|
As we will draw our curtain open today, we find David all alone in his palace surrounded by many wives. Perhaps some were cooking for him, soaking his feet or giving him a close shave. Maybe it was like being in a nail salon. Perhaps all those women were working on David’s feet, hair and skin carrying on their own conversations as if he was not there. Or maybe they were all arguing as to who was going to sleep with him that night! I’m not sure but it is fun to imagine what palace life would have been like with all of those wives around.
David clearly disobeyed God when God told him not to take many wives. The reason God commanded him not to take many wives is found at the end of Deuteronomy 17:17. For memory’s sake, what would happen to ones heart if they were to take many wives?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
God commanded them not to take many wives for their own protection. So we can see that David was surrounded by many women, which would ultimately lead his heart astray. This background knowledge will help us to see what kind of trouble David’s heart was already in before his big stumble into sin.
Has there been a time in your life that your heart has been led astray? What kinds of emotions surrounded you during that time?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Many women are walking around with wounded hearts in search for true love. Because they don’t know the one and only true love, God’s love, many hearts remain empty. They have substituted the real deal (Jesus) for unholy relationships with men and have been led astray a time or two. The Bible teaches that the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure (Jeremiah 17:9). Knowing that truth means that we cannot always trust our hearts.
David’s boredom left him open to temptation. Please read 2 Samuel 11:2. Verse 2 says, “In the evening David got up from his bed…” If it was not bedtime, what was David doing in his bed in the early hours of the evening? He must have been so bored he was napping! As he got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace, he saw a women bathing and his first thought was that she was beautiful.
At this point I don’t believe David has sinned. We will always have thoughts such as David’s that pop in our heads. We can be innocently walking through a mall, and Brad Pitt walks by and we immediately think, “What a good looking man.” That is not sin. It becomes sin when we choose to entertain those thoughts. If Brad Pitt ended up mentally in your bed that night, that would be sin! David could have simply stopped there and redirected himself but he did not.
What do you think David should have done the moment he spotted the attractive woman and thought she was beautiful?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
One idea is that David could have left his rooftop. He could have left the scene and focused on something different. The longer he stared at her, the more seduced he became. Seduction was right before him whispering tempting thoughts in his ear. He had the power to resist them, but it is apparent he did not tap into the power. Scripture does not record what kinds of thoughts went through his mind, but we can only imagine. As he entertained himself with eye candy, he should have repented right then and there. He should have fled the scene immediately. This would have halted his sin before it got out of hand.
Think back to a time when you meditated on something that was seducing your mind and you chose not to immediately surrender that thought to God. What happened? How did your thoughts lead from one to another?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
My friend, Kelli, posed a great question as she was reading through this study revising it. She said, “I wonder why Bathsheba was bathing in the open where prying eyes could see? I wonder if she was trying to tempt the king.” As I thought about her question, I wondered how many times we have been so desperate for attention we purposely flaunted ourselves trying to tempt, or seduce, another man to get our needs met. If the Holy Spirit brings a memory to mind, take time to repent of that and ask Him for forgiveness.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
If you were to entertain an initial thought that a married man at work was good-looking, explain what that thought would look like as it spirals towards more ungodly thoughts.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We take captive every thought…” What do you think this means and why do you think God tells us to do this?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
I believe He gave us that scripture because He wanted to teach us to be obedient to Him in our thought lives. He wants us to be in continual communication with him and talking to him about our thoughts is one way we can communicate with him. He wants to teach us His ways, so if we go to Him and line up our thoughts with His, we can see what He thinks about the matter. At that point, we can choose to think His thoughts on it rather than our own. He wants us to become aware when an ungodly thought pops in our heads. He wants to train us how to take an ungodly thought and take it captive.
How can you know what His thoughts are about a specific matter?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
You can know His thoughts by knowing Him. The best way to know Him is to read His word. I like to look in my Bible concordance for a specific word that describes an issue I’m dealing with at that time. Then, I research the scriptures until I find one that speaks to me about the matter. I choose to think that particular scripture over the thought rather than my own. You see, it’s a choice to think His thoughts on the matter. I once heard somewhere that God is a gentleman. He will not force himself or His ways on us. We have to make to choice to follow His ways and believe His thoughts over our own. We can halt our ungodly thoughts right away when we choose to do so. We can even begin to think his thoughts about a matter when we know what those are. Tomorrow we will see how David’s lack of repentance in his thought life led to speaking out his lustful desires.
Let’s close today by praying Psalm 19:14 together.
Father God,
May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. May you help us to become keenly aware of the thoughts that come to our minds and help us to confess them when they are not pleasing to you. In Jesus name, Amen. | 
