As the owner and I were looking at a project in the storage area that needed to be done on his house, Homer, his Chesapeake Retriever found a rotten egg. With a gentle mouth he grabbed it and took off with it, not breaking it. I don’t know exactly where he went with it, but where he left it, Bruno, the Boxer, found it and proceeded to crunch down on it. Soon, Bruno was literally “sick as a dog” puking up the rotten egg. He got over that pretty quickly I think, but as I heard of the whole incident, I thought about the life lesson to be learned. Basically it is this: anytime you find a rotten egg in any area of life, you better leave it alone or discard it, because it is not going to bring any good to anybody. And, the stench of it will reach to high heaven! When it is discovered it is best to deal with it quickly and decisively and get it out of your life. There are many types of “rotten eggs” in the Bible. Personal sin, fleshly ways that are not according to the Word, situations that lead to sin, people who are deviant from the way of the faith, and on we could go. In all of these areas the way of dealing with the destructive device is the same: turn from it and submit yourself to God through the name of Jesus to receive his strength and wisdom which is in his grace.
King David was hanging out at Jerusalem and from the roof top of “the king’s house” he looked across the city and saw a beautiful woman taking a bath. Typical of the construction of the buildings in that part of the world, she was no doubt on the roof top of her house. The Bible doesn’t say, but this could have happened repeatedly. Whether it was once or several times, the whole situation was a rotten egg. David should have dealt with it quickly and decisively to get it out of his life. But he did not. He ended up committing adultery and murder through the whole thing, suffering great loss. He gave great occasion to the enemy. He lost his son and opened his household up to sexual perversion. In time David owned up to his wrong doing, submitting to God, and looking to God for his forgiveness and strength. It would have been so much better if he would have just left that rotten egg alone (2 Samuel chapters 11-13). Maybe this is a prayer we can all pray: “Lord, help me to identify the rotten eggs in my life and help me to leave them alone or even to get rid of them so nobody else can find them and get tripped up.” We don’t want to mess with those rotten eggs. Just remember Homer and Bruno and King David.