SOMETIMES WE CAN SEE THROUGH PEOPLE

PROCLAMATION

“Then the king said to the woman, ‘Don’t keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you.’ … The king asked, ‘Isn’t the hand of Joab with you in all this?’  The woman answered, ‘As sure as you live, my lord the king, … Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant.’”  2 Samuel 14:18-19 (NIV)

EXPLANATION

After he had his brother Amnon killed for raping his sister, Absalom fled and went to Geshur, because his mother was the daughter of the king of Geshur, and he stayed there for three years. (2 Samuel 13:37-38)  Then Joab, who was the captain of the army under King David, perceived that David’s heart was soft for Absalom (2 Samuel 14:1) and sent for a wise woman from Tekoah.  Joab told her to pretend that she was in mourning and told her what to say to King David. (2 Samuel 14:2-3)  The woman did as Joab had told her to do.  She faked the whole story in order to make a point.  Near the end of her discourse she told David that she was referring to him and that he had judged and convicted himself by not bringing back his banished son. (2 Samuel 14:13)  It was then that David saw through her and knew that Joab was involved in this with her.

APPLICATION

Some people are so good at lying, and are such good actors, that they can put on an academy award winning performance and really deceive people.  However, if we listen to and observe most people, their spoken words and their behavior will allow themselves to be read like an open book.  The ability to discern the motives of people is a gift from God which all of us have not been blessed to receive. (1 Corinthians 12:10)  There is an old saying, “If you give a person enough rope, they will hang themselves.” (Author Unknown)  We need to learn to listen to people but not necessarily believe everything that they say.  We also need to pray for discernment so that we can distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve The Lord God and those who do not, so that we do not fall victim to those who seek to deceive us.