Investigation...

Image courtesy of Simon Howden

"If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them...and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly."--Deuteronomy 17:2-4.  Here Moses tells the people how they ought to handle it if the situation arises when someone is said to have been unfaithful to the Lord.  They ought to conduct an investigation.

Investigation.  So yesterday we had our first day of classes at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver.  Prior to the beginning of class I posted something on Facebook regarding the beginning of classes.  It was nothing bad.  However, a comment was made in response to this post that I thought was serious and I thought this person thought I meant something negative by what was said.  Therefore, I had to go to this person to clear the air.  Turns out said person was actually only joking.  Although I was kind of frustrated the situation happened, in the end I was glad I took care of it because it clarified my misunderstanding.  Furthermore, I was encouraged in this aspect by my wonderful girlfriend because she also thought it was good that I cleared the air regarding the situation instead of letting that misunderstanding sit there.  

So why do I bring this up and how does it fit in to Deuteronomy 17:2-4?  As already stated. Moses is commanding the people to investigate the matter if someone is said to have been unfaithful to God.  Now there was nothing of this nature involved in the situation I just described but the principle still applies, I had to conduct an investigation to clear a misunderstanding regarding what I heard because there was a chance I had misconstrued what was said.  Obviously, even among the Lord's church, this can still happen today where something will be said or heard and get entirely misconstrued and left hanging without an investigation. 

Investigation.  So why investigate?  Oftentimes when we take a matter at face value and fail to investigate, it creates a bigger problem.  What happens is that we will talk to everyone else about what we think is true and never go to the person.  This leads to gossip and slander and the person involved is none the wiser about why all of a sudden people are acting differently towards him or her.  In Matthew 18:15-20, the instructions are clear that we ought to go directly to our brother (or sister) before we go to anyone else if he or she has sinned.  What has been heard may be true but on the flipside, it may not be true at all.  If we fail to investigate matters in a more thorough manner, then we fail to please God and furthermore, we fail at restoring what could be a soul in danger of hell fire.  

So what does this all mean to us?  My encouragement to you in this aspect is simply this.  If you know of a situation or have heard of a situation that has not yet been handled, encourage those involved to look deeper into the matter to get it resolved.  We can't let these kinds of situations fester as this only causes them to get worse. 

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!