Your Bathsheba

Most people are at least somewhat familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba. If not, you can get the story beginning in 2 Samuel 11.

Basically, King David, who should have been with his troops overseeing the war, stayed at home. He was walking about on the roof at night (don’t think of this as your sloped roof), when he caught sight of a woman bathing nearby. Sounds a little weird, I know, but the roofs of houses were typically cooler and served as another room. In other words, it would not be unusual for someone to be sitting or walking on their roof. We cannot assume, however, that Bathsheba was bathing on her roof. The Bible only says that David was on his roof when he saw her, so he may have caught sight of her through her window.

David was a married man and should have gone to the other side of the roof or back to bed, but the image of the bathing beauty lodged in his mind and seeped into his heart. Instead of a fleeting thought, she became a bit of an obsession. He needed to know more about her, so he asked around. Even when he found out that she, too, was married, and that her husband, Uriah, was one of his trusted military men out fighting a war under his direction, it did not slow him down. This should have been enough to shove any nefarious thoughts aside, but that didn’t happen.

King David sent for her, then he slept with her. Bathsheba became pregnant and David began scheming to cover up his sin. It ultimately led to Uriah’s death, and David taking Bathsheba as his wife. Keep reading in 2 Samuel and you’ll discover that David does not get away with it, and his sin affected far more than just his life.

There are lots of lessons that we can learn from this episode, but I’d like you to think about it a little differently. You see, most of us aren’t walking around on our roofs checking out our neighbor’s windows. Most of us don’t have kingly authority to do pretty much what we please. But all of us have our Bathshebas. What do I mean? Consider…

• What is it that holds my attention even when I know it shouldn’t?
• What is it distracts me from God’s will for my life?
• What is it that seems to have infiltrated my mind and captured my heart?

This may not be a person, but it may well be YOUR Bathsheba. So how do we respond to this? Here are some thoughts:

• Be careful not to place yourself where temptation is easy
• Bring every stray thought under the Lordship of Christ and let Him help you sort through them.
• Share your struggles with a mature believer who can help you through them.
• Don’t pretend that lust, greed, envy, and other internal sins aren’t sins.
• Remember that sin always has a price and that the price is always higher than advertised.
• Rely on the Lord’s strength to enable you to overcome what threatens to overwhelm you.

When tempted, it doesn’t have to lead to sin. Your Bathsheba doesn’t have to be your undoing.