WHEN I BRING IT ON MYSELF

Nathan then said to David, “You are the man!” 2 Samuel 12:7

You probably know the context of this verse (above). David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah. After some time has passed, God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David over his sin (2 Samuel 12). How did David fall into this sin? First, he was successful and comfortable (2 Samuel 11:1). Secondly, he allows the fact that we have an enemy greater than men to fade from his mind. Then, notice 2 Samuel 11:2-4. In those verses are the ongoing method of Satan in tempting us to sin. David saw Bathsheba, he wanted Bathsheba and he took Bathsheba. In the same way, Eve saw the fruit, she wanted the fruit and she took the fruit. This same pattern occurs with Achan in Joshua 7:20-21. James 1:13-15 also spells out this pattern.

Does God forgive David? Yes (2 Samuel 12:13). However, forgiveness does not erase the consequences of sin. If I go to a bar and get drunk, and while I’m there, I get into a fight and lose my arm, will God forgive me? Yes (1 John 1:9). But He will not restore my arm. That is a consequence of my own foolishness and sin. Someone has written: “If you don’t want the fruits (consequences) of sin, then stay out of the devil’s orchard.” One Puritan wrote: “If your conscience is not moved because of your sin, then consider this: conscience, which should have curbed sin on earth, will become the whip that lashes the soul in hell. Conscience will make the person in hell acutely aware that he/she deliberately, freely, and gladly chose the lifestyle that led him/her to hell.”

For us as believers, let us not take sin lightly nor the temptations which lead us into it. Too many times, we suffer the consequences of sin because we brought it on ourselves. Let’s take Jesus’s instructions seriously…”and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Ike Graham