Monday Thought -- October 17, 2011

Good Morning Friends,

“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.  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, and David sent someone to find out about her.  The man said, ‘Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’  Then David sent messengers to get her.  She came to him, and he slept with her.  (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.)  Then she went back home.  The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, ‘I am pregnant.’" (2 Samuel 11:1-5)

David’s sin with Bathsheba began with David in a place he should not have been.  It was spring, the “time when kings go off to war.”  David’s army was sent to do battle, but David did not go with them.  He sent the army commander, Joab, and he remained in Jerusalem.  It was an idle time for David and in his idleness, the devil found an opportunity to tempt him.

David lingered in looking at Bathsheba while she bathed.  Rather than quickly turn away from the scene, David looked long enough to determine that she was a very beautiful woman.  Paul reminded the Corinthians to “Flee from sexual immorality.” (1 Corinthians 6:18)  Instead, David dwelt on the beauty of the woman before him.

David knew she was a married woman.  He sent someone to find out about her and they brought back the news of her identity.  This was no sin of ignorance.  David knew who Bathsheba was and what he was doing.  David had no right to take her, she belonged to another man.  But David wasn’t concerned about what was right that night -- he was concerned only about what he wanted.  He wanted Bathsheba -- and he took her.

God promises to always provide a way out of the temptations that come to us.  Paul told the Corinthians, “When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

God gave at least three ways out for David:

1.  He could have gone to war with the army and avoided the temptations of idleness.

2.  He could have turned quickly away when he noticed a woman bathing at the house next door.

3.  He could have listened to the word of her marital status and stopped his plotting at that moment.

But David rejected all of those opportunities and any others God provided.

When you are tempted, look for the opportunities to get out from under it and don’t give in like David did.

His, by Grace,

Steve