Take Heed Of Sin’s Spiraling Effect

It is not sin to be tempted, but to indulge in that temptation and act upon it is sin.   #daybydaylw   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   Take heed of sin’s spiraling effect   We receive a taste of the spiraling effect of David’s sinfulness in verses 3-4—“And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah?’ So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.” David inquired, David sent, David took, David lay.” Proverbs 26:27 “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.” Where does the shovel meet the dirt, on its way to digging a pit; and where does the stone begin to roll in this story? An innocent look The shovel meets the dirt in our story with a little further back than we might think. The stone started rolling when David’s sexual desires went unchecked and his neglect of God’s word went unaccounted for, when he started multiplying wives back in his younger years. Whether it was for political strategy or alliances, or whether it was out of lust, it was wrong. The God of Israel had made it explicit in His word that the king of Israel should not multiply wives. And yet David, driven by the flesh and not by the Spirit, fed that desire. It may have been something David wrestled with, we don’t know. But we do see that desire manifest again. David is most likely out of place at the beginning of chapter 11. The text tells us that kings are at war with their men during this time, but David was at home, which set the stage for the opportunity to sin. Please don’t take this to mean that if David were with his men, then he wouldn’t have had temptation to sin. It is not as if when we are walking in the Spirit, living within the God’s will for our days that we will not face temptation. That is not what I am saying, that is not what the text is saying. But it is evident that there was a weakening, a lethargy of spiritual zeal, so to speak, so that when the temptation came David was weak, and did not fight it. And the downward spiral of sin was set in motion by an innocent look. It was not sinful that David saw this woman. Being tempted is not sinful. It is what you do with that temptation that determines if you are indulging the flesh or not. I once heard it said that you cannot keep a bird from flying over you, but you sure can keep it from building a nest on your head. It was not the seeing that was sinful; it was the refusal to look away, it was the lingering gazes, that was building its nest.