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The Word of God speaks regarding the heart of man at various times in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Jesus quoted the Old Testament when he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). The will of human beings is to be focused upon the Creator before all else. Throughout the centuries. both before and after the coming of Jesus to the earth, the heart of human beings has often been swayed to and away from God. One such time was when the people of God desired to have a king instead of the judges that the Lord had provided. “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘…Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations’” (1 Samuel 8:4-5).  The heart of Israel had turned away from the will of God and God as their king, and Saul was appointed to be the king. However, it wasn’t long before he decided that his will was more important than the will of God, that is, his heart turned away from God. Samuel was sent to Saul and asked, “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?” (1 Samuel 15:19), and followed that up by saying, “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23).

Saul’s heart had turned from God, he was rejected as the king, and the Lord chose David to be the next king. When Paul was preaching in Antioch in Pisidia he said speaking of God, “He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jessee, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will’” (Acts 13:22). David was known to be a man after God’s own heart and he was appointed to be “king over the house of Judah” (2 Samuel 2:4) and the Word of God says, “David grew stronger and stronger” (2 Samuel 3:1). Sometime after David was chose to be king, he had a son named Absalom (2 Samuel 3:3). Like most fathers, David loved his son deeply and would have given his life for him as is seen at the death of Absalom. “Then the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said thus: ‘Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, if only I had died in your place. O Absalom my son, my son’” (2 Samuel 18:33). David was grieving in his heart not only for the death of his son, but also for the eternal decisions that Absalom had made for his life.

At some point before Absalom’s death, he became greedy, jealous, and lustful of the throne. Absalom seemed to be somewhat arrogant and possibly it was because of how he was viewed by the people. The Word of God says, “Now in all Israel there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him” (2 Samuel 14:25). The vanity of his outward appearance and how he was admired became a stumbling block for Absalom and his heart turned away from God. Not only did his heart turn from God, but he influenced others to turn away from the will of God. “So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel” (2 Samuel 15:6). David loved his son Absalom, but Absalom was a liar and hypocrite, a man without integrity even though David was a man after God’s own heart. The Word of God said, “Now a messenger came to David, ‘The heart of the men of Israel are with Absalom’” (2 Samuel 15:13).

What does it take to turn the heart of the people of God away from God? In the case of Absalom, lies and hypocrisy. The apostle Paul understood well how the false teaching of men (lies) could easily sway the hearts of the faithful to become unfaithful. Paul was clearly worried about the false teachings that had come to the congregations of the Lord’s church in Galatia when he wrote, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another…” (Galatians 1:6-7) and “Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth… (Galatians 3:1). Someone had influenced the brethren in Galatia so that their hearts had been turned away from God, the truth, to a lie. To Timothy, Paul wrote, “…in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy…” (1 Timothy 4:1-2). Notice the similarity between what Paul said would come about and what Absalom did to turn the hearts of the men of Israel from the will of God.

The people of God in Israel, in Galatian in the first century, and congregations of the Lord’s church in every century must imitate the attitude of the Bereans, “These were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Whether a practice be old or new, a Christian needs to “…search the Scriptures daily…” to know if it is approved of by the Lord nor not. The Bereans did not accept Paul as authority, even though he was preaching the truth, but they went back to the Scriptures as the authority to verify if Paul was preaching the truth. The Lord’s church needs to follow that example.