If God dropped the baton in the second leg of the relay there is no Gethsemane, no Bethlehem, no Calvary, no blood sacrifice, no resurrection, and no atonement for sin. Strong emotions likely won’t be pried from the soul today but our exploration of the Word will set the table for everything else in this study. What we need to sift through today (and perhaps next week) is the second leg of the relay. Even without the attached emotion, the second leg of a relay is every bit as important and vital to the outcome as any other part of the race. A trip, a fall, or a drop of the baton in the second leg would be just as catastrophic to the final result as any disaster on any of the other three legs. The second leg is just that spot in the race where nothing is really happening.īut, here’s the thing. The first leg has the excitement of the start, the third leg builds anticipation to the finish, and then the fourth leg is long awaited crowning finish.

Anyone who has been to a track event knows the second leg of any relay is the most boring. Everyone holds their breath as they watch their team pass the baton from the first runner to the second, and then something happens…the spectators start sitting down. The crowd is on their feet as the opening runners burst from the starting grid and quickly approach the first hand off. The time finally arrives and the starter fires his pistol into the air and the first runner of the four leg race is off.

Anticipation grows throughout the track event as the competitors approach this exciting and climactic race. The 400 meter relay is typically one of the most anticipated events of a track meet and the powers-that-be usually save it for last.

The tower of babel