2 Samuel 11 -- The Chapter I Really Dislike

This chapter always makes me sick.  I so hate watching a good man falling due to sin.

My commentary said, "These two chapters describe seven stages in David's experience.  As we study, let's remember Paul's admonition, 'Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.'"

The first stage was the conceiving.  "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." (James 1:14)  

Idleness was part of the problem.  "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.  Idleness isn't just the absence of activity ... idleness is also activity to no purpose ... If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.  When David laid aside his armor, he took the first step toward moral defeat, and the same principle applies to believers today," with our spiritual armor.

Imagination didn't help either.  "A man can't be blamed if a beautiful woman comes into his line of vision, but if the man deliberately lingers for a second look in order to feed his lust, he's asking for trouble."

Information -- "When God forbids something and calls it sin, we shouldn't try to get more information about it.  David knew what the law said about adultery, so why did he send to inquire about the woman?"

The second stage was the committing, according to my commentary.  It puzzled over Bathsheba's willingness to go with the messengers and submit to David's desires.  "No Jewish citizen had to obey a king who himself was disobeying God's law, for the king covenanted with God and the people to subject himself to the divine law."

The third stage was the covering.  Bathsheba became pregnant and sent word to David.  Besides the messenger, there were also servants in David's palace who knew what had gone on, but David couldn't see that.  Ever the strategist, he schemed to get Uriah back home so there'd be a valid reason for Bathsheba to have become pregnant.  How ironic that Solomon, a child of David and Bathsheba, wrote in Proverbs 28;13, "He who covers his sins will not prosper."  Bathsheba's husband Uriah was faithful to David until the end, and his faithfulness got him killed, because he refused to enjoy his wife's affections while he was engaged in battle for the king.

The other stages will be discussed in the next chapter.

Father, thank You for this terrible reminder that we are all so susceptible to sin and must be constantly vigilant not to give it a foothold.  It's terrible that Satan uses the tough times in our lives to try to develop within us an entitlement mentality which makes us think we deserve to sin without consequences.  Keep me from falling for that lie, Father.

 

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford