When Bored with What’s Next
Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church
Sin expands one’s appetite for more sin. David’s sinful trail began by coveting his neighbor’s wife and was followed by adultery, lying, and murder. David’s unraveling did not stop until the prophet Nathan confronted and convinced him of his sins.
Repentance is the sinner’s only hope to be released from sin’s deadly cycle. Repentance begins with soulful remorse and ends with soul-filled renewal.
David’s attempt to insulate himself from guilt’s stinging indictment meant his sinful actions did not stop with sexually manipulating Bathsheba. He had to do something about Uriah, her husband. Sin does not stop on its own power. Only God’s power is strong enough to stop sin’s destructive force. Repentance opens us to change when we personally yield our will to God’s will so our desires can be reshaped (Psalm 37:4).
David was said to be a “man after [God's] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). On examining David’s heart, God anointed David to be king (1 Sam. 16:7). David’s heart of faithfulness was his lead strength. At all costs the shepherd-king needed to treasure what was important to God so his heart would be focused on living and leading in God’s way.
Change was occurring within David. He felt change pulsating within. He wanted more of something in his life, but he was not sure what that something was until he saw Bathsheba bathing. When David went to his rooftop he was inspired by temptation, not goodness. Temptation takes what is good and turns it upside down with the deceptive message that wrong is better than right (see Isaiah 5:20). Temptation whispers for us not to trust God’s best as being the best. When we commit to temptation, we sin by trying to remake the good into our selfish image. David risked the kingdom he had fought hard to win for God’s purposes.
God doesn’t want us to visit the dark side of life. If we do, God doesn’t want us to stay there. Recovery through repentance from sin as the way out. This good news applies to all sins. David wrote Psalm 51 in remorse for what he had done. With guilt and shame he owned up before God to his sins. Re-establishing trust is built on remorse, repentance, and renewal. Remorse stops us in our tracks. Repentance turns us from going in a sinful direction to living godward.
Pastor Les Hollon
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, 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?” 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.”
So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 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. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
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?”
Uriah said to David, “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!”
Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
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.”
- II Samuel 11:2-15 (NIV)
The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
“This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ”
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
- II Samuel 12:1-13a (NIV)
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are [a] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
- Psalm 51: 8-19 (NIV)
This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.
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