Seeking for the truth

(A cave in Ein Gedi.

Picture by David Alexander,

The Lion Handbook to the Bible, with thanks.)

After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told,

"David is in the Desert of En Gedi."

So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the

Crags of the Wild Goats.

He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave.

The men said, "This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you,

'I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.' "

Then David crept up unnoticed

and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

Afterwards, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe.

He said to his men,

"The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed,

or lift my hand against him;

for he is the anointed of the Lord."

With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul.

And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, "My lord the king!" When Saul looked behind him,

David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

He said to Saul, "Why do you listen when men say, 'David is bent on harming you'? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord gave you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you;

I said, 'I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord's anointed.' See, my father, look at this piece

of your robe in my hand!

I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. Now understand and recognise that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life.

May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. As the old saying goes, 'From evildoers come evil deeds,' so my hand will not touch you.

Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing?

A dead dog? A flea?

May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand."

When David finished saying this, Saul asked, "Is that your voice, David my son?" And he wept aloud. "You are more righteous than I," he said.

"You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me of the good you did to me; the Lord gave me into your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed?

May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today.

I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands.

Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family."

So David gave his oath to Saul.

Then Saul returned home,

but David and his men

went up to the stronghold.

1 Samuel 24:1-22 (ANIV)

Can we trust our conscience?

Do you believe in luck?

Or, the mighty, invisible hand of GOD in your circumstances?

Just look at this situation!

Saul goes into the very same cave, that David and some of his army are hiding.

Not only does Saul enter on his own with no body guards, but he also falls asleep, and is totally at David’s mercy.

This illustrates the SOVEREIGNTY of God.

God is the One who works all things for His own ends, and for His glory.

The men with David are convinced that the Lord has done this, but they interpret the situation wrongly.

They knew that Saul was becoming more wicked.

So because God had given Saul into David’s hands, they now believe, that it would be LAWFUL to kill him.

This would mean that David could then take up his rightful position as king!

It was a straightforward situation, as far as those men saw it.

But David had a higher view of God’s purposes.

David knew that Saul was the anointed king of Israel, and as such required to be given honour and respect, even though by his actions he deserved to be shown contempt.

An example of this difficult kind of situation is found in 1 Peter 2:18

Although it relates to a slave and their master, the teaching applies to us when we are dealing with those in authority.

“Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate,

but also to those who are harsh.”

The word ‘harsh’ here, means ‘crooked, or perverse'

That is a hard situation, to give respect were the one in authority is not only harsh, but is also lawless.

Why does God want us to do this?

In Romans 13 Paul explains why:

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority

except that which God has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves.”

Verse 5

“Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities,

not only because of possible punishment,

but also because of conscience.”

God wants us to submit to people in authority, which requires faith, especially, when that person is crooked and perverse.

That does not mean we cannot correct those in authority.

When David came out of the cave, he actually told Saul off for wanting to kill him.

But he said all of this within the context of showing respect for Saul.

The only time we mustn't obey, is when they tell us to do something against God’s law.

Peter and John had to say to the Jewish rulers, after they were told to stop preaching (Acts 4:19);

“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight, to obey you rather than God.”

David chose to give Saul respect, even though he didn't deserve it.

He had faith that God would make him king, at the right time.

David also prevented the men from harming Saul.

It would have been easy for David to have said;

“It’s wrong for me to do it, but it seems a pity to waste such an opportunity! Well, go on then, you kill him.”

But David’s CONSCIENCE would not allow such a thing to happen.

David crept up to Saul, and cut off the corner of his robe.

But even this, gives David’s conscience a problem.

In the Bible passage it says:

“Afterwards, David was conscience stricken

for having cut off a corner of his robe.”

Does that sound ridiculous to you?

Just a SMALL piece of cloth!

All those times Saul had tried to kill David, and now David is feeling guilty for cutting off a fragment of Saul’s robe!

Is this too small a thing, to get ashamed of?

No it is not.

Here is a KEY to being a man, or woman, of God.

It is GOOD to have a conscience that says to us “THAT’S WRONG”.

Even when those things seem very small.

It is a sign that the conscience is ALIVE and sensitive, and therefore it should PREVENT us from doing bigger sins.

Having a finely TUNED conscience is important for all of us, who want to follow and obey the Lord.

So let’s look at this subject in more detail.

[1] The first thing to realise is that, a conscience is in EVERYONE.

In Romans 2:15 Paul tells us that Israel was the ONLY nation to have God’s Law.

But the other nations INSTINCTIVELY know the REQUIREMENTS of that law.

BECAUSE these requirements are written on their HEARTS, and their CONSCIENCES bear witness to that fact.

God is righteous.

He put an AWARENESS of God in them, AND He puts some knowledge of His Laws in EACH one of them.

He leaves people WITHOUT an EXCUSE if they choose to turn AWAY from God.

They are GUILTY!

THEREFORE He is JUST and RIGHT to JUDGE mankind for ignoring Him, and for disobeying Him.

We will ALL stand before Him on that Judgement day.

And that is a SURE fact.

The ONLY safe place to be on that Day, is IN Christ Jesus.

Secure in HIM, and trusting in HIM for our eternal protection and JOY.

Do YOU know that you are SAFE in the Lord Jesus Christ?

You are NOT safe by just going to church.

Baptism of it’s self will NOT save you.

When you hear that God love’s you, DON’T be fooled into thinking, that He won’t CONDEMN you to hell, for NOT turning to Him.

For those in Christ, God will say that THEY will be His people, and that He Himself will be with them, and will be their God. He will wipe AWAY every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. (Rev 21:3)

[2] Secondly, although the conscience will show us the requirements of God’s law, it is NOT 100% correct, and NOT 100% reliable.

Why is that?

It is because our conscience is CORRUPTED, and twisted, by our SINFUL nature.

Paul writing about UNBELIEVERS, to Titus (1:15) states that:

“their minds and consciences are CORRUPTED.”

That is; STAINED, and DEFILED.

We can so easily SPOIL, and CORRUPT our conscience.

It starts off unstained, but our SINFUL nature soon STAINS it.

[3] Thirdly, our conscience can be HARDENED and paralysed, by CONSTANTLY being in an UNGODLY environment.

Ok, we DON’T have a lot of choice while we are at work, or college.

But what about the rest of the time?

If day after day we are hearing wrong values, then OUR values will become WEAKER.

This can happen by looking at immoral books and magazines, films, TV programmes, and just BAD company.

Paul says: “Bad company CORRUPTS good morals.” 1 Corinthians 15:33

These BAD things that we hear and see, have the SAME effect as FALSE teaching.

Paul talks about false teachers who have SEARED their consciences as with a HOT iron. 1 Timothy 4:2

They have HARDENED and paralysed their conscience, to make it virtually INEFFECTIVE.

Do we ABUSE our conscience by FEEDING it with ungodly things?

[4] Fourthly, when we are CONVERTED to God, our conscience is WASHED clean.

It is washed to get RID of the FALSE notion, that we have to WORK for our salvation.

The life of FAITH comes in to replace this, SO THAT we can SERVE the living God.

NOT serving to gain ACCEPTANCE from God, but serving Him out of LOVE, and devotion. (Hebrews 9:14 & 10:22)

[5] Fifthly, our conscience needs to be TRAINED by studying God’s Word to make it GOOD, and TRUSTWORTHY.

If we don’t study the Bible, our conscience will be WEAK, and not able to do a proper job.

In 1 Corinthians (8:7) the WEAK conscience is put along side a LACK of spiritual knowledge.

Let’s make our consciences strong, active, and fully ABLE to do it’s job properly, by studying the Bible, and UNDERSTANDING how the Lord sees things.

If our conscience HASN’T been trained by applying God’s standards, we could find ourselves having a CLEAR conscience, and yet in reality we could be GUILTY.

1 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says:

“My conscience is clear, but that does NOT make me innocent.”

We need to get God’s Word into our hearts, so that our conscience then gives us the TRUE picture.

It needs to be saying the SAME as the Word of God.

The Bible is a PLUMB line.

Whatever comes near to it, THIS plumb line will REVEAL whether it is in line with what God requires, or whether it is OFF line.

Our conscience should be saying the same as the Word of God.

All our actions and motives are put next to the plumb line, and from that, there will either be PEACE, or a feeling of being GUILTY.

So, it was good that David was ASHAMED, and felt guilty over such a small thing.

If WE had been David, and we had cut the corner off of Saul’s robe, would OUR conscience have QUESTIONED our actions?

Or isn’t our conscience SO finely tuned as that?

I find it interesting that after David had told Saul off, Saul was CONVINCED in his mind that David was right.

BUT he wasn’t changed within his HEART.

Saul was convinced, but NOT converted.

The way he was thinking NOW, was quickly going to drop BACK to his old jealous ways.

When we leave HERE, are we convinced in our minds, that what we have read is the truth, but those thoughts do NOT make any lasting CHANGE to our lives.

When we leave here, are we convinced in our mind, but NOTHING has changed our heart.

Are we CONVINCED, but NOT converted?

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