Pam Padgett ... teacher
Psalm 9:16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth:
the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.....
We sometimes see the wicked planning and scheming, and seeming to
succeed by these things. It is helpful to us, who love
righteousness, to consider that God sees all of these things. These
things are not hidden from God, and He will deal with them as He wills. At times God allows us to see His judgment in the matter, and it causes us
to marvel in the ways and power of God, able even to snare the wicked in their own
works.
An example is when the children of Moab and Ammon and those of mount Seir came against Judah.
When God led the children of Israel to the land promised to them, HE
protected the lands of the children of Moab, Ammon, and mount Seir. Moses was told to command the children of
Israel to not meddle with or distress these people. God had given these
lands to the children of Lot (father of Moab and Ammon), and mount Seir had been given to Esau.
Deuteronomy 2:4 And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore: 5 Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. ...9 And the Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. ... 19 And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon,
distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the
land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it
unto the children of Lot for a possession
Although God had
protected their lands, the children of Moab and of Ammon came with those of mount Seir against Jehoshaphat, king of
Judah. Jehoshaphat and all of Judah turned to God to help them and judge their enemies ...
2 Chronicles 20:10 And now, behold, the
children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let
Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned
from them, and destroyed them not; 11 Behold, I say, how they reward us,
to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to
inherit. 12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might
against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what
to do: but our eyes are upon thee. 13 And all Judah stood before the
Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
God promised HE would deliver them without Judah needing to fight in the battle ...
2 Chronicles 20:14 Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the
son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the
sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation; 15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you,
Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the
battle is not yours, but God's. 16 To morrow go ye down against them:
behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the
end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 Ye shall not need
to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the
salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be
dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.
God used the works of the enemy armies ... coming to fight against Judah ... as a snare. As they lay ready to fight Judah, God set them to fight against each
other. Instead of destroying Judah, they destroyed each other ...
2 Chronicles 20:22 ... the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab,
and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. 23
For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of
mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an
end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. 24
And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they
looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to
the earth, and none escaped.
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Another example ... When I was working as a computer programmer at FedEx, I was assigned to
lead a large project which upper management was watching carefully.
Strangely, all of us assigned to work on the project were also assigned
to work on multiple other projects and were told that the others
were higher priority. When my manager and his boss prepared reports
about the large project for upper management, they failed to mention that although we were
"assigned" to the project, we weren't able to work on it because of these other priorities. There were also other ways information about the project was presented
deceptively. I went to my manager urging him to be honest in what was
reported, but it did no good. I cried out to God, asking
Him to help me in some way, not wanting to be part of the deception.
One day we were told a vice president wanted to meet with our manager and
all who were assigned to work on the large project. My manager and
his boss prepared a presentation for the meeting. I was very
concerned about this meeting, knowing the report would be deceptive and
being concerned that I might explode in anger when this was presented. I
asked God to please let me speak only those things HE wanted me to
speak and not allow my flesh to rise up. Right up to the minute I left
my desk to go to the meeting I was crying out to God to keep me under
control ... HIS control.
At the meeting the prepared report started to be given, but the vice
president quickly stopped the woman giving the report. He said he
didn't want to hear a prepared report, he wanted to hear from the people
actually working on the project. (In more than 20 years of working there, I had never seen a VP do anything like this.)
I started calmly telling him the truth about the status of the project. Others assigned
to work on the project nodded in agreement with what I said, while our
manager said nothing at all. He could not dispute the truth of what was
being told to the VP. When the meeting was over, my manager quickly
got up to leave, but the VP told him to sit down and wait, that they
needed to talk, but that the rest of us could leave.
My manager and
his boss planned to use this meeting to again deceive upper
management, but God used the meeting to snare them, turning it totally
around so that truth came forth and light was shined on the deceptive
information that had been given in the past.