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PRESSURE-TREATED CONSCIENCE
Extreme Home Makeover Heart Edition (Episode 3)
If you want to build something that will last exposed to the elements you have to use a certain type of lumber. What type of lumber do you use? I’m building a tree house for my kids. I used a lot of pressure treated lumber. I want it to last.
Pressure treated wood is wood that has undergone a process to make it more durable so that it is not susceptible to water, rot, termites, or fungus.
To make the wood so long lasting, it is first treated with chemical preservatives, then placed in a cylinder under pressure. The pressure forces the chemicals deep into the wood which then becomes a barrier against natural enemies like termites and decay.
We’re in a series of messages focusing on an extreme makeover that God is performing on David. God has chosen David as the future King of Israel. But he’s not ready to rule God’s people. So begins a ten year makeover of David’s heart, to prepare him for the throne. Along the way we’re discovering some of the key characteristics that God wants to develop in our hearts. The first week we saw that God wants courage in our hearts. Last week we looked at the balance between the lion and the fox. Today we’re going to see that one of God’s top priorities for a heart makeover is our conscience.
David is under pressure, a wanted man in Saul’s court. His young face decorates post office posters. His name tops Saul’s to kill list. He runs, looking over his shoulder, sleeping with one eye open, and eating with his chair near to the restaurant exit.
What a blurring series of events. Was it just two or three years ago that he was tending flocks in Bethlehem? Back then the big day was watching sheep sleep. Then came Samuel, the old prophet with a horn of oil. As the oil covered David, so did God’s Spirit.
David went from serenading sheep to serenading Saul. The overlooked runt of Jesse’s litter became the talk of the town, King Arthur to Israel’s Camelot years, handsome and humble. Enemies feared him. Michal married him. Saul hated him.
After the sixth attempt on his life, David gets the point. Saul doesn’t like me. With a price on his head and a posse on his trail, he kisses Michal and life in the court good-bye and runs.
But where can he go? To Bethlehem and jeopardize the lives of this family? Into enemy territory and risk his own? That becomes and option later. For now, he chooses another hideout. “Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest” (1 Sam. 21:1).
Scholars point to a hill one mile northeast of Jerusalem as the likely site of the ancient city of Nob. There, Ahimelech, the great-grandson of Eli, headed up a monastery of sorts. Eighty-five priests served in Nob, earning it the nickname “the city of the priests”. David rushes to the small town, seeking sanctuary from his enemies. David is desperate. David is under pressure.
What will guide David while he’s desperate and under pressure? Will he listen to his conscience? Will he do the right thing? It’s Crunch Time…What’s ya gonna do?!
CONSCIENCE INFORMS MY “OUGHTS” AND MY “OUGHT NOTS”
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, [15] since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) Romans 2:14-15 (NIV)
God speaks to us through our conscience. The Holy Spirit uses our conscience as a megaphone to amplify his guidance.
We can ignore our conscience. Our conscience can become calloused like the fingers of a guitar player who plucks on a string repeatedly.
Groups of individuals have a collective conscience. Families, organizations, nations have a conscience.
Roll “The Voice Inside” Video
SELF SERVING SHORTCUTS ERODE THE CONSCIENCE
It’s Crunch Time…What’s ya gonna do?!
Desperate, David resorts to lies. This surprises us. So far David has been stellar, spotless, stainless. He stayed calm when his brother snapped; he remained strong when Goliath roared; he kept his cool when Saul lost his.
But now he lies. Blatantly. Convincingly. Saul hasn’t sent him on a mission. He’s not on secret royal business. He’s a fugitive. Unfairly, yes. But a fugitive none the less. And he lies about it.
David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, ’No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 1 Samuel 21:2
The priest does not question David. He has no reason to doubt the hero of Israel, the son-in-law of the king. He just has no resources with which to help him. The priest has bread, not common bread, but holy bread. The bread of the Presence. Each Sabbath the priest placed twelve loaves of wheat bread on the table as an offering to God. After a week, and only after a week, the priests, and only the priest, could eat the bread. (As if anyone wants week-old bread.)
David is no priest. And the bread has just been placed on the alter. What’s Ahimelech to do? Distribute the bread and violate the law? Keep the bread and ignore David’s hunger? The priest looks for a loophole: “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women” (1 Sam. 21:4).
It’s Crunch Time…What’s ya gonna do?!
Ahimelech wants to know if David and his men have been behaving. Blame it on the smell of fresh bread, but David responds with lie number two and a theological two-step. His men haven’s laid eyes, much less hands, on a girl. And the holy bread? David reasons, that it is oven baked and wheat based. Bread is bread.
There are consequences when we sin. Consequences follow when we ignore our conscience. Consequences—not just for the man who violates his consience—but consequences for those within his circle of influence. In this case Ahimelech and all of his fellow priests will pay with their lives when Saul learns that they have assisted his nemesis.
GOD EMPLOYS THE CONSCIENCE REPAIR KIT
David’s conscience is damaged by the two lies that he tells. God is making over his heart. God knows that in order for David to be en effective King in Israel his conscience must be clean and clear. God must repair David’s conscience. God reaches into his tool box and pulls out his conscience repair kit.
Pain of Bad Choices Must Sink In
One man survives Saul’s murderous rampage at Nob.
But Abiathar, a son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub, escaped and fled to join David. [21] He told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. [22] Then David said to Abiathar: "That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your father’s whole family. 1 Samuel 22:20-22 (NIV)
Good Information Must Be Absorbed
While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life. [16] And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. [17] "Don’t be afraid," he said. "My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, " 1 Samuel 23:15-17 (NIV)
A Healthy Dose of Empathy Must Be Experienced
David finds himself on the receiving end of self-serving shortcuts as he is betrayed by the people of Keilah and later betrayed by the Ziphites. Now David is asking the citizens of Keilah and the Ziphites It’s Crunch Time…What’s ya gonna do?!
Again David asked, "Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?" And the Lord said, "They will." 1 Samuel 23:12 (NIV)
The Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, "Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hakilah, south of Jeshimon? [20] Now, O king, come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for handing him over to the king." 1 Samuel 23:19-20 (NIV)
THE CONSCIENCE IS TESTED UNDER PRESSURE
Now God takes the lumber of David’s conscience. He’s just repaired it and treated it with preservatives of pain, perspective and empathy…now he’s going to put David and his newly repaired conscience under some intense pressure. This will give opportunity to push the preservatives deep down into David’s conscience.
Test #1—Abuse Others In Order To Gain Power?
An unexpected opportunity to kill Saul in a cave and expedite his rise to the throne.
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. [4] 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.’ " It’s Crunch Time…What’s ya gonna do?! Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
[5] Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. [6] 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." [7] With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. 1 Samuel 24:3-7 (NIV)
Test #2—Abuse Others In Order To Meet Legitimate Needs?
David needs food. He and his men are mistreated by a jerk named Nabal. It’s Crunch Time…What’s ya gonna do?!
David had just said, "It’s been useless--all my watching over this fellow’s property in the desert so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. [22] May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!" 1 Samuel 25:21-22 (NIV)
my master will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. 1 Samuel 25:31 (NIV)
Test #3—Abuse Others In Order To Advance God’s Agenda?
A second opportunity to assassinate Saul could have been justified by expediting God’s will and caring for his new wife Abigail. It’s Crunch Time…What’s ya gonna do?!
So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.
[8] Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice." [9] But David said to Abishai, "Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? 1 Samuel 26:7-9 (NIV)
