Daily Devotional for Monday, December 25

David’s Unscrupulous Plan

“And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king,” 2 Samuel 11:8.

When I was in the fourth grade, my boyfriend made a bad grade on his schoolwork. We were supposed to get our parents’ signatures on our graded papers every week to prove we showed them our grades. My little fourth grade boyfriend did not want his mom to know how poorly he did on his schoolwork, so he asked me if I would sign his mother’s name on his papers. This would ensure that he would not get in trouble at home or at school. Being confident in my cursive skills, I signed his graded papers while riding on the school bus that Monday morning. As you can imagine, our teacher was not fooled. She saw right past the pencil-written, squiggle signature and called both of our parents.

David’s sin with Bath-sheba was committed in secret but had very public consequences. David not only had sinned against his fellowman (one of his chosen mighty men), but he had sinned against the Lord. In a desperate attempt to hide what he had done, he sent for Uriah, Bath- sheba’s husband, to come back from the battle. In David’s mind, this was the perfect plan. Who would refuse to go see his wife after being in battle for so long? No one would have to know that David was the father of the baby. David’s lust and sin had obviously clouded his judgment, and he assumed Uriah would operate under the same lustful desires which would clear him of any repercussions. Instead of choosing to humbly confess his sins, David entangled himself in a web of deceitfulness.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Confess your sins one to another. Let us repent quickly and sincerely in all humility when we sin against each other and when we sin against the Lord.

Ashley Ridings