shovels, we start digging with our hands. We need God to call us to Him, to get us to get on that ladder and to start climbing out of that hole and not digging any deeper. And we're there. We've been called. We're on the ladder. We're climbing. We're working at it. But we've got to leave that shovel on the floor of that hole, because the deeper that we dig, the more dangerous our position becomes. We move ourselves farther and farther and farther from God, the further that we dig. Let's turn over to Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59.

Isaiah 59, we'll pick it up in verse 1, just the first two verses of Isaiah 59, to get kind of an idea about what God says regarding our iniquity. Isaiah 59, verse 1, under a subheading in my Bible of the words separated from God. Isaiah 59, verse 1, says, And your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear, for your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered for versity.

If we're in that hole and if we continue to dig, we'll find ourselves further and further and further from God. With every shovel full, we separate ourselves a little further. And it's not so much that God is ignoring us completely. It's that when we sin, that shows God our level of commitment. When given an option between a choice between sin and between God's way, and we choose sin, we tell God that—sorry, your second fiddle—I'd rather do this. And that's a dangerous message to send to our Creator. Brethren, Healy's first law states that when we find ourselves in a hole, we must stop digging. Rule number two tells us that if we have an open hole, it's very important to fill it so that we can avoid it becoming a hazard. Because it's not enough that we stop digging. That's just the beginning. Stopping digging is just the beginning. In reality, to continue to keep ourselves safe, we have to follow rule number two. The hole that we dug must be filled in, because if the hole isn't filled in, we can either, one, simply just jump in there and start digging again if we so choose. Or, even worse, we can accidentally fall in if we get a little bit careless. If there's still a wide open hole there, and we're not paying attention, we can find ourselves right back where we started, in need of that ladder, again. So how do we fill in that hole? How do we fill in that hole? God delivered ancient Israel from the Egyptians. He brought them out of Egypt. He extended the ladder. He helped them to climb out of that hole. They crossed the waters of the Red Sea. He took them into the wilderness to lead them to the place that He'd prepared for them, to give them His law, to teach them His ways, to train them to live His way of life, to fill the hole. However, as we can see from even a cursory reading of the Old Testament, Israel seemed to want to dig holes as quickly as He could fill them in. Once again, digging was comfortable. Digging was safe. Digging was what they remembered. And first thing out into the wilderness, we see Israel jump in headlong into the first hole that they could find. Let's go to Exodus 32. I suppose in the desert sun, a hole might be nice and cool as well, but... Exodus 32.

Exodus 32. We'll pick it up in verse 1. We'll just go from verse 1 to verse 8. Very beginning here. Exodus 32. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods, and shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. So they got a little worried. Moses hadn't returned in the time limit that they thought Moses was going to return in. And instead of having patience, and instead of waiting on God, and instead of waiting to see what would happen, they kind of took matters into their own hands, which was Pester Aaron. Go bug Aaron about it. Hey, Aaron, let's do this. Aaron said to them, Aaron could have said no. Aaron could have said no. Instead, he said, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and he made a molded calf. Then they said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Not only did they jump into the first hole that they found, they jumped into an awfully big hole. An awfully big hole. One that Israel had a very large difficulty getting out of the entirety of the Old Testament. That idolatry was so huge and such a thorn in the side of Israel. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get down, for your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Verse 8, They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.

I've always wondered what gold tasted like as Moses melted this down and mixed it with the water and had the congregation drink it. But, you know, I can't imagine it tastes great. I can't imagine it's good. But Israel returned to what was comfortable. They returned to what was safe. They returned to what they were used to. And they may have been out of the hole, but the hole wasn't filled in yet. Not yet. It was getting there. The rest of the time they spent in the wilderness, they spent digging holes. God, through Moses and Aaron, worked to fill those holes in, but it seemed at times that the congregation of Israel was digging new holes faster than the previous holes could be filled in. And we see a number of things. We see Korah's Rebellion. We see the incident at Maribah where they argued about the water. The constant complaining against Moses and Aaron's leadership. Complaining against God for dragging them out there and letting them die. And then the last straw finally, the rebellion of the people after Joshua and Caleb reported the news of the Promised Land.

The number of times that the host of Israel turned on God's anointed and, kind of by proxy, God himself is staggering. God knew it wasn't enough just to get them to stop digging. It would require a retraining. A re-education of sorts. To an extent, a complete renewal to fill in those holes. Recall God's words to Moses following the host's assertion that they would do everything that God commanded them to do. We see it in Deuteronomy 5.29. Let's check Deuteronomy 5.29.

Deuteronomy 5.29 is God's words to Moses.

Or at least Moses recounting God's words to Moses. 5 verse 29. This is right after he's recounting the whole initial giving of the law. And yes, all of the things the Lord has said we will do. And then Moses says, here's the Lord's response to that. 5.29. 5.29 it says, Let's turn over to Deuteronomy 30. We'll see that God's plan was in place. God's plan was in place. Deuteronomy 30.

Not only was God's plan in place, God's plan is still in place. Israel's disobedience didn't side-track the plan. It didn't require God to come up with a plan B. Verse 5 of Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 5 says, And you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live. It required a change of heart. Required a change of heart. And that change of heart, kind of the giving of the Holy Spirit, that down payment of God's mind, that transformation that occurs in our lives, as God writes His laws not just on paper in front of us or on our wall on a plaque, but He writes them on our mind and He writes them on our heart.

That's the foundation for filling that hole permanently.

Once that foundation has been put into place, then we can fill the hole. Then we can start filling the hole. Not with shifting sands, not with, you know, loose dirt so that it settles and it causes damage later on.

But instead we fill it with rock. We fill it with a strong foundation that's not going to shift and that's not going to settle. We fill it with the words and the teachings of Jesus Christ. And by that, God the Father. Let's turn with me over to Acts 4, verse 7. We'll see an account of Peter and John as they're placed before the high priest and before the large group of men that were relatively angry with them.

Acts 4, and we'll pick up the account in verse 7. Acts 4, verse 7. A little bit of an accusatory tone coming from the people that are talking to them.

Acts 4, and verse 7. This is when they're addressing the Sanhedrin. It says, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Verse 12. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

In other words, this is the stone. This is the foundation which we have built upon.

The chief cornerstone. The model that all other stones are carved after is He who granted us the power to do these things.

And there is salvation in no other name under heaven except Christ Jesus. He is the foundation. And while Christ's death is a major focal point in the upcoming spring holy days, and we're commanded to put sin out of our lives, we're commanded to remove leaven, which Christ's death made possible, it's equally important that we're taking in and consuming unleavened bread during that time frame.

That we're putting on the teachings of Christ and that we're letting Him and His teachings live within us as we go out into the world around us.

Because through those teachings, God fills that hole, a shovelful here, a shovelful there, a front-end loader here, front-end loader there, depending on how big the hole is.

But He fills us with the knowledge of His way and with the truth of Scripture. Then He asks us to go out and apply it. Go out from the classroom now and make it happen. Go and do likewise.

And when we apply it, when we've learned it in these various situations, that hole gets shallower and shallower and shallower.

Brethren, it is incredibly important that we not only stop digging, but that we fill the hole. And the reality of that is, the sooner we fill it, the better.

Because a hole left unfilled for a long period of time can cause an incredible amount of collateral damage.

An incredible amount of collateral damage.

Rule number three. A hole not filled in will cause more damage in the future than it would if it were filled in now.

Some of you may remember the story of Baby Jessica. How many of you remember the Baby Jessica saga?

I say saga because it was on television 24 hours a day for like five or six days, it seemed like.

Some of you may remember this story very well. I was very young when this particular event occurred.

I remember it really well only because it was the only thing on television for days was live coverage.

This was actually... I found this out as I was looking into this because I had to get the dates and the information right.

I didn't want to try to rely for memory and get it wrong. This was the beginning of the CNN News Network.

Baby Jessica, that was the big thing. CNN, that was their round-the-clock coverage of the... It was a media circus.

It was an absolute media circus. Nothing's changed. CNN's a media circus all the time anymore.

Now it's just airplanes that get lost in the middle of nowhere.

Some of you remember this story pretty well. Jessica McClure was 18 months old when she managed to fall into an 18-inch wide diameter well casing.

Did I say 18 inches? I meant 8 inches. It was 8 inches wide. It was a very small, small opening. Extremely small opening.

She was 18 months old. She manages to get in this thing. I don't remember if it was head first or foot first. I can't recall.

But gravity managed to take over and pulled her down into this well casing an astonishing depth of 22 feet.

22 feet down inside of this well casing.

Now, it was a 58-hour ordeal that happened. She was in that well casing for 58 hours.

And there were multiple attempts made at getting to her, trying to get her out.

And like we said before, this was one of the first true media circuses of the modern era.

This was round-the-clock coverage. If I remember right, and correct me if I'm wrong here, Geraldo Rivera was all over this. I remember his face being there as one of the talking heads.

But after a number of failed attempts, after a number of failed attempts, they finally were able to get her actually using some incredible technology that's used all the time now.

But at that time was kind of experimental, which was water jet cutting with concrete.

So now you see the guys with the big water saws all the time that are cutting concrete and whatever else and doing all this stuff.

But they were able to do it with that kind of technology, which is kind of neat.

The photo taken of the rescue we're holding, Jessica, won that photographer a 1988 Pulitzer Prize in journalism.

And it's remained a pretty memorable moment in American history, with the news shows consistently going back and saying, well, where is baby Jessica now? What is she up to now?

Did Jessica dig that hole? No. But that hole was open.

And it remained a danger to anyone who might be walking by because it didn't get filled and it didn't get covered.

She's not the only one, as I was doing some information. I didn't get an official number, but I came across story after story after story of other children and adults who have fallen into open wells all around the world, some of which have died in the process, either died from the fall or died because no one knew that they were in there, or others that have just fallen in and been injured and had to be helped out.

This is not, I mean, it's not a only baby Jessica thing. I mean, this is something that's happened in a lot of different places. These old open wells are a hazard in many places as they don't get filled and don't get covered.

Not only do we have to fill the hole, we have to fill it as soon as possible because the longer that it's left open, or the longer that it's ignored, you ignore it and you forget about it. You put it on the back burner and you don't think about it. The longer that it's left open or ignored, the more damage that it can cause. You know, the young people of the congregation of Israel paid for the sins of the older generation. They didn't dig that hole. Their fathers did. But yet, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, too. Just like the rest of them. The damage was larger than the original group that it started with because that hole just got bigger and bigger and bigger and it encompassed more and more of the congregation of Israel, eventually the entire host. Kind of like the issue between David and Absalom. Kind of like the issue between David and Absalom. Let's go over to 2 Samuel. We recently went through this in our Bible reading program that we're doing, the chronological program.

And it struck me as a hole that didn't get filled. 2 Samuel, we'll see the story of Absalom. Give you just a little context. I don't want to read the entire thing. It takes up about three chapters worth of 2 Samuel. But head over to 2 Samuel. We'll be in and around 13, 14, 15. You can kind of follow along as we go through the context if you'd like, if you're not super familiar with the story already.

But 2 Samuel, right around 13, 14, and 15. We're going to eventually read in verse 15, so if you want to go ahead and be there, you can. Absalom was one of David's sons. He was exceedingly handsome, and according to the scriptures, he was muy guapo. He carried a full head of hair. In fact, one of the accounts, he had to cut it yearly so that it didn't just keep going. And one of the accounts said that the weight of the hair each year was about five pounds. Just an unreal amount of weight. He was charismatic, and he cared deeply for his sister Tamar so much that he actually named one of his own children Tamar. Another son of David, Amnon, desired Tamar to the point that he made himself sick over her. He eventually lured her into a situation where he took advantage of her and forced himself on her. David didn't deal with the problem when it happened, and Absalom took matters into his own hands, killing Amnon. Then he fled Israel for a few years. David didn't really deal with that problem at that time either. So he's got one son who's kind of a rapist, and the other son who's a murderer, and nothing's getting dealt with. Well, Joab finally kind of tricks David into dealing with the situation. He brings Absalom back to Israel, but kind of just ignored him while he was there, kind of just left him, or kind of refused to see him. The situation wasn't resolved. The hole wasn't filled. It was kind of just covered up and forgotten. Ignored. So let's take a look at what Absalom did in the absence of David dealing with the situation. It's located in 2 Samuel 15. And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1 and read through verse 7. 2 Samuel 15 verse 1, After this, it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him. So he's getting standing. He's moving up in the world a little bit. He's not just the king's son. He's not just the prince anymore here. He's starting to get a following. He's starting to, you know, get people to come onto his side a little bit here.

Now Absalom would rise early, and he would stand before the way to the gate. So he'd stand just outside the road there to the gates. So it was that whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, What city are you from? And he would say, Your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel. And then Absalom would say to him, Look, your case is good and right. But there is no deputy of the king to hear you.

He's waylaying them on the way to the king, getting in there and getting to him before they get to David. Moreover, Absalom would say, Oh, that I, oh, that I were made to judge in the land. And everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me. Then I would give him justice. And so it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him.

In this manner Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Verse 7, Now it came to pass after forty years that Absalom said to the king, Please, let me go to Hebron and pay the vow which I made to the Lord.

So during that time frame he's hatching a plan. And that plan required him to get to Hebron. Required him to get there. And so what we see is we see Absalom beginning to mutter and to whisper to the people at the gates of the city. And he's turning the hearts of the men of Israel against David. Eventually he leaves for Hebron with his men, sets his plans into motion, and declares himself king of Israel. And because he had turned so many against David, David is forced to flee to the countryside with whomever remained loyal to him.

Now there's some debate as to the exact time frame that this occurred in. This translation in particular says forty years. There are other translations that list the time frame as four, if not forty. Josephus puts it as four. Other Hebrew manuscripts put it as four. Four years to me seems a little more plausible, but I suppose forty is not impossible. Regardless of the length of time, regardless of how long it took, whether it was four years or forty years, this is a hole that wasn't filled in.

This is a hole that had an open, gaping opening, and it became a danger to those around it. It swallowed up a lot more than the original occupant and the original digger. David didn't deal with the situation when it happened, and because of that, it spiraled out of control. It became a hole that trapped not just David and Absalom, it trapped the entire nation of Israel as well into a bit of a civil war. And it was like this enormous sinkhole that nobody really knew was there, until one day it all just kind of opened up and everything fell in. You hear about this stuff on the news all the time.

Down in Florida, it swallows a house, or a bunch of really rare corvettes fall into it, or something like that. But the truth is, the potential for the hole was there the entire time. As water undermined the surface, that hole opened up, and it swallows whatever is over the top of it. And it can happen, too, if we try to just cover the hole. If we just try to put some sort of a cover over it, some sort of temporary fix, instead of a permanent fix, a temporary fix. We leave it unfilled, but we get it covered. You may still have people walk around it.

You may have kids get interested in it, lift the lid, and see what's going on and fall in. Or you may have somebody dance around on top of it, break through, and fall into the hole. It doesn't take the danger away if you cover it. It doesn't take the danger away if we simply just cover up the hole. Covering it is not enough. And it's this way in our spiritual life, as well. The holes in our life, if not dealt with promptly, can cause others to stumble. It can trip up our brethren, trip up our families, and trip up those that are close to us. It's absolutely crucial for us to deal with the problem early on, not put it off and ignore it, hoping it'll just go away.

The hole has to be filled, and when it comes down to who has to fill that hole, it's on us. That's on our shoulders to make it happen. When we find those holes in our life, when we discover them, and we find ourselves digging, the only person who can stop that process is us. God gives us the strength. He gives us the knowledge. He gives us the foundation to make that happen.

But when it comes down to it, the choice is ours. The choice is ours. Will we lay down the shovel? Will we climb the ladder? And will we fill that hole with the teachings of our Savior? Or will we keep digging ourselves into that hole, convinced that we can somehow dig our way out? Brethren, this time of year requires that we examine ourselves before we take the symbols of the Passover service. We need to ensure that we've taken the time to recognize the areas in our life where we require growth, looking at the areas in our life that are not in line with God's way of life, pruning our tree, so to speak, so that we ensure that the branches that remain, those branches that should be there, bear good fruit and much spiritual fruit in the coming year.

So, brethren, as you conduct your examination this year, remember Healy's Law. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. If you find an open hole, fill it in to avoid it becoming a hazard. And remember that a hole not filled in will cause more damage in the future than it would if it were filled now. We need to identify those places in our life that we would consider to be these spiritual holes. And along with the holes, we need to identify the shovels that we're using to dig it.

Get rid of all the hidden shovels, get rid of all the shovels that we've got stashed on us, and walk away from both. Step away from the shovel. We have to climb that ladder, leave that hole working hard in concert with God to let Him fill that hole. And we have to work promptly and with urgency, not putting the work off until the last minute, but instead diligently working to ensure that we're making the necessary changes so that we can grow spiritually.

And brethren, if we do these things, we'll have a solid year of spiritual growth.

And pray your examination this year is beneficial and fulfilling, and that you all have a very rewarding Passover in Days of Unleavened Bread.