Not Knowing—-Is No Excuse ! 

By Joyce Webb 2024

If you break the law when you are driving your car—and you get arrested—when you stand before the judge—you can not say you did not know about that law.

It is your responsibility to learn the laws of driving.

You are given a little booklet about the laws.

Before you get a drivers license—you are to study and learn the driving laws.

So—-You have no excuse.

You can not “excuse” yourself and say, “I did not know.”
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Not knowing what God’s rules and laws are—-you can not stand before God and say—“I did not know.“

You will not be “excused”—–God will not say, “Oh, well, you did not know.“

There will be no “excuse.”

King David learned the hard way—-that not knowing God’s commands—God did not excuse“ him.

And it did not excuse the priests—who should have known.

I Chronicles 13:1-14
(King David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant
to Jerusalem.
Many people came to watch. They were singing and happy.

The ark was put on a cart with oxen pulling it.

When they came to a threshing floor, the oxen stumbled.
One man put his hand out to keep the Ark from falling or sliding—and immediately God killed that man for touching the ark.

Everyone was shocked ! King David was both afraid and angry.
David thought he was doing a good thing in honoring the Lord—-in bringing the Ark to Jerusalem. And now this—a man was killed trying to keep the Ark safe.

King David and the people went home– sad, upset, —why had God killed this man?

David was afraid. He asked “How shall I bring the Ark of God home to me?
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This was a question David should have asked—about how the ark should be moved—- before he tried to move the ark.

God had told the Israelite people how to move the Ark— at the time of Moses.

Many, many years before. The priests knew how the ark was to be moved.

Numbers 4:3-15 Tells that only the priests were to move the Ark and other furniture of the Tabernacle (tent church).

Only certain priests were to move the ark.

Each piece of furniture and the Ark were to have long poles attached to each side of the piece.

The priests were to touch only the poles.
They put the poles on their shoulders to carry the furniture and the ark.

“They shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die.”

All these things —Moses had written down. It was on scrolls to be read by the leaders.

(scroll-long pieces of paper, or skins of animals used as paper—-that were rolled up)

Through the years—after Moses—-many of the leaders did not bother to read the scrolls.

The instructions were forgotten.

Now this man has died.

Some time after this—the Bible does not explain– how or when—David learned how he was to move the ark.

Someone must have gone to the scrolls and read what Moses had said about the Ark.

In I Chronicles Chp. 15 —-vs. . 13— David talks to the priests–He said to them—-
“Because ye did not first ask, (meaning–when they moved the ark the first time—)

the Lord did— as he said he would do—- (that men would die if they touch the holy ark) —now a man has died.“

So, this time, the priests carried the Ark by the poles and brought it to Jerusalem.

This time, it was a happy time, and all the people sang and rejoiced.
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We, too, make trouble for ourselves because we do not do as the Lord has instructed us to do.

We think we can do what we want.

We think what God said does not matter—we can ignore it.

Many people have no knowledge of what God has said to do because they never read the Bible.

God did not change his commands because the priests did not know what they were to do.

God does not change his commands today—just because we are ignorant of what He has said.

Bibles are everywhere in our country. Every library has one to read for free. You can read one on the internet for free.

Churches and other groups will give you one for free.

Even hospitals, motels, hotels, etc. have one in each room to read for free.

Almost every village and town in the U.S. has a Christian church.
Most of them have several churches.

No one in the U.S. has an excuse to say I do not know.

If you wanted to know—you could have found it.
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Most of the nations have Holy Bibles.

There are some countries/nations that you may not be able to find a Bible.

In the history of most of those countries, there was a time when God’s word was available to them—-but their leaders stopped it.

In those countries, it may be harder for them to read God’s rules.

Some people have never heard about Jesus.

But the Bible says that every man knows within himself—-it is born in him—that there is a God in heaven.

In the book of Romans 1:19-20 “For the truth about God is known to them instinctively (a knowing born in the spirit)–God has put this knowledge in their hearts.

From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth, sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his eternal power and divine nature.

So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” New Living Translation

How will God judge those people who have never heard of Jesus?

Abraham once said: In Genesis 18:25 “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?”

God made the earth and every living thing in it. He made the rules and laws about it all.

God will judge. He will do what is right.

The book of Romans says that men know—in the nature of their minds—by looking at the things in nature—that there is a higher power.

That there is a God—who has made all this—God who controls the earth and weather and all the things in the earth.

I have read the testimony of men—-in countries—that never heard about Jesus or the one true God.

Yet, they seemed to know that there was a God in heaven who ruled the earth.

One man told how he prayed for years—to this “God” he did not know—that he would be able to learn about Him—that he would be able to know this “God”.

Many years later—a missionary came to his village and told about the one true God in heaven and his Son—Jesus.

The man knew that his prayer had been answered. He believed what the missionary told him about God.

He was satisfied and happy to learn— and know this God.

That is what the book of Romans tells us—-that people seem to know inside of them—that somewhere—there is a God over all this earth—He is somewhere out there.

Even if they do not know much about Him—they know there is a God.

People have told how they have had dreams—and Jesus was in the dream. This surprised them, because they did not know much about Jesus.

But the dream of Jesus, led them to think about Him and pray that they would be able to know more about Him.

God answered their prayers and they met a Christian who told them more about Jesus.

To those people who are wanting to learn more about God/Jesus—-God has ways of answering their prayers. Even when their country does not allow Bibles.
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King David and the priests could have known the first time—how to move the ark.

Only after the death of a man, did they look to see what God said.

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God does not change his commands and rules—-just because we did not know about them.

God has made his rules available (easy to get) in our country.

Some day, all men will stand before God—He will judge them.
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For those of us in the United States or countries that have
Christian Bibles—-we will have no excuse— not to know what God wants us to do.
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In some decisions we make about certain things —there is nothing in the Bible to tell us what to do.

Then we need to think about God’s rules and laws —-how He expects us to live and act toward others.

We can pray—and ask God to show us how we should do something or how we should act toward others—

keeping in mind the general rules—- that God has said about how we should live.

The Holy Spirit can speak to you in your mind/spirit so you know
which direction to go—or what decision to make.

As we walk with the Lord, it becomes easier to sense and know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and leading us.

When you practice doing something—-you get better at it.

When you are learning to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit—the more you do it, the more sensitive you are to when He speaks to you——and the quicker you recognize that the Holy Spirit is telling you something.
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As humans, we are so quick to want to move ahead with our own plans —-and not stop to ask God if this is the right thing to do.

Let us try to remember this time of David— and what happened.

Let us read God’s word to know what God wants us to do.

Let us take the time to ask God to guide our choices.