"Stop Before It Is Too Late"

Have you ever received a beautiful brochure of a vacation spot and it never felt that way when you go there? Years ago I went on a business trip to the Bahamas and the hotel and surrounding area looked beautiful. The first evening in the hotel as I was drifting off to sleep I heard this pesky mosquito near my ear. I swatted him but they must have let out a battle cry as more came to the rescue. After getting bit numerous times I tucked all my sheets in and slept under the covers all night. I woke up and it looked like my face had measles I had so many bites. Then housekeeping came and fumigated my room. So much for paradise!

As we have been talking about the life of King David, David also tried to take some time off. God gave David victory wherever he went and whatever he did. David WAS ALWAYS fighting alongside his men. So it is very strange that he stopped.

2 Samuel 11:1 “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”

Falling into sin usually doesn’t happen by a frontal assault. Usually things build up over a period of time and before you know it, you are trapped. This was David’s first mistake. He stayed home instead of fighting with his men. Now I know there are times that we need to rest but an idle mind can wreck havoc with someone who is always eager to get things done.

The fall of David began with Bathsheba. Now the Lord had blessed David through Solomon but what is about to come did change the whole dynamics of David and his family. So the first mistake was not going to battle with his men.

2 Samuel 11:2 “One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful”

Now David already was married and had many other women. If his eyes caught a woman bathing he should have acted like Joseph and fled. BUT HE DID NOT.

2 Samuel 11:3 “and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?””

Once we lust in our eyes it is difficult to stop the passion. All David had to do was go back inside but now he took it another step. He asked someone to find out who this woman was.

2 Samuel 11:4,5 “Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

Not only did David find out who this woman was but David now seduced this woman even though he knew it was the wife of one of his battle commanders. Then she becomes pregnant. David devised schemes to try to have Uriah sleep with his own wife but everything David does not work. Uriah is faithful to his fighting men and does not relax as he knows his men are fighting in battle. David could have learned a lot from Uriah. Now David devises a scheme to commit murder.

2 Samuel 11:14,15 “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

The rest of the story is that God speaks to Nathan the prophet and tells David of his sin and that this child who is going to be born to Bathsheba will die because of David’s sin. Here is the frightening part.

All David had to do was to walk away when he first saw Bathsheba. There were over five times that David could have rectified the situation but he kept getting in deeper and deeper. Right now some of you may be in step 1-5. God desires that you flee RIGHT NOW but will you? Passion can cloud over many good and honorable decisions. In our heart we can justify anything for our pleasure. It all comes down that we think “I deserve___________” I love the verse from the story of Joseph when he was doing everything right and honorable and Poitphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph. This is what Joseph thought in his mind.

Genesis 39:9 “No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"