In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war . .
. David remained in Jerusalem (1 Samuel 11:1).
Seemingly
insignificant decisions can reap giant consequences.
Israel was going to
war with Ammon. David had an able general in Joab, and entrusted the Ammonite
military campaign to him, leaving David with some free time on his hands. One
sleepless night, David was strolling around the palace rooftop, when he spied
his neighbor’s wife bathing. He was intrigued and had her summoned. While
David’s neighbor (Uriah) was at the battlefront, David became sexually
entangled with Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife). Their relationship resulted in an
unwanted pregnancy and a potentially embarrassing scandal for the king.
Rather than seeing
this as an opportunity to come clean and confess his sins, David went the way
of the cover-up. He brought Uriah home from the front lines, thinking he would
sleep with his wife and everyone would think the baby was his. No flag, no
foul; but Uriah had too much integrity for that. In a final act of desperation,
David arranged with Joab for Uriah to become a casualty of war, a surefire
solution to his problem with plausible deniability for all. David was in
the clear… and a murderer.
What would have
happened if David had led his own troops into battle, and that first wayward
step not taken?
All for the want of a nail [1].
TODAY’S MEDITATION
What decisions are you
pondering this week? What consequences should you be considering?
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