In the Wrong Place

In the Wrong Place

2 Samuel 11

            “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel.  And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.  But David remained at Jerusalem.”

            God had taken the kingdom away from Saul.  Saul had displeased God by committing the sin of arrogance.  He had attempted to usurp Samuel’s place as prophet and priest.  Instead of fulfilling the role God had given him, Saul sought to be more, and so failed as king and failed in battle.  Not only did he lose the kingdom for himself, but also for his descendants.  Even a man as good as his son Jonathan was cut off from inheriting his father’s crown.

            God turned his favor from the house of Saul to the house of David.  The young shepherd boy became the man after God’s own heart, and God appointed him the shepherd-king of Israel.  He was loved by his people.  He was able to unite the entire land of Israel under his leadership.  He was able to make Jerusalem his capitol—the holy city of God.  What more could a person ask?  What more could a person want? 

            There is no doubt in my mind that whatever David had asked of God it would have been given him.  More victories?  Done!  More wealth?  Done!  More wives, more descendants?  Done!  As long as David kept the precepts of God’s law (see Psalm 119) God would reward him.

            Aye, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare would say.  David knew God’s law.  He knew what God required.  Furthermore, he loved God’s law.  Psalm 119 is a hymn of praise to it.  You don’t have to read all 176 verses to understand that.  Open to anywhere in the psalm and read at random.  You’ll see that God’s law meant the world to David.  And yet he knowingly broke God’s commandments.

            He desired another man’s wife—you shall not covet (#10).

            He had sexual relations with her—you shall not commit adultery (#7).

            He had her husband killed—you shall not murder (#6)

            He took the woman, pregnant with his child, to be his own—you shall not steal (#8)

In so doing, he dishonored God, who had given him not only the kingdom of Israel but anything and everything David could possibly have asked for or needed. 

How did it all start?  David was in the wrong place.

            In the spring of the year, when kings go out to battle, David remained in Jerusalem.  David should have been with his army.  He should have been at the front.  He should have been leading Israel in the fight against its enemies.  Instead, David stayed home.

            Say what we might about Bathsheba being in the wrong place (Surely she should have known that her bath was visible from the king’s palace!  If he could see her, she would have been able to see him), had David performed his duty as king—leading his troops into battle—he would not have been in a position to see what he shouldn’t have seen and do what he shouldn’t have done.

            How often do we get ourselves in trouble by being in the wrong place?  We know what our obligations are.  We know where we should be.  We know what we ought to be doing, but we’re in a place where temptation can easily reach us—and that’s when the trouble starts.