Make Peace With Your Neighbor Before Inquiring Of God

Today I am reading in 2 Samuel 20, and I came across an interesting thought. This is one I had read in the New Testament, yet I have not noticed how a very similar idea is played out here with King David. The verse that I'm thinking of is Matthew 5:23, 24. It talks about how if you are offering a sacrifice and you realize that you have something against a brother (or vice versa), you should leave the sacrifice and make amends (as best as possible) with that brother.

I think it's an interesting concept, going back to the idea that we should be pure an holy before a pure and holy God, which includes being right with God and others.

But back to the passage I'm reading today, at this time there was a famine in the land for 3 years. This famine affected David and his kingdom, even though the sin that brought it on was that of Saul. So the first thought in my mind is that consequences (whether good or bad) spread not only across the life of the person, but also those around them and even entire nations. So David was suffering from Saul's sin of trying to wipe out the Gibeonites. And what does he do then? He decided to make peace with them. Knowing that Saul's sin had caused the famine, and that the Gibeonites had an offense against them, David decided to make amends with the Gibeonites, knowing that's the only way to get rid of these consequences.

So the Gibeonites gave their request to David and David gave them what the asked for. I won't describe the details (you can read that on your own), but the point I want to bring up is that David was willing to do his best to make amends for the wrong that his predecessor caused. And in doing so, he regained the favor of the Gibeonites, and God began to then hear the prayers for the land.

So how does this become personal in our lives? I think one of the greatest things we can learn is that if we are unwilling to do our part in making amends with someone we have a problem with, then how can we say we understand the willingness of God to make amends with us, as sinners? If we are truly Christians, and we can't resolve conflict with others, we've missed the whole concept of true forgiveness and reconciliation. Even when we continue to go against God, and try to do our own thing, His love and forgiveness rains down on us, never ceasing. So who are we to say that God can forgive us of all our sins, but we - for whatever reason - can't forgive another, and work to make amends?

The second thing I think we can learn is that even though problems may occur within our sphere of influence which are caused not by us, but by someone else, we still may suffer the consequences and have to show proactive personal commitment to resolve conflict that we feel has landed in our laps (as it did with David).

Just thought I'd share.