0205. His Deceitful Measures

His Deceitful Measures

"And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, Let me go, I pray thee, and pay my vow which I vowed unto the Lord in Hebron.

"But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron" (2Sa_15:7, 2Sa_15:10).

Such measures seem impossible to one who has left within him any vestige of honor. Absalom was doubly false. False to his father and false to his God. Under the guise of Divine obedience, he deceived and planned to destroy his own father.

Hypocrisy is always despicable, but when one uses a religious garb to cover up some dastardly planned trick, it is unspeakable.

Judas under cover of a kiss, betrayed his Lord; Absalom under cover of paying a vow, committed high-handed treason.

1. Beware of hypocrisy. All saints who sin are not hypocrites. A hypocrite is one who robs widow’s houses, and then, for a pretense, makes a long prayer.

Hypocrites may pay tithes, and count their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and encompass sea and land to make a proselyte: while, all the time, within their heart they are full of unclean things. Without they are like whited sepulchers, within they are like dead men’s bones.

2. Beware of tramping under foot a father’s love.

Illustration: We once saw a young man coming in from an all-night debauch. He soon was standing over the dying form of his mother. We heard her say, "Son, I am dying and you have killed me." Two days later at the funeral, we knew that the handsome, but dissolute lad of eighteen who sat weeping by the coffin, as we spoke, was indeed guilty of his mother’s death.

Many a boy and many a girl have hurried their loved parents to their graves by their Godless deeds.

3. There is however, Another’s love–Our Lord "commendeth His love toward us." He died for us. Yet how many are tramping His love under foot, spurning grace, despiting the Spirit, madly the Christ-rejecter rushes on toward his doom.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR