Conscience Series

Conscience

Let us look again at Genesis 3:9, “But the LORD God called out to the man, "Where are you?" (GNB)

Our God is omniscient, the one who is all knowing, which implies that He knows everything about the past, present and future. God is also the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end who originates and culminates everything. Why then would an all knowing God come seeking after Adam and ask him, “Where are you?”

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they knew at that very moment that they had lost the right and privilege to stand before a holy and Almighty God. They realized this, because of the voice of conscience that God had placed inside of them, which spoke loud and clear, convicting them of disobedience and sin against God.

Whenever we are tempted to do wrong or have done wrong, we too can hear this voice inside of us, telling us that we are going amiss or have erred and are therefore going down a wrong path. That distinct voice inside each of us, is our conscience. Our conscience is a God given gift, which is like an arbiter who is constantly evaluating all that we do, and instructing us as to what is right and what is wrong. Our conscience can also be compared to an umpire in a game of cricket, who is watching intently and makes a judgement when the batsman or bowler make a mistake.

For instance when we gossip about someone, our conscience prompts us to stop, but sometimes we choose to override that voice, and after we have gossiped our conscience becomes even more active, reminding us that we have defamed someone else. Sometimes, others may even justify what we have said and done, but our conscience will always let us know when we have done wrong. Our conscience is a good indicator God has given us, which resides within us all the time. Often times when our conscience is bothering us about something, we will find ourselves looking to others for support, so we could try to justify what we said or did.

An example from David’s encounter with King Saul

In 1 Samuel 24:2, we read, “Saul took three thousand of the best soldiers in Israel and went looking for David and his men east of Wild Goat Rocks.” (GNB)

Saul is insecure and fearful that David would soon take his place as King of Israel. So, he goes hunting for David with three thousand of his best soldiers. David had done nothing amiss to King Saul. It was obvious to everyone that God was with David and hence they began to follow David. This made King Saul furious and jealous, that he sought desperately to kill David. To escape King Saul and his soldiers who were stalking them, David and his men hid themselves in a cave. It so happened, that King Saul and his men came into the same cave, where David and his men were hiding.

When David’s men saw this, here’s what they said to him, In 1 Samuel 24:4, "This is your chance! The LORD has told you that he would put your enemy in your power and you could do to him whatever you wanted to." (GNB)

For many people, if they got a chance to get even with someone who hurt them or wronged them, they would never let an opportunity slip by without taking revenge. We could rightly call them opportunists.

David’s men were inciting him to make the best use of this favorable chance to take revenge on King Saul. Not only were they instigating him to finish off King Saul, but they were using the Lord’s word and His name to reinforce their point to David. They were indeed right in explaining one part of the above mentioned verse that the Lord did tell David that he would subdue his enemies under him, but they forgot the other part that the Lord gave David the freedom to do to his enemies whatever he thought was fitting.

It is important that God’s word should be divided correctly and understood rightly or else we too could be easily misled. We must always read and appropriate the word of God accurately, as it was meant to be understood. It is a dangerous thing to take the word of God and apply it out of context or without its entirety.

This was a test from God to see what David would do in a situation that seemed favorable to him. The Lord tested David in three areas to check if David would heed the voice of God through his conscience or give in to the pressure of the men who accompanied him.