mattbraunlin
Member
- Nov 1, 2023
- 84
- 83
In the Face of Evil
Today I’d like to do something a little unorthodox. I'd like to take two of the most famous events from the life of David, and mix them together. Such a scenario is preposterous of course, but for argument's sake, let's say that it happened.
Imagine David is staring down Goliath, that monstrous man who had tamed an entire army. He has just finished delivering one of the most glorious and godly battlecries in all history, and as the Philistine champion advances, he puts a stone in his sling.
But then, he happens to glance to his left… and he sees Bathsheba, taking a bath on a nearby ridge. Bathsheba, whose beauty would later so entrance him that he would use his kingly power to commit adultery with her, and then have her husband murdered so he could marry her himself.
Here we have combined the settings of David's most beloved triumph of faith and courage, and his most disgraceful act of sin and failure.
My question is very simple: What would David have done at that moment? Would he have thought things through, prayerfully reminded himself of God's calling, conquered his lust, and faced the giant? Or would he have dropped his godly weapons, and ran to Bathsheba to try to score?
The correct answer is neither. Neither of these options are what David would have chosen.
I’m sure I don't have to tell you that David would have faced Goliath. But the very idea of making a move on Bathsheba at that moment would have been so absurd that it cannot even be weighed as a choice. David was so sturdy, so focused, and so on fire for God in that glorious moment of destiny that he would hardly have noticed Bathsheba was there. I strongly doubt that, at the end of that incredible day, he would remember even seeing her at all.
And yet.
And yet, later in his life, he did notice Bathsheba. He did, very intentionally, commit adultery with her and get her pregnant. And he did arrange for the murder of her husband and he did marry her afterward.
This very same man through whom God wrote one of the most beloved stories of heroism ever told, also committed one of the most deplorable sins God was ever obliged to write.
So what's the difference? Why did David triumph in faith in one setting, and fail so despicably in another?
Logically, we had better examine the scene of the crime, and one verse is all we need:
Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.
2 Samuel 11:4
Do you see it? What were the conditions that gave birth to David's sins?
Luxuries, that's what. Luxuries.
At this moment in David's life he is not an upstart teenager on a battlefield, going toe to toe with a nine-foot behemoth armed with a sling and a stick, the fate of his people at stake.
He is a king. He is filthy rich. He is famous. He is safe, and you’d better believe safety is a luxury. He has just awoken from an afternoon nap in his soft bed in his majestic palace. He's got too much time on his hands. His guard is down and he hasn't got a care in the world.
And then he sees a naked woman. He lets his hormones surge to critical mass and the devil plays him like a fiddle in Georgia. And just like that, David's legacy will be scarred by this horrific debacle until the end of time.
Luxury is dangerous, my friend, and lethally so. It distracts, it isolates, it dulls the senses. It makes us easy prey for the evils that are constantly hunting us. It fattens up our spirits like turkeys before Thanksgiving.
There is another danger inherent in luxury: it kills quests.
When you have it all, you have it all. You have nothing to search out or strive after. Nothing to hope for. Nothing to fight for except all you have to lose.
There is nothing more spiritually backward, nothing more toxic to the human spirit than the lack of a good and True and noble quest. In the absence of a giant to slay, David descended into debauchery, lies and ego.
So what does this blurb mean to you personally? Only you can know that. But if you are reading this, you have the luxury of literacy, which only 12% of humanity enjoyed two hundred years ago. Keep that in mind.
Do not seek fame and fortune. Seek Christ. I can assure you that if you do, you will find the quest he always meant for you.
Amen.
Today I’d like to do something a little unorthodox. I'd like to take two of the most famous events from the life of David, and mix them together. Such a scenario is preposterous of course, but for argument's sake, let's say that it happened.
Imagine David is staring down Goliath, that monstrous man who had tamed an entire army. He has just finished delivering one of the most glorious and godly battlecries in all history, and as the Philistine champion advances, he puts a stone in his sling.
But then, he happens to glance to his left… and he sees Bathsheba, taking a bath on a nearby ridge. Bathsheba, whose beauty would later so entrance him that he would use his kingly power to commit adultery with her, and then have her husband murdered so he could marry her himself.
Here we have combined the settings of David's most beloved triumph of faith and courage, and his most disgraceful act of sin and failure.
My question is very simple: What would David have done at that moment? Would he have thought things through, prayerfully reminded himself of God's calling, conquered his lust, and faced the giant? Or would he have dropped his godly weapons, and ran to Bathsheba to try to score?
The correct answer is neither. Neither of these options are what David would have chosen.
I’m sure I don't have to tell you that David would have faced Goliath. But the very idea of making a move on Bathsheba at that moment would have been so absurd that it cannot even be weighed as a choice. David was so sturdy, so focused, and so on fire for God in that glorious moment of destiny that he would hardly have noticed Bathsheba was there. I strongly doubt that, at the end of that incredible day, he would remember even seeing her at all.
And yet.
And yet, later in his life, he did notice Bathsheba. He did, very intentionally, commit adultery with her and get her pregnant. And he did arrange for the murder of her husband and he did marry her afterward.
This very same man through whom God wrote one of the most beloved stories of heroism ever told, also committed one of the most deplorable sins God was ever obliged to write.
So what's the difference? Why did David triumph in faith in one setting, and fail so despicably in another?
Logically, we had better examine the scene of the crime, and one verse is all we need:
Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.
2 Samuel 11:4
Do you see it? What were the conditions that gave birth to David's sins?
Luxuries, that's what. Luxuries.
At this moment in David's life he is not an upstart teenager on a battlefield, going toe to toe with a nine-foot behemoth armed with a sling and a stick, the fate of his people at stake.
He is a king. He is filthy rich. He is famous. He is safe, and you’d better believe safety is a luxury. He has just awoken from an afternoon nap in his soft bed in his majestic palace. He's got too much time on his hands. His guard is down and he hasn't got a care in the world.
And then he sees a naked woman. He lets his hormones surge to critical mass and the devil plays him like a fiddle in Georgia. And just like that, David's legacy will be scarred by this horrific debacle until the end of time.
Luxury is dangerous, my friend, and lethally so. It distracts, it isolates, it dulls the senses. It makes us easy prey for the evils that are constantly hunting us. It fattens up our spirits like turkeys before Thanksgiving.
There is another danger inherent in luxury: it kills quests.
When you have it all, you have it all. You have nothing to search out or strive after. Nothing to hope for. Nothing to fight for except all you have to lose.
There is nothing more spiritually backward, nothing more toxic to the human spirit than the lack of a good and True and noble quest. In the absence of a giant to slay, David descended into debauchery, lies and ego.
So what does this blurb mean to you personally? Only you can know that. But if you are reading this, you have the luxury of literacy, which only 12% of humanity enjoyed two hundred years ago. Keep that in mind.
Do not seek fame and fortune. Seek Christ. I can assure you that if you do, you will find the quest he always meant for you.
Amen.
