Temptation Strikes

TEMPTATION STRIKES

a prayer to open

My Lord, my God, show me your heart. Ground me in your presence.

Draw me near and hold me close.

In the spring . . . when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. . . . However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Late one afternoon . . . David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. . . . Then she returned home. Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”

Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. Then he told Uriah, “Go on home and relax.” David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.

When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?”

Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.”

“Well, stay here today,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. But . . . again he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.

So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” So . . . when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.

Up to this point in David’s life, he seemed perfect and invincible. But now we see that he was a flawed man, prone—just like the rest of us—to wander away from God’s path and toward lust, abuse of power, deception, and self-preservation. However, as this story unfolds, we’ll notice that David’s relationship with God and his deep understanding of God’s love and mercy always drew him back to God in repentance.

• Before sleeping with Bathsheba, David made a series of decisions that enabled his sin. What were they?
• What is the greatest temptation you face? What kinds of decisions make you more likely to give in to your temptations?
• When was the last time you gave in to a temptation? How did you experience God in the midst of that temptation?

Father, thank you for the mercy and grace you offer through Jesus Christ. I need strength in the midst of temptation. My desire is to honor you with my mind, my body, and my words, yet so often I turn to relationships, substances, or other things out of fear, lack of trust, or loneliness. Help me identify the things that set me up for giving in to temptation and turn me away from you. May I see you in the midst of my temptation and sin and, in your mercy and grace, turn my heart back to you. Amen.