Opportunity knocks.
We’ve heard that before. Yet, it’s true. Opportunity knocks, and it’s up to us to take advantage of it.
The thing is, to take advantage of something has a double meaning. It can portray us stepping into an opportunity provided by chance, upbringing, or God. When we take advantage of our opportunity, we move into a new path, one that will take us to a greater measure of success.
The other meaning of taking advantage is to move unfairly in a situation that is available to us, but that is not ours by right to take.
2 Samuel 1:10 gives us the words of the Amalekite:
“So I stood on him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.”
This was a man of war, an astute soldier, speaking to David about Saul. The man was no fool. He had come upon Saul, already dead, and recognized David as the future king. He seized the opportunity to better himself in the eyes of the upcoming ruler of Israel.
In other words, he took advantage of the situation to give himself a leg up. He took the crown off Saul’s head, the bracelet off his arm, and the contrived story of his own good intentions, and he offered to trade them to David for personal benefit.
How many of us see God as our window of opportunity? We fall to our knees and lay out before him what we’ve done for him, hoping to have God reward us with his blessings. It’s what the Amalekite wanted, great blessings. Is that all we want from God, great blessings, or is our relationship with him more? Is it a real relationship, or are we just taking advantage of our opportunities as a part of God’s family?
David saw through the Amalekite’s boasting as a lie from one who was taking advantage of an opportunity that was not his to claim. Verse 15 tells us that one of David’s young men “struck him down so that he died.” The soldier lost everything for his brashness before the king.
God sees through our boasting. When we lay out our good deeds before the Lord, he gleans the truth from our lies. God wants us to take good and right advantage of our opportunities, but we are overstepping his bounds if we try to take unfair advantage of the opportunities he provides for us as his children.
If the king’s bracelet is not ours, let’s leave it where we found it. It is God’s to take care of in his own good time.
If it’s God’s opportunity for us, we’ll find the hand of God in it. If not, we need to walk on by.
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Code: FGO.F.25.15.vp.esv