To Encourage You

2 Samuel 11:16-17 “And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.”

So often the cover-up is worse than the original sin. Yet we can deceive ourselves into thinking otherwise. People do it all the time. I’ve seen this in the workplace where someone tried to hide a wrong they’d done and the price paid by the employee was worse than if they’d just confessed the original offense. And we can see it in accounts like the one above, which God has provided for us as a warning. It’s about David and his sin with Bathsheba. What began as a lustful look escalated to an act of adultery, followed by lies and deception, and eventually murder, as Joab, at David’s command, places Bathsheba’s husband Uriah in a situation in which he is sure to be killed. It’s the classic example of the truth that “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).  In David’s case it was the death of the man Uriah, several other of his fellow soldiers, and then David’s and Bathsheba’s son. It’s the ultimate end of sin – destruction and sometimes even the death of those affected by that sin. It was true for David and it’s just as true for you and me.

But how often do we persist in our sin, thinking that for us, this one time, things will turn out better? And to what length will we go to cover it all up thinking that hiding our sin will make it all better? Look at the examples – they’re everywhere. A look that turns into a lustful thought and ends up in a destroyed family or the death of an unborn child. The first experiment with drugs or alcohol that leads to addiction and all the destruction that attends it. The angry words behind closed doors that have such a destructive influence while we put on the facade that all is well. May God help us to confess and forsake our sin rather than hide it. May we remember that the darkness is as the light to Him.