Spend time in prayer and silence with God asking him to meet you and speak to you.
Bible Reading
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
– 2 Samuel 11:14-17
The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.
– 2 Samuel 11:22-27
Devotion
When David’s plan to cover up his sin of adultery with Bathsheba failed, he got desperate. His desperation drove him to do the unthinkable; He orchestrated the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, who was one of David’s loyal warriors. David plotted Uriah’s death in such a way as to make it look like he was killed in action. When told of Uriah’s death, he responded callously, “Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another.” In trying to “manage” his sin and its consequences, David compounded his sins of lust and adultery with the sin of murder. As the snowball of his sin rolled along, it accumulated more and more sin until it caused an avalanche of consequences in David’s life. These consequences were devastating for David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and countless others for many generations.
The Big Question
Does the magnitude of sin that you are capable of committing shock you? In what areas of your life are you susceptible to the escalating nature of sin and how can you avoid taking the first step down that path?
Conclude in prayer and silence reflecting on what you’ve learned.