September 16 – 2 Samuel 11:1-5

September 16 – 2 Samuel 11:1-5

[1] 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.

[2] It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. [3] And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” [4] So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. [5] And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

I find it so interesting that the custom was for kings to go forth in battle with their men in the springtime. Yet David chose to remain in Jerusalem. Such a decision seems to have caused David many problems. He lusted after a woman, he took a married woman and had sex with her as her husband was away in battle and then a pregnancy is the immediate result.

Galatians 5:16 reminds us to “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Such wisdom in those words. Had David been out to battle as God would have him do, perhaps this situation could have been avoided. Disobedience never leads us to a good place. Search your heart today and ask for forgiveness for any disobedience you may find. I heard it said lately the delayed obedience is still disobedience. When God calls on us, we must move and keep ourselves in His will.