Our Shrewd God

 Most of the time we do not think about God being shrewd, but He is very shrewd. It is part of Him being all-knowing and all-wise. However, it is more than that. God knows just how to respond to each of us in every situation. We can never trick God or get the best of Him   However, that does not stop some people from trying to fool God. King David wrote a song in which he made a very interesting observation about God. (II Samuel 22:26,27) When we are faithful, God proves Himself to be faithful to us. When we are blameless, people of integrity, God proves Himself to be blameless, since He is perfect in every way. Also, when we are pure before God, He is pure before us. However, when we are crooked or deceitful, He is shrewd with us. I pray this doesn't happen very often in our lives, but we need to consider the meaning of this verse.

We can be crooked. We can see things in a twisted way that is not really according to the truth. Also, we can twist the truth to try to make it fit our wishes. Both of these things take what is real and pervert it. Often, we do this thinking we can get around what God has decreed to be truth. When we try to do that God sees how we are twisting things, and He comes to wrestle with us, so He can show us how we are wrong. This is how He acts in a shrewd way. He outthinks us. He out maneuvers us, so we end up having to back down and admit that we were wrong, if we will be totally honest. We see this all of the time today when people try to change their gender or their sexual orientation. They are twisting reality, but God always gets the last word. He is always able to prove His truth is superior to their twisted thinking. That is just one example, but suffice it to say that we should never be crooked, so God doesn't have to straighten us out. It is not good for God to have to be shrewd toward us. We need to listen to His truth, and never try to change it.

#NHBaptistdotorg

Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 23-24 and I Kings 1.