Job 42:2 “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.”
Psalm 44:21 “Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Jeremiah 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
Psalm 139:1 “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. (2) Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
(3) Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. (4) For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether”
First, God see every one of your actions and He knows your motives. He knows us inside and out.
Second, it may be easy for us to take up an offense for someone else, but it’s not right. You see, when you take up an offense for someone else, you won’t be able to find God’s grace to do so.
What Absalom did was to take personal offense to something, to a sin that was committed against his sister. He was hurt because of what Amnon had done.
Now there may be things done to other people that you know personally. But when you attempt to quote “feel their pain” and then try to rectify it by your attitudes and your actions, you will very likely do so and cause more problems rather than correctly dealing with the situation. God’s grace is always available to both the sinner and to the one sinned against.
Now, had Absalom been a man of God and someone who knew what was right, he would have made some far different choices. By the way, did you know that God specifically states in the Bible exactly what was to be done with Amnon because of his sin against Tamar?
Let me show it to you. Exodus 22:16 “And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.”
Deuteronomy 22:28 “If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
(29) Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.”
But it appears as if Absalom didn’t have the Scriptures in his mind nor did he have a desire to honor the LORD in this matter. Instead he simply takes matters into his own hands and proceeds to take the life of Amnon.
Taking up an offense for someone else is not the LORD’s way for you to deal with an offense, a sin done to someone close to you.
Let me illustrate. Let’s suppose your brother got fired from his job because he did what was right. And suppose your brother has a wife and children and a mortgage and a car payment and so forth; and really needed that income.
Now suppose he comes to you and relates to you what his supervisor said about him and that what his boss subsequently did in terminating him was extremely unfair.
Well, can you and should you get angry over the decision to fire him? Maybe. Yet, there’s always a better way than our way when it comes to these things. Amnon defiled Absalom’s sister. Yet Absalom is not able to correctly deal with that sin any more than you can deal with your brother’s boss that fired him.
One wise servant of the LORD puts it this way. “When I am offended, God gives me the grace to deal with the offense, and if I appropriate that grace, I am able to forgive and move beyond the offense. However, when someone else is offended, I am not given the grace they are given to deal with the offense.
It is between that person, the offender and God. It is not “my business”. Therefore, when I take up an offense for someone else, I am basically on my own!” [Bill Gothard found on www.preachitteachit.org “What Do I Do When My Spouse Has Been Hurt By A Trusted Friend? By Mark Marikos]
First, God see every one of your actions and He knows your motives. He knows us inside and out.
Second, it may be easy to take up an offense for someone else, but it’s not right.
Third, the better way, once Absalom knew what Amnon had done, was to go to someone who could deal with his half-brother. The better way was to go to someone with authority. Absalom should have gone to King David and requested that David properly punish Amnon.
Now, it looks like he did go to David, but he already had two strikes against him. First, he was angry and unable to get grace from God to properly respond to Amnon. Second, he’d made a decision to kill him. He wasn’t going to David wasn’t for justice. Instead he went to him to deceive him in order to kill his brother.
Psalm 44:21 “Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Jeremiah 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
Psalm 139:1 “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. (2) Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
(3) Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. (4) For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether”
First, God see every one of your actions and He knows your motives. He knows us inside and out.
Second, it may be easy for us to take up an offense for someone else, but it’s not right. You see, when you take up an offense for someone else, you won’t be able to find God’s grace to do so.
What Absalom did was to take personal offense to something, to a sin that was committed against his sister. He was hurt because of what Amnon had done.
Now there may be things done to other people that you know personally. But when you attempt to quote “feel their pain” and then try to rectify it by your attitudes and your actions, you will very likely do so and cause more problems rather than correctly dealing with the situation. God’s grace is always available to both the sinner and to the one sinned against.
Now, had Absalom been a man of God and someone who knew what was right, he would have made some far different choices. By the way, did you know that God specifically states in the Bible exactly what was to be done with Amnon because of his sin against Tamar?
Let me show it to you. Exodus 22:16 “And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.”
Deuteronomy 22:28 “If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
(29) Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.”
But it appears as if Absalom didn’t have the Scriptures in his mind nor did he have a desire to honor the LORD in this matter. Instead he simply takes matters into his own hands and proceeds to take the life of Amnon.
Taking up an offense for someone else is not the LORD’s way for you to deal with an offense, a sin done to someone close to you.
Let me illustrate. Let’s suppose your brother got fired from his job because he did what was right. And suppose your brother has a wife and children and a mortgage and a car payment and so forth; and really needed that income.
Now suppose he comes to you and relates to you what his supervisor said about him and that what his boss subsequently did in terminating him was extremely unfair.
Well, can you and should you get angry over the decision to fire him? Maybe. Yet, there’s always a better way than our way when it comes to these things. Amnon defiled Absalom’s sister. Yet Absalom is not able to correctly deal with that sin any more than you can deal with your brother’s boss that fired him.
One wise servant of the LORD puts it this way. “When I am offended, God gives me the grace to deal with the offense, and if I appropriate that grace, I am able to forgive and move beyond the offense. However, when someone else is offended, I am not given the grace they are given to deal with the offense.
It is between that person, the offender and God. It is not “my business”. Therefore, when I take up an offense for someone else, I am basically on my own!” [Bill Gothard found on www.preachitteachit.org “What Do I Do When My Spouse Has Been Hurt By A Trusted Friend? By Mark Marikos]
First, God see every one of your actions and He knows your motives. He knows us inside and out.
Second, it may be easy to take up an offense for someone else, but it’s not right.
Third, the better way, once Absalom knew what Amnon had done, was to go to someone who could deal with his half-brother. The better way was to go to someone with authority. Absalom should have gone to King David and requested that David properly punish Amnon.
Now, it looks like he did go to David, but he already had two strikes against him. First, he was angry and unable to get grace from God to properly respond to Amnon. Second, he’d made a decision to kill him. He wasn’t going to David wasn’t for justice. Instead he went to him to deceive him in order to kill his brother.