"BUT DAVID REMAINED!!"

2 Samuel 11:1-5              (ESV)
"1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. "BUT DAVID REMAINED" at Jerusalem.
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."


Every man who has ever lived, with the exception of ONE, has been imperfect!  King David was "a man after GOD's own heart" (according to 1 Samuel 13:14), yet he submitted himself to fleshly desires with Bathsheba.  While her husband Uriah was doing his duty defending the nation of Israel, King David was observing Bathsheba bathing herself.  He desired her and summoned her to his quarters and had relations with her.  Then to avoid being found out, he had Uriah put on the front lines  and Uriah was killed in battle.  King David then took Bathsheba to be his wife.

In 1 Samuel 11:1 we are told that the time was in the spring of the year.  There was a war that Israel was fighting against the Ammonites in which Israel "ravaged" their enemy.   "BUT DAVID REMAINED" in Jerusalem away from the battle.  David was a warrior and his place would seem to be where the battle was taking place.  Instead, he stayed in Jerusalem and succumbed to temptation and fleshly desires.   Rather than fighting for The LORD, he was letting his inner enemy win a spiritual battle!

There have been times when I should be battling for The LORD.  Rather than being involved with a conflict, I try to avoid a spiritual battle with the excuse of not wanting to get hurt.  Instead of fighting a battle for The LORD, I wind up giving in to temptation or selfish desires!

Numbers 32:23 tells us that our sin WILL find us out!  "BUT DAVID REMAINED" and his transgressions wound up finding David out also.  While GOD was providing Israel with a "ravaging" victory, their King was away from the battle focused on his desires.  But even though he sinned multiple times and multiple ways, King David always came back to a loving, forgiving GOD!  I need to be busy about the battles that The LORD has for me to fight and not be guilty of what happened when "DAVID REMAINED"!!