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In 1619, a Dutch slave trader offloaded a cargo of African slaves at Jamestown, VA. That relatively minor event led to 250 years of chattel slavery for 4 million Africans in America. That initial cargo of slaves was the seed that led to the Civil War where thousands of people perished. The slavery system created a fracture in American society that even today has not been fully healed. Long ago, another minor incident led to a tragic outcome. We learn from Judges chapter 15 that Samson married a Philistine woman. When he went to get his wife, he found that her father had given her to another man. Samson was furious. To get revenge, he caught 300 foxes, tied them tail to tail, and turned them loose in the local grain fields. His actions destroyed the town’s crops, creating an economic catastrophe. That incident began a series of tit-for-tat actions between Samson and the town, which led to Samson eventually killing thousands of Philistines. Although we are told that God, in His sovereignty, was using Samson to punish the Philistines, we see an example of how a small incident can lead to disastrous outcomes. That’s why we must be diligent in making even minor decisions. They can often have unintended consequences.
