Wednesday – History
Reading – 2 Samuel 11-12
Highlight Verse:
“Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife.”
2 Samuel 12:9 NLT
These are a couple of my least favorite chapters in the Bible. My hero David screws up royally.
Why?
That’s what this verse asks.
If we can find the answers, perhaps we can avoid his error.
I think the first why is laziness. David delegated the job of going to war to his commanders. Instead, he lounged at home, even taking a relaxing midday bath. That let his guard down and opened him to fall to the second why.
The second why is lust. He lusted after the forbidden fruit of Uriah’s beautiful wife. Despite his many wives and concubines, he wanted what was forbidden to him and used his power to get it.
The third why is pride. Pride kept him from confessing and repenting in the first place. Pride led him to try to cover it by having Uriah come home. Pride drove him to setting up Uriah to die when there seemed no other way.
It’s interesting to note that pride did him no good at all since, thousands of years later, everyone knows what he did. It didn’t stay hidden long.
Of course, we know that David repented when he was confronted. He was forgiven but he had to endure the consequences of his three “whys”.
While the story of forgiveness and restoration in David is a beautiful one,
I believe we would do well to avoid the whole situation by remaining diligent in following God’s lead.
Which of the “whys” do you struggle with the most? Laziness, lust, pride, all three?
How can we avoid those pitfalls?
