Tuesday Thought -- October 18, 2011

Good Morning Friends,

Bathsheba was pregnant because of David’s sin.  Her husband would know she had been unfaithful because he was with the army at war.  David sought to cover his sin by sending for Uriah, thinking that if he was home for a few days he would lie with his wife and would never know that the child she carried was not his.  But David’s plotting did not turn out the way he planned.  Because the army was in the midst of the battle, Uriah was unwilling to spend any time at home.  He stayed at David’s palace and slept with David’s servants.  He could not enjoy his home and his wife while his fellow soldiers were suffering.

So, David devised a second plan to cover his sin:  “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.  In it he wrote, ‘Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest.  Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.’" (2 Samuel 11:14-15)  David plotted to have Uriah killed!

David’s sin started with idleness.  It moved to lust and then quickly to adultery.  Next came lies and treachery.  Finally, it ended with murder.

If you had told David before this episode started that he would have a good man killed, David would have been shocked and angered by that thought.  He would never have imagined that he would stoop to such sinful behavior.  But giving in to one temptation put him on a path that ended in murder.  Of course, at any time he could have turned back to God in repentance and got off the road -- but his sin had blinded him and he kept walking from one sin to the next -- from bad to worse.

Sin is a trap.  That’s what James said, too.  “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:14-15)  It starts with desire -- it moves to sin -- it ends in death.  No one would choose death if the end of the path was clear at the beginning.  When we give in to the temptation to sin, we are blinded by our own desire and don’t see the pain that is at the end of the road.

The time to say no to sin is early in the battle, at the desire stage.  If only David had said no to his desire for Bathsheba.

His, by Grace,

Steve