Listen to my conscience…

Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.” So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. 
And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.” (2 Kings 7:3–20)

These four did just that. At first the king thought it was a trap to get his army out of the city where they would be vulnerable, but they discovered that the Syrians had left suddenly abandoning everything just as the lepers reported, so they plundered the abandoned camp. This had been predicted by Elisha who also said the gatekeeper would be trampled for saying God could not do this. He told that man, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

I’ve heard people without faith say God cannot or will not meet all needs. Sadly, some who say they believe also pray as if they do not expect much in reply. What touches my heart in this account is that God spoke through the human greed of the lepers. They were outcasts in that society and skeptics, certain that no matter what they did, they would die. However, in their plundering at this unexpected miracle, God spoke and convinced them of their sin and to do the right thing; share the bounty with those who cast them out.

This is what should make Christians different. Love enemies. Do good to those who hate us. Be like Jesus when He said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Sometimes others misunderstand me and I feel frustrated, even alienated. I need to remember these four, and most of all what Jesus said as His enemies drove in the nails. God not only protects me from the Syrians by driving them out of my life, He also wants me to meet the needs of those who leave me out of their lives.

Jesus, too often I get annoyed when misunderstood, or stared at as if I had three heads. The lepers did the right thing by listening to You speaking to their hearts and telling those who rejected them about the bounty You provided. Forgive me and fill me with Your grace that I can be less touchy and more loving.

God’s Deal with Adam . . . and with us . . .

 

When sin entered the human condition, the Lord God said to Satan who brought this disguised as a serpent:

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:14–19)

This describes the curses of the Adamic COVENANT. Adam again represents the whole human race only this time it is about consequences and a promise. The consequences apply to all people. Under the Edenic Covenant, Adam’s work was a delight but now the earth would resist with thorns, thistles, and weeds. Also, under the Edenic Covenant man died spiritually, but under the Adamic Covenant people would ultimately die physically (Rom. 5:12–21).

This covenant became the basis for the Dispensation of Conscience and is an unconditional covenant. Conscience is the psychological faculty that distinguishes between right and wrong; either afflicts or comforts the person depending upon their actions. It is still very much part of all human life.

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them (Romans 2:14–15)

Some people have what is called a tender conscience. In others it is said to be evil due to the hardening of heart caused by sin. Paul had a tender conscience. He was able to say, “I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day” and “I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.” (Acts 23:1 and 24:16)

However, the human conscience is fallible. It can be affected by many things. At best, it is made alive and well by the Holy Spirit and is in tune with Him (Romans 9:1) yet not everyone is in this place. The Bible says, “However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.”(1 Corinthians 8:7) This indicates that repeated wrongdoing will dull our sense of right and wrong, even ruin our faith. Paul told Timothy to hold on to “faith and a good conscience” and said that those who reject this “make shipwreck of their faith.” (1 Timothy 1:19)

Yet as always, the solution to this problem is the power of the shed blood of Christ, “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Hebrews 9:14) And the way to keep it pure is by keeping short accounts with God, confessing sin as soon as we realized it happened. (1 John 1:9)

Adam did not have the historical fact of Calvary and could not apply the blood of Christ to purify his guilty conscience but he did have the promise of God enacted in a dramatic way. He “made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21) This was the first sacrificial killing representing what was to come when He sent His Son to die for all sin.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The curses of the Adamic covenant have not ended yet, but it will when one day when every knee will bow and all humanity will realize the truth of what our conscience has been telling us for centuries. In the meantime, God tells me to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with my heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and my body washed with pure water, holding fast to the confession of my hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:22) Jesus has reversed the curse on sin by dying in my place. He is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, the sacrifice offered for forgiveness of sin and offers the glorious gift of eternal life to me and to all who will take that gift in faith. Hallelujah, what a Savior!