BIG SINS START SMALL
Opening Prayer
Lord, please point out the quicksand in my path before I step in it.
Read 2 SAMUEL 11:1–27
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”
22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Looking back on your life, can you think of big problems you could have nipped in the bud? Have you learned from such mistakes?
Why do bad things happen to good people? It is one of those questions for which there are no easy answers. Although a foreigner, Uriah has distinguished himself as one of David’s top soldiers (2 Sam. 23:39). Loyal to a fault, he maintains strict discipline above and beyond the call of duty (11). Having a beautiful wife (2) could hardly be considered an error of judgment, but sadly it was to be his undoing!
The Bible does not gloss over the failings of its heroes. In this story, David gets it wrong from start to finish, beginning with his ill-timed holiday (1). In fairness, he has not climbed to the roof of the house to look for a naked woman below. It is simply an accident of time and place. The thing to do as a gentleman is to simply leave. He does not. He looks and keeps on looking. One thing leads to another and a baby is soon on the way. King David finds himself in a hole but keeps digging anyway. Clever though they are, his cover-up attempts fail at every turn, and he ends up being a despicable murderer with no redeeming features.
Such stories provide salutary warnings for every child of God. If it can happen to David, who am I to be complacent? This very day, am I taking it easy instead of fighting the battles of the Lord? What do I do when the unsolicited luscious image flashes across the screen? What am I trying to hide instead of confess? Worst of all, is some action (or inaction) of mine dragging down another faithful child of God?
Apply
Where duty calls, or danger, / be never wanting there” (George Duffield, 1818–1888). Go through this famous hymn and make it your prayer today.
Closing prayer
Lord, I am not over-confident in my ability to hold out in the face of temptation. Keep me straight by Your Spirit.
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