David and Bathsheba - Part 2

A story of sin, judgement, repentance and restoration.

When temptation leads to sin

In this series we are looking at the story of David and Bathsheba. The story marks the lowest point of David’s spiritual life but it also provides one of the best examples of God’s mercy and kindness and has many parallels with the New Testament. Importantly the story gives us many practical warnings and lessons to apply to our lives today.

Last week we considered the impact of David’s decision not to go to war with his army but rather to remain in the palace. David had taken his eyes off God and was no longer at the centre of His will. He relaxed and decided to take it easy for a while whilst others fulfilled his calling for him and this made him vulnerable. This week we continue to look at the story focusing on how temptation if unchecked can lead to sin.

The story is recorded in 2 Samuel 11:1 - 27 as follows:

1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 
6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him.

14 In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” 16 So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also. 

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

David was clearly tempted when he saw Bathsheba but it is important to remember that temptation itself is not sin. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and by Peter before His death but at no time did Jesus sin.

Sin occurs when we give in to temptation. In David’s case he used his power to summon Bathsheba and then to sleep with her, getting her pregnant. Then instead of repenting he tried to hide his sin by bringing Uriah home from the war so that he would sleep with his wife and think the child was his, not David’s. When this deceit did not work, finally in desperation David had Uriah killed and took Bathsheba as his wife.

David was undoubtedly one of the most gifted leaders and most godly men recorded in the Old Testament and he had a heart after God like no-one else before or after him. The Psalms demonstrate his great love and passion for God and earlier stories of his exploits demonstrate his total commitment to God and to living in a righteousness manner. The story is therefore a warning to all of us of how quickly temptation can lead to sin and how quickly sin can destroy the lives of even the most Godly and righteous of Christians. It is a real lesson to us to confess our sins to God and to man and to genuinely repent rather than trying  to cover up what we have done out of fear of man.We each need to consider carefully how we handle temptation and also how we respond when we do fall in to sin.

There are four essential things that we should all do to resist temptation:

1. Pray daily that we will not be tempted – Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to ask God to “lead me not in to temptation but deliver me from the evil one.” We need to make praying not to fall in to temptation a major priority in our prayer life.
2. Run from temptation. We all enjoy temptation (otherwise it would not be tempting!) but we must not flirt with temptation, seeing how close we can go without actually sinning. Instead we need to be like Joseph who, when tempted by Potiphar’s wife, fled from her.
3. Put on the full armour of God to protect us from Satan’s tricks – In Ephesians 6 verses 10-17 the Scriptures show us how “to put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”
4. Speak out the word of God when we face temptation – each time Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness He responded with a Scripture and Satan was powerless to respond. Ephesians 6 verse 17 describes the Sword of the Spirit as the Word of God again reminding us that we can fight the devil and temptation with God’s word.

The truth is that, like David, many Godly people fall in to sin. We therefore must be aware of our own weaknesses and put in place measures to keep us away from temptation. Jesus warned us that if a part of our body causes us to sin we should cut it out. We need to heed this warning and honestly review where temptation is currently strongest in our lives and take real steps to “cut out” this temptation even if it means changing our friends, hobbies/social life, TV/Internet/music habits, even our work/career ambitions. When we do fall in to sin we need to repent immediately. God’s light will always expose our darkness. Only when God has been brought in to the situation can true restoration begin.

Remain blessed and highly favoured.
Paul Thomson (Mr.)