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Sunday, September 1, 2013

SUNDAY'S BARGAINOMICS BIBLE PASSAGE

Faithful, trustworthy, honorable David has set aside every principle on which he’s lived his life. David, the one whom the Lord declared as “a man after His own heart” (I Samuel 13:14b, NLT), ignores the Holy Spirit and takes another man’s wife to his bedroom.

We’ve looked at this before, but let me just remind you here that the Holy Spirit didn’t indwell men until after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. He did, however, rest on those whom God chose for special purposes. Saul ignored God’s leading to the point that Scripture tells us: “the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul” (I Samuel 16:14a). But when the prophet Samuel anointed David to succeed Saul as king, “The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on” (I Samuel 16:13b).

So where was the Holy Spirit when David committed his sin with Bathsheba? Right there with him. Where’s the Holy Spirit when a believer today has an adulterous affair? Looks at pornography? Lies? Does drugs? Right there. Every degrading step into sin a believer takes, he’s accompanied by the One who promises us: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b, NIV).

David not only took another man’s wife to his bed, but he took the wife of someone he knew. A fellow soldier. A faithful, honorable, trustworthy comrade.

David had his way with Bathsheba and sent her packing. But what had happened? “The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, ‘I am pregnant’” (II Samuel 11:5), NLT).

David, having already begun his downward spiral into deeper and deeper sin, makes an attempt to hide what’s happened: “David sent this word to Joab: ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ And Joab sent him to David. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house and wash your feet.’ So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him” (II Samuel 11:6, 8).

David hoped Uriah would spend the night with his wife, thus presenting the opportunity for Uriah to think himself the father of the baby Bathsheba was carrying. But what did the honorable Uriah do?

“Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house”
(II Samuel 11:9).

David had to have been beside himself with stress at this point: “When David was told, ‘Uriah did not go home,’ he asked him, ‘Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?’” (II Samuel 11:10).

To which Uriah simply replied: “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” (II Samuel 11:11).

Time for David to make another decision. ‘Fess up or dig the hole deeper. Again, David chooses option two. Sin for a season. The price is astronomical.

“He (Moses) chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward” (Hebrews 11:25-26).

Copyright © 2013
Judy Woodward Bates

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