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.
1. Will David be grateful?
Firstly, David had the men and the power to put to death King Saul, but I am sure that David recalled that it was King Saul who believed in David, and gave him permission to fight and defeat Goliath. It was only because King Saul gave David the opportunity to represent all of Israel, that the Lord enabled David to win a mighty victory, which made David so famous among the people of Israel. David was a grateful young man, who decided that he could not kill the King who trusted him, and was willing to take the risk to let him fight a mighty giant.
Each one of us must often look back and recount the numerous blessings God has bestowed on us. As children, instead of questioning our parents, we must with thankfulness realize how much they sacrificed to raise us up, and bring us to where we are right now. It is often good to remember all those people who in some way contributed to our life and helped us along the way.
2. Will David trust God to take revenge?
Secondly, when faced with the option to take revenge and get even with King Saul, David chose to wait on the Lord and let Him do the needful, instead of taking the situation into his hands, and getting even with King Saul.
Often we are waiting for the appropriate time to even the score with those who have harmed us or hurt us, but the Lord clearly says, “I will take revenge, I will pay back says the Lord” Romans 12:19 (GNB). We must be willing to submit all the evil that has been done to us by others into God’s hands, and wait patiently, for only then will He accord justice at the right time.
3. Will David respect God’s anointing on King Saul?
Thirdly, it was a test to see if David would respect God’s anointing on King Saul. It was God and not David who anointed Saul as King. David realized that King Saul was God’s choice, and honored this greatly. He therefore resolved that he would absolutely do no harm to King Saul.
It is indeed unfortunate that people have meme’s of even those who are in ministry serving the Lord. It is good to keep in mind that it is the Lord who calls someone into ministry, He anoints and uses that person. By mocking these anointed men and women of God, we must realize that we are slighting God who called them and anointed them in the first place.
When the men continued to prod David, he went near King Saul and in 1 Samuel 24:4, we read ........”David crept over and cut off a piece of Saul's robe without Saul's knowing it.” (GNB)
After David had done this we read in, 1 Samuel 24:5, “But then David's conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul's robe.” (NLT)
When the men who were with David pressured him to go, he slipped in and cut off a piece of Saul’s robe and we see what happened to David. The moment he did that, David’s conscience started bothering him. His conscience that remained silent until he did wrong, now began to bother him a great deal. When David obeyed God and his conscience and apart from cutting off a piece of his robe did no harm to King Saul, when it was in his hands to do so, we see that God was greatly pleased with David.
Let’s read the wonderful testimony of God about David as recorded in the book of Acts. We read in Acts 13:22, “But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, 'I have found David son of Jesse, a man after My own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” (NLT)
Both King Saul and David had a conscience, but Saul invalidated his conscience when he went after David seeking to kill him. David on the other hand was very conscious of God’s voice and the conscience that God had placed inside of him and refrained from harming King Saul in any way. God honored David for his faithfulness and not only replaced David as King in Saul’s place, but also testified of David that ‘he was a man after God’s own heart’.
When David took a census in Israel
In 2 Samuel 24:10 we read, “But after he had taken the census, David's conscience began to bother him. And he said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt, LORD, for doing this foolish thing."(NLT)
When King David decided to take a census of all the tribes of Israel, took pride in the number of people in the land and the strength that was in his hands, after the count was completed, he knew that he had done wrong, and sinned against God. David had himself mentioned in Psalms 118:8, “It is better to trust in the LORD than to depend on people.” (GNB) David’s conscience was pricked when he sinned, which prompted him to turn to the Lord. He earnestly longed for God’s forgiveness and restoration. Here again we see how David was so sensitive to the voice of his conscience that God had placed inside of him, that he repented and confessed his sin to the Lord, and sought His pardon.
When we too are tested in various ways, it is essential that we be sensitive and tune in to the voice of God, through our conscience. We may recall times when we deliberately disobeyed the voice of our conscience and did things that totally displeased God. The secret to a healthy conscience is to turn to the Lord immediately, whenever our conscience convicts us of sin or any kind of wrong doing.
We read in 1 John 1:9 that, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(NKJV)
We also read in Proverbs 28:13, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (NIV)
Instead of falling into sin and getting trapped by Satan, let us choose to heed the voice of our conscience, turn to the Lord and confess our sins to Him. The Lord alone can rid us of a guilty conscience and help us to be at peace with our conscience. Let us evaluate ourselves to check if we have a healthy conscience. Our conscience is given by God for internal judgement, we can even it call it our internal audit. Let’s ask God to grant us a pure conscience, so we are in right relationship and fellowship with Him.
Pastor F. Andrew Dixon
www.goodnewsfriends.net
Transcribed by : Ms. Esther Collins
