Jan 27 2009
Is Bathsheba Like Chocolate Cake?
To sit at a bus stop and watch pretty girls go by seems to be a harmless occupation. Or is it? King David obviously didn’t think so. Except he was on the roof of his home, the palace. He should have been away fighting battles. In chapter 11 it tells us it was the spring when Kings go to war.
The King couldn’t sleep so he went for a walk. Looking out over the city or whether admiring the landscape he spied a woman having a bath. It caught his attention. Bible says she was beautiful. The king thought so too because he sent for her.
They ended up doing their thing. I wonder what made them think that they could get away with committing adultery. Those of us that have been around awhile know full well that what is done in secret God rewards openly.
Unfortunately for these two it works in a negative sense as well. Bathsheba found herself pregnant. A cover up was planned; it failed. For these two people murder became the only option.
God sent the prophet Nathan to see David. He told the King a parable. It was about two men. One was rich with many sheep, the other poor with only one. Instead of slaughtering one of his own sheep to feed his guests he killed the poor mans only sheep.
The King demanded to know who it was so he could punish him. Imagine his embarrassment when the prophet told him it was to do with he and Bathsheba’s adultery.
As with many types of sin they just don’t happen over night. There is a gradual progression which arrives at the act itself. Suppose we have a slice of cake. Lets say its chocolate. It will represent sin. We look at it. We admire it but we don’t eat it so we think we have done nothing wrong.
We read a book about chocolate cakes enjoying the lavish photographs. We still haven’t eaten the cake so technically we have done nothing wrong. Then we gone online. We visit web sites. There are more pictures of chocolate cakes.
We still haven’t eaten the cake. But the momentum is slowly building. One day we come across a piece of chocolate cake that we think only we know about. So we might just pick a crumb of it. Then we pick up the cake and eat it. Sin is pleasurable for a season. Eventually we feel dirty inside like King David did. So we repent and come back to that rightful place in God.
Sex is a wonderful thing, without it I would not be here. But God created the institution of marriage which is where it belongs. After-all when things are done God’s way sex is His wedding present to a man and a woman.
In these times in which we are living it is sadly not so with some people. So how can we deal with this. Lets go back to our analogy of the chocolate cake.
At the early stages when the picture of the cake is in front of us it is purely an enticement. It leads to the next step downward. When confronted with this situation imagine that dirty feeling inside when you had committed sin the last time. You know, just before you repented. It will stop you in your tracks.
