Ever have a Bokim?

I've always figured if I was going to die, or when I was going to die, I would be like the un-famous person on the airplane that went down with the famous person on it. The lead to the story would be, "Joe Smith and 49 others were killed Thursday when their plane crashed in Atlanta." I would be among the 49 others.

That's sort of the way today's scripture reads to me.

Look at this: "The angel of the Lord went up from gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down the altars. Yet you have disobeyed me. Why havae you done this? Now therefore I will tell you that I will not drive them out befoe you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you. When the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, and they called that place Bokim.

Bokim, friends, means weepers, but that's not my point.

My point is this: The angel of the Lord (which is normally thought to be pre-incarnate Jesus) came down and talked to the Israelites.

Normally when this happens, it's like with Abram, or with Gideon or with any of the stained-glass folks. It's a biggie.

Every heard of or ever remembered Bokim?

Didn't think so.

Maybe it's because it became fairly normal for the angel of the Lord to come down and rail against the Israelites. Maybe it's because we all have Bokims in our lives, those moments when we said, without meaning or memory, 'I'm sorry.'

I sort of feel that's what Tiger Woods did the other day. He had his Bokim moment. He said he was sorry. He said he had hurt his family. He said he wouldn't do it again. He wept, probably figuratively.

But the question, like it was with the Israelites, like it was David with Nathan, isn't whether you've been caught, isn't whether you're sorry you've been caught, isn't even how truly sorry you are, the question is with all Bokim moments, will you do it again?

The reason we don't really remember Bokim is that the Israelites shed tear after tear at the place, but it wasn't long before they were just as disobedient, just as worshipful of Baal. In fact, the Bible uses two whole sentences after Joshua dies in the chapter after Bokim before the Israelites "did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals."

Bokim? Long forgotten along with all the other promises the Israelites made and covenants they figuratively signed.