shawnethomas

I Samuel 24:3-4 reminds us that although God uses circumstances for His purposes (as we saw at the end of the last chapter), circumstances themselves are not the only factor in godly decisions. Chapter 24 says that when Saul was pursuing David in the wilderness of Engedi, he (Saul) “came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave.” The circumstance was not lost on David’s men. In :4 they said, “Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I am about to give your enemy into your hand …'”. Circumstances appeared to have given Saul to David to do with as he pleased. But David knew that circumstances were not everything.

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Psalm 109:17 shows us “two sides of the coin” of sin, both sins of “commission” and of “omission”: “He also loved cursing, so it came to him. And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him”. The man described here sinned by cursing others, but that was not the extent of his transgression. He also did NOT bless people; that sin of omission was equally a sin. Committing a particular evil is obviously wrong; but as James 4:17 reminds us, NOT doing the good we know to do is also a sin: “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

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