David was once a national hero who became king. He conquered nations and was riding a wave of popularity and abundance. His life was going great, but in a single night he blew his life up.
2 Samuel 11 tells the story of David and a hook-up gone bad. The name Bathsheba rings in our ears as a part of the play as David blows up his life. The second step is:
#2: Letting Your Eyes Lead Your Soul
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. While he was on the roof, he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful. So David sent his servants to find out who she was. A servant answered, “That woman is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 2 Samuel 11:2-3 (NCV)
David has stayed home and let others fight for him. One night he is up walking on the roof and looks over and sees a beautiful woman bathing on a roof nearby. David likes what he sees and keeps looking. He looks long enough that he takes a step towards trouble. He wants this woman; he is going to get her. He is about to make a huge mistake that will cost him for the rest of his life and beyond.
In 2006, Nike made some commercials featuring LeBron James. He was training in a pool while an older LeBron sat beside the pool making fun of him. During the commercial the older LeBron yells something at the younger LeBron that my boys and I would say to each other several times over the next couple of years. Old LeBron is sitting with an ice cold glass of lemonade and he yells: “Stop looking at my lemonade!!” Anytime we would look at each other we would yell it at each other as a joke.
I just wonder how David’s life would have been different if someone had yelled “Stop looking at her”. If we are going to survive what we see then we have to decide to STOP.
Seeing isn’t the problem, staring is. David probably wasn’t looking for a good time up on the roof, but his eye caught a woman and he couldn’t look away. His problem was that he kept looking, not that he saw her. He let a glance become a thought. He saw someone who wasn’t his and decided he had to have her. He let his eyes linger and soon his desire followed.
Turn around and go back in the house. It seems crazy, but all David has to do is go back inside the house. Get off the roof. Quit looking. Just let it go and don’t let what you saw drive your actions. Maybe even go inside and sleep with one of your wives even. We all have to remember when it comes to temptation that a good run beats a bad fight any day of the week. He needed to just turn around and stop staring. But he looked just a second too long maybe. He was hooked; he had to find out who she was. Trouble got him when he wasn’t looking for it.
Observe where your eyes are leading your soul. They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I think that is true, but in a different way. I think our eyes can let things into our soul that we don’t want in our souls. The Bible says that the original sin came to life when even “looked at the fruit and saw that it looked good.” Her eyes led her to sin. Amazing thing is that our eyes can take us either way. It can lead us to bad choices or good choices. It all depends on the next thing we decide to look at. With that in mind make a decision about what you will let your eyes focus on.
Put only good in front of you. I’m not sure when the next words were written by David. Was it before this night or after? Was it a moment of hope or a moment of remorse? Was it a promise that he believed in or a promise he neglected and got stung? The words are these from Psalm 101:3: I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. I’m not Bathsheba was wicked but David let his look become something vile. He let it turn into lust and then he couldn’t close his eyes and look away. He was gone, taken by a desire that was not right. We have to make sure we keep only good in front of us. We will accidentally see something we shouldn’t. Make sure we don’t go looking for trouble.
David’s eyes lead his soul to sin. If he had only stopped looking, there would have been a whole different story. But looking is not always sinning. Next post we will see the next step that David takes to blow up his life.
One final question: What are you looking at? No, seriously What are you looking at?