We actually spend a lot of time investing in, considering, and preparing to sin.

As the account goes in 2 Samuel 11, we read of how King David becomes besotted with lust for Bathsheba. There are several steps that he begins to undertake to first woo her, seduce her, and eventually cover up his sin.

Sin red flag 1:

As an aside, we also understand how the thorny branch of his lust first budded. He had one day found himself idle, with nothing better to do. Thus, casually gazing across the veranda, he saw a beautiful woman bathing. While the Scriptural account doesn’t say much, we can probably infer that he as a man, let his gaze linger on the places that he probably shouldn’t have been looking at in the first place, and a stirring in his senses resulted in him wanting to check out this beauty a little more. If he had Tinder, he would have swiped right.

Sin red flag 2:

Next, he sent people to find out a little more about this lady, and when an opportunity was presented to him to forsake this pursuit, having been told that she was in fact somebody else’s wife, he ignored that, and in fact sent messengers to bring her to him.

Sin red flag 3:

He then took Bathsheba, somebody else’s wife and had intercourse with her. He blatantly committed adultery with her, despite being in full knowledge of her marital status.

Sin red flag 4:

When the lady became pregnant, she sent word to King David, he called over Uriah her husband, and hoped that he would sleep with his own wife and cover up King David’s transgression. Timing after all was everything, and if he could get away with it, why not?

However, coincidentally, Uriah slept at the foot of the king’s house and did not go back home.

Sin red flag 5:

King David, tried to persuade Uriah with more fervour to eat and drink and sleep with his wife. At this juncture, we realise that Uriah had in fact been righteous knowing what the protocol entailed when the Ark was out in the tents and there was an ongoing battle in the open field – “Can I go home to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? As the Lord lives and as you live, I will do no such thing.” (2 Samuel 11: 11). Uriah remained fiercely loyal to the Lord, and to the King, while the King had betrayed Uriah, and the Law.

Sin red flag 6:

King David got Uriah drunk with the intent of making Uriah lose his senses and become inhabited.

Sin red flag 7:

Uriah still didn’t go home to his wife, and now King David was so deep in sin, that he strategised a way to have Uriah placed in the heat of the battle, where he would have had a high probability of losing his life.

Sin red flag 8:

King David needed help in his scheme and thus implicated Joab to assign Uriah to a place where he knew that the defenders were strong.

Sin red flag 9:

Bathesheba went into mourning upon hearing the news, but King David, did not mourn for one of his trusty soldiers, and in fact, sent for her almost immediately when the mourning was done, and brought her into his house to become his wife.

Sin red flag 10:

King David did not call out the wrong military strategy deployed by Joab, but generalised the death of his men as being part and parcel of war.

Some implications:

• We do not realise it but we go to great lengths to sin.

• Idleness is the root of many sins. If we do not use our time intentionally to seek out God and His precepts, and teachings; if we are not using our time intentionally for good, sin will fill that void and seek us out.

• Sin begets sin. The more King David sinned, the more he further sinned, so as to cover up his previous sin.

• Sin blinds us to what we really ought to do.

• Some sin if not nipped in the bud, will only get us deeper into trouble.

• Along the way, many chances will present themselves to repent, to turn around, and cease and desist carrying out the sin, but sin’s seductions would cause us to ignore these attempts to make straight our path. If our moral compass is not attuned to the Will of God or calibrated, these subtle hints to stop will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes.

• We also tend to lead many others into sin as we ourselves sin.

So… it is easy to say, nah, that’s King David. That will never happen to me. Now, King David was a man who was incredibly close to God. Imagine, us who are not so close to God. It happened to King David, it could have been any one of us. To us, even more so.

What are you investing your time in? Kingdom fruit, or things that place a greater distance between the Kingdom and you?

By the Grace of God,

Brian Bartholomew Tan