Devotion 6.27.17

My favorite story in the Old Testament is one that is a tragedy in the truest sense.  David, king of Israel, out on the roof of his palace, looking at all he has when he spots a woman.  You probably are familiar with the story.  Her name, he finds out, is Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite who is a general in David's army.  David likes what he sees and seduces her and she becomes pregnant.  David, not to be outwitted by his own actions, puts in place a plot to get Uriah to think the child is his, but Uriah is a man of honor who thinks about his troops.  So, even though David gets him tipsy to send off to "lay with his wife," Uriah cannot. 

Fast forward to David getting aggravated at a loyal general who wants to go back to be with his troops.  "Okay, if you won't go for Plan A, then we'll go to Plan B, and I will give you a battle to fight in that no one will survive."  Uriah goes to battle and dies.  Bathsheba joins David (and the hundreds of other wives) in the house of David.  God sends Nathan to point out David's sins, and when Nathan uses the story of a wealthy man who took a poor man's sole lamb to slaughter and use for his own feast, David demands, "Send me that man!" to which Nathan says, "You are that man."  (2 Samuel 11).

Martin Luther has a familiar quote that if you are going to sin, "sin boldly"  (a sarcastic statement that means don't just sin in a timid way, stand up and just sin boldly if you are going to sin). David did just that all in one act.  Covet, adultery, lie, murder, place himself before God.  This from a man who had more than everything because he was "a man after God's own heart."  In the Tenth Commandment, God states that, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox o donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." 

David took what didn't belong to him, and in maybe not such bold ways, we do as well through sins of the heart.  Seeing someone in our neighbor's home and desiring it (sin). Christ gives us no wiggle room by expanding the definition of sin, but He does so for one simple reason:  To get us to turn to Him in all things. It is through Christ that we receive the forgiveness for our sin-filled lives.  As David looked to the promise of the coming Messiah, we look to Christ and receive that mercy and grace.  God forgave David, and God forgives us.

Pray for contentment, the kind of contentment that can only be found in Christ Jesus.

Hope Men's Ministry