A Peashooter Defense

Our basketball team traveled to a little town in Cumberland County Kentucky back in 1966. Our opponent’s gym was like many in that day. It was very small, but it had one unusual architectural difference from any I had ever seen. There was a balcony that hung out over the sideline of the floor thus preventing a high arching pass from the person inbounding the ball. But there was another function and perhaps advantage that the balcony provided for the home team. A few student fans from their perch above the floor brandished their peashooters and pelted the visiting players with whatever ammunition they could fire. On the night we played there the fan’s efforts were for naught as we won the game.

I thought about that night, over 50 years ago, as I was reading Psalm 2 this morning. “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed...”

The psalmist’s tells us how God reacts, “The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath.”

We watch those who rage and test God with their arrogant life styles. They completely ignore God. They make fun of those who God has called to speak the good news of his loving grace. People totally view the warnings of God’s anger and wrath toward sin as nothing but fantasy. They bring their peashooter idealism to shoot down the claims found in God’s holy word. Their defense is like spitting into the roaring winds of hurricanes Michael and Florence. Why is it that nations and people reject so great of a refuge from a loving God when the rage of Satan is leading them to eternal damnation? It is because they love their sin too much to change. Their defense is weak, and their defeat against the Almighty God is futile.