In Romans 2:15 we read, “They know what is right and wrong, for their conscience validates this “law” in their heart” (TPT)
Conscience is that inner voice that God has placed within each one of us, for internal judgement. Our conscience is what cautions us, even before we do something wrong, it bothers us when we are doing the wrong thing, and convicts us even after the deed is done.
Those who work in an office set up will understand the whole process of internal and external audits that are conducted once or twice a year. The purpose of the internal audits is to assess if the income and expense of the department was spent right, so that there will be no issues raised when it’s time for the external audit. The Bible also talks about a day of reckoning, when all of us will have to stand before God, who will judge us. That final judgement day can be equated to the external audit and our conscience to the internal audit. If we develop a healthy conscience by obeying the voice of God daily, we can stand without fear before God, on that final judgement day.
How David’s conscience got weakened
We looked at 2 incidents from David’s life in the previous chapter.
In 1 Samuel 24:5, we read, “But then David's conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul's robe.” (NLT)
We read in 2 Samuel 24:10, “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)
The first incident is one where David cut off a part of King Saul’s robe, and immediately he was filled with deep sense of grief and remorse for doing so, because his conscience started to bother him. The second event was when David decided to take a census to count the number of people in his kingdom, which again greatly troubled David’s conscience because instead of trusting in the Lord who had been his strength, gradually David started to depend of the number of people under his rule and the strength of his armies.
Here is an important lesson for us to learn from the life of David, that regardless of how much we may rise in our position or status, our trust and dependence must be on God alone. Our trust and confidence must never move to our abilities, talents, wealth or position, because God alone is our security and our sure foundation.
David defeats the Syrians
In 2 Samuel 10:18 we read, “And the Israelites drove the Syrian army back. David and his men killed seven hundred Syrian chariot drivers and forty thousand cavalry, and they wounded Shobach, the enemy commander, who died on the battlefield.” (GNB)
When David, the man of war, went to war with the Syrians, he had with him a great army, the most efficient commanders and he went with them personally to war. God granted the Israelites an astounding victory over the Syrians.
When David’s feet strayed away from God
In the very next chapter we read, 2 Samuel 11:1, “The following spring, at the time of the year when kings usually go to war, David sent out Joab with his officers and the Israelite army; they defeated the Ammonites and besieged the city of Rabbah. But David himself stayed in Jerusalem.”(GNB)
The next year however, when the army of Israel went to war, in a season when David as King of Israel should have gone to war, he abdicated his responsibilities to his commander Joab and decided to stay back in his palace in Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 11:2, “One day, late in the afternoon, David got up from his nap and went to the palace roof. As he walked around up there, he saw a woman taking a bath in her house. She was very beautiful.” (GNB)
It started off when David who should have been fighting along with his army, took a casual walk on his terrace, after a nap. In his moment of idleness, David’s eyes moved away from the Lord who bestowed on him his throne and all that he possessed. He looked on with lust at a woman who was bathing, saw that she was beautiful and desiring to have her, called for her to be brought to his palace and committed adultery with her. The beautiful woman was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, an ardent soldier in David’s army.
Not only did David commit adultery, but once he knew that Bathsheba got pregnant he quickly conspired to cover his tracks. He called her husband Uriah back from battle, and forced him to go to Bathsheba, so it would appear that the child was not his but Uriah’s. When Uriah being an upright man and a faithful soldier refused to do so, David intoxicated him with drink and sent him back to Bathsheba. Nothing could deter Uriah from his resolve to stay patriotic to King David and the men who were fighting on Israel’s behalf. Though Uriah was only a subject of King David, he knew exactly where he ought to be and nothing could avert him from his firm position. While David’s feet strayed from the right path, Uriah’s was firmly set and in the rightful place.
David as King of Israel, was under the influence of other contemporary Kings of his time. Many of them had no qualms to misuse their positions of authority, and took for themselves whichever woman they desired or lusted after. When things got out of hand, David realized that he could not hide and cover his adultery. He therefore schemed with the commander of his army, got Uriah to stand in the front of the battle lines and got him killed.
David who was earlier bothered by the small act of cutting off a piece of robe of King Saul, had so silenced the voice of his conscience that none of what he did with Bathsheba or to Uriah bothered him anymore.
It was only when the word of God came directly through the prophet Nathan to David, who confronted him of his sin and wickedness, did David’s conscience awaken that he accepted his faults and repented most sincerely before the Lord. Psalm 51 is the repentant outcry of David as he earnestly desired the Lord’s pardon and deliverance from his sinful ways. God had mercy on David, pardoned him and restored him back to Himself.
Other examples of those who walked away from God’s path
God chose Moses to be a leader of Israel, but for many years Moses walked away and was content looking after his father-in-law’s sheep. He forgot God’s calling for his life until God met him in the wilderness and reminded him to go back to Egypt to be the deliverer for the people of Israel who were in bondage to Pharaoh.
God called Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh, but he ran away and went towards Tarshish. By his disobedience, he put the entire crew who were on the ship in deep distress. It is a word of admonition to us that even when one member of the family does wrong and chooses the wrong path, the entire family has to endure the consequences of it.
Samson was called and anointed by God. He was a strong man, a warrior, called by God to deliver the people of Israel, but he made many wrong choices and finally ended up on Delilah’s lap. By being in the wrong place, insurmountable trouble and hardships came right to his doorstep.
Elijah was a mighty prophet of God, but he was found hiding in a cave. Instead of being bold and challenging Ahab and Jezebel, he ran away and hid himself.
All of the above mentioned people, are mentioned to remind us that no one is exempt from the temptation to walk away from the will of God. It is imperative that we seek God the way we should, and do everything according to His will alone, and only then will our feet be firmly set in God’s ways. We must always learn to introspect and appropriate God’s word to ourselves first, and not direct it towards others. We should not put ourselves in a place of idolatry, witchcraft, astrology or anything that does not please God. When we stand in a place where we are not supposed to be in, we will certainly forfeit all of God’s blessings in our lives.
Lessons we must learn
We live in times when it’s becoming more and more difficult to live in obedience to God and His word. Every single day our newspapers and media are filled with the somber news of murders, rape, scams, scandals etc., and as we read and listen to these regularly our minds get so tuned to the world that like David, we too begin to accept as a norm, all those things that God rejects, thereby dulling our conscience and the voice of God inside of us.
For instance, there was a time when homosexual relationships were looked at with disgust but grievously in today’s society not only has it become an acceptable practice, but the tragedy is that even some churches approve of these relationships and are even willing to conduct same sex marriages. The word of God has been replaced by worldly ideologies, and so the world is now dictating to people what is right and what is not.
As parents if we don’t teach the word of God to our children, we can be sure that they will never learn to choose between right and wrong and will stay confused. Only as we stand firm on the word of God, can we take a stand, and make the right decisions when faced with contradictory choices. If our conscience needs to be healthy and sensitive, we must read the word of God daily and obey the voice of God. The word of God alone can teach and guide us to live the righteous life, make godly decisions and keep our feet from choosing the wrong and destructive paths.
All of us must pray and seek God’s strength in our daily lives. We must guard our eyes for if we don’t, like David, our feet too will end up in the wrong place. As no one is exempt from falling prey to the lust of the flesh, our eyes must be holy and our hearts turned to the word of God to stay and live aright. We must be zealous to live godly and holy lives every single day.
Many of the problems we encounter are because our feet don’t stay where they are supposed to. If we are not in the right place where the Lord wants us to be, we will be in big trouble. We must decide to stay firm in the place where the Lord wants us to be. The path that God takes us through may be difficult, may have struggles but the Lord will stand with us and fight our battles for us and give us victory. However, if we are in the wrong place, we will most assuredly face defeat.
If we desire to have a healthy conscience there is only way. We must decide to spend much time with the word of God and do it daily. It’s only when our conscience is sensitized by the word of God and the Holy Spirit of God that we will be constantly guarded from making wrong and sinful decisions. If for some reason we do make mistakes and fail, only a healthy conscience that is rooted in God’s word will bring us back into fellowship and restore our relationship with God.
We read in Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”(KJV)
It is only the word of God that can light up our life and illumine the path in which we should go. It is God and His Word alone that can keep our lives free from sin, keep our conscience alert and sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and help us live uncompromising and victorious lives.
Pastor F. Andrew Dixon
www.goodnewsfriends.net
Transcribed by Sis. Esther Collins
