Many of us are familiar with the saying “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. If we are not kept busy in some productive activity it is easy for the devil to lure us into some sinful activity. Today we’ll take a look into one of the darkest chapters of King David’s life, one that could easily have been avoided if he had kept busy in the work that the Lord had appointed for him.
David, like most kings of that era, was a military leader, and was almost always with his army. In ancient times, wars were often postponed during the winter months due to weather and lack of available food. Battles would resume when the weather began to warm up. In one particular springtime, King David got his army together for battle with the Ammonites, and sent them out with General Joab, but he remained back at home in Jerusalem (vs. 1). He was negligent in his duties as the Commander in Chief of his army, and that led to a series of four sins that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
One evening, David was up on a terrace on his rooftop and observed a beautiful woman bathing in her courtyard next door (vs. 2). It wasn’t a sin to catch an unintended glimpse of Bathsheba bathing. It was a sin when David failed to take his eyes off of her. Without his mind fixed on God, his imagination took over. David was filled with lust. He should have left the roof and fled temptation. Instead, he entertained temptation (vs. 3-4), and had her brought to the palace where he slept with her. That was the first sin. David focused on his own desires. When temptation came, David looked into it rather than flee from it. He deliberately sinned.
Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah, who was one of David’s “mighty men”. These were a special band of top-notch soldiers of the king. She was also the daughter of Eliam, another of his “mighty men”, and the granddaughter of Ahithophel, one of David’s chief counselors. This adultery was all the more sinful, as it was an insult to three of David’s close associates.
When David heard that Bathsheba was pregnant, he tried to cover his sin with deception (vs. 6-13). David had Uriah brought back from the army, and tried by subtle means to have him sleep with his wife Bathsheba, thus making it look like the child would be Uriah’s. This deception and lying was the second sin. David even tried to make Uriah drunk so he would go home and sleep with his wife (vs. 13), the third sin. However, Uriah wanted to be a loyal example to his fellow soldiers in the field. He had more honor than the king.
When all of these deceptive and lying tactics didn’t work, David became desperate. After allowing Satan to lead him down this path of sin so far, he topped it off with the worst sin, and wrote to General Joab to have Uriah put in the heat of the battle, and then retreat the other soldiers, leaving him to be killed by the enemy. And to top it off, David had Uriah deliver this death sentence himself to Joab! (vs. 14-17). David had Uriah murdered, the fourth sin.
David could have chosen to stop and turn from evil at any stage along the way. Once sin gets started, it is difficult to stop (James 1:14-15). The best solution is to stop sin before it starts. Sin begins to take root in our life with a thought. When we dwell on our sinful thoughts, they take root in our imagination, and then to uncontrollable desire. From there we then consent to the sin. By taking his eyes off of God and all that He had provided, David ended up experiencing great heartache. It took David over a year to confess and repent of this sin. Unconfessed sin can make us callous (vs. 25). It deadens the spirit and distances us from God. We descend even further into sin. Throughout this whole narrative, David did not think of God. However, God observed it all, and as verse 27 states, “The thing that David had done displeased the LORD.”
One thing we need to remember is that, no matter who we are, we are never out of the reach of temptation. It is just as easy for us to fall into any type of sin. We should never go forth into the day spiritually unarmed. We need to stay away from people, places, and situations that may tempt us. One way to do that is to memorize and meditate on Scriptures that address our specific weaknesses. Jesus told us to pray in order to avoid sin (Matthew 26:41). Just when we think we can do no wrong, we can fall prey to Satan’s lies. When we come to that key moment when we must make a decision that will have lasting consequences, will we be ready?
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