Wisdom's Corner
Keep Your Eyes on the Judge

Athletes today compete in large buildings called stadiums. In ancient Italy and Greece athletes competed in large stadiums as well. The stadiums back then were built from rock. The Romans and Grecians went to great effort to build their stadiums. They took great pride in building large ones. One of the largest was named the Hippodrome. It is estimated that it could seat as many as 100,000 people.

The people of the first century loved to watch athletic contests. The athletes trained very hard to do their very best in the games. The runners were especially looked well upon by society.

The largest stadiums were oval in shape. A track went around the center of the stadium. At one end of the oval track was a large pyramid shaped pillar. This was the starting point of the race. At the other end of the track was a judge's chair next to another pyramid shaped pillar. For the shorter races, the runners would keep their eyes on the judge. As they ran as fast as they could, they would not take their eyes off of the judge. They wanted to get to the judge before anyone else.

"Paul compares the Christian's race to heaven to these runners. In Hebrews 12:1,2 he says, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...." Jesus is the judge at the end of the Christian's race. We must keep our eyes fixed on Him.

The judge of the race watched the runners. If a runner did not compete according to the rules of the race, that runner was disqualified. Even if it appeared to everyone else that he had won the race, the judge could say he did not win. The judge was the one who decided who won.

Jesus will decide who wins the Christian race. You must run according to His rules. The only way to do that is to know His rules. You must read and study the Bible. If you do that and concentrate on keeping your eyes on Jesus, you can win the race and go to heaven.

Until next time, keep reading and studying your Bible. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 1999

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)