2 SAMUEL 11:1-5-In the spring when kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. So David sent someone to inquire about her, and he reported, “This is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.” David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. Now she had just been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Afterward, she returned home. The woman conceived and sent word to inform David: “I am pregnant.”
Today’s scripture is the very sad account of David’s sin with Bathsheba. For us? We have the advantage David did not. We know how the sad story went and the trail of sin’s consequences which followed him all the days of his life. If we could be transported back into David’s room, we would have grabbed his shoulder screaming “David, no. Don’t go to the window. Don’t do it. You will regret this. Why aren’t you with your men? David, don’t let your flesh and the lust of your eyes look into the yard. Please. For your family. For your relationship with the Lord. Get out of here and go be in the right place.” But then again, all the warnings of what could happen may have made no difference. David put himself in the wrong place. He positioned himself to be tempted. He didn’t flee it. He fed it. And often that is what happens in too many lives of Christians.
One of the most important disciplines a Christian must develop is the avoidance of areas, places, or people we are prone to be tempted by. For instance, if pornography is a real struggle, don’t stay up late with a laptop, phone, or remote after others in our homes are in bed. The pressure of “one click away” is stronger when we think we are alone which we never are–remember the Lord. Maybe we are tempted to the sin of gossip and find ourselves easily drawn into social media or the company of other people who are prone to gossip–remember the crowd we associate with leads to the type of person we will become. Still yet another temptation might be choosing to absent ourselves on the Lord’s Day or times with other Christians in the Word and prayer by choosing worldly recreation and entertainment instead. Now don’t misunderstand me. Recreation and entertainment are good but not best and should not regularly override spiritual times with other Christians.
Back to David, and the key lesson. His slide into the heinous sins of adultery, murder, and deception begins by simply choosing not to be in the right place. His army was out in battle and he should have been there with them. Something that seemed small turned into anything but small. And that is the way of temptation and the devil’s tactics. Subtle and deceptive luring us in little by little until we give in to the sin crouching behind the temptation. What will follow is regret and remorse along with possible consequences we may not recover from. Think about it. Know our areas of weakness and strive to be in the right place all the time.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to see my need to be on constant guard against places of temptation in my life.”
QUOTE: “Keep yourself in close company with godly Christians and shun every appearance of evil.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim