To Encourage You

2 Samuel 11: 2-8 “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. 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?’ 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. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’ So David sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house and wash your feet.’ And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.”

Why we do the things that we do is so much more important than the things themselves. A stark example of this is found in the account of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. If you didn’t know the backstory, you would think that Uriah was one of David’s best friends. Seemingly out of the blue, he calls him home from the battlefield and encourages him to go home, rest, and enjoy his wife. Then David finds out that Uriah won’t go because he thinks it wrong to lie with his wife while the men he had left on the battlefield were sleeping in tents and risking their lives. So David encourages Uriah to stay a couple more days. When Uriah still refuses to go to his house, David invites him to dinner and drinks with him until he’s drunk. What kindness David showed to him! He’s such a friend!

But there was so much more here than met the eye. All of David’s actions were motivated by his despicable act of adultery with Uriah’s wife. While Uriah was away with the army, David was lying with his wife. She became pregnant as a result and David tried all he could to cover up his sin. His real feelings towards Uriah were demonstrated in his adultery, and when David’s “kindness” didn’t work to cover up his sin, he sent Uriah back to the battlefield with instructions to the commander of his army to put Uriah in the fiercest part of the front, then pull back from him so that he would be killed.

There is often so much more to any story than meets the eye. So much of what we observe in people is nothing more than a facade. Our judgment is impaired because of this, but the Lord God sees it all. 2 Samuel 11 ends with the simple but profound words: “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” And what a price he would later pay for this sin.

Throughout the Bible we are given the message that “the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). That’s why it’s so foolish to try to deceive anyone for it’s all in full view of the Lord. Indeed, the darkness is as light to Him (Psalm 139:12).

May the Lord keep us from deceiving others. May He keep us from deceiving ourselves. Are we doing what we are doing to glorify God, or is it more about ourselves in the end? The Bible tells us clearly that our sin will be sure to “find us out” (Numbers 32:23), no matter the incredible extent we might go to try to hide it.