#DailyDevotion Watch Out What You Fix Your Eyes On

August 19th
Read 2 Sam 11:1–27
2Sa 11:1-5 ESV 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.”

Whoops! It was battle season for the Israelites. The Spring and the Fall were the times of the year when nations went to battle. For the ancients it was a lot like baseball and football season except there weren’t any rules, people died and the victors won the possessions of the defeated.

In this particular season David did not go out to play but stayed behind and lo and behold he saw the wife of one of his loyal players. He desired her, he took her and he got her pregnant. Well David does his best to cover this matter up. He tries every trick in the book to get her husband to lay with her so it would appear as if it were his child conceived in her womb. Under the law of Moses, adulterers and adulteresses were condemned to be stoned to death.

Well that didn’t work so David did the next thing which seemed reasonable to him so the he and the woman would not face the death penalty, he had Uriah murdered in battle. And then he did the next reasonable thing, he took the woman for a wife, one among his already many, so the child would be born in his house.

Well who among us has not done similar reasonable things. We mess up. We sin. We hurt other people because we want what they have whether it be possessions, reputation or esteem. So we sin to get those things. When it seems we might get caught we sin to cover the sin we committed. We keep digging a hole so deep we don’t think there will be anyway out. Or we relax because we think we have gotten away with it. But the thing is, the Lord God, the King of Universe knows what we have done. We not only can hide our dastardly deeds but He sees through the thin veneer of respectability we try to cover our wrongs with. He not only know what we do but why we do it. He knows what we are thinking in our hearts. There is no escape from His eyes or His justice. Well there is no gospel in this lesson. There is no good news. There is no hope.

So we shall look to this. David took Bathsheba into his house. Jesus in like manner, while not guilty of our sin or collusion in it, takes us into his house, guilty as we are and covers us with his righteousness so all in Heaven and on Earth cannot see our sin or accuse us of it. All the Father sees is Jesus’ righteousness. His righteousness is our only hope. His taking us as a bride into His house is our good news.

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that you have covered our sins with your righteousness and made us your own. Grant us faith to always remember and believe this. Amen.