Ahithophel told him, “Go and sleep with your father’s concubines, for he has left them here to keep the house. Then all Israel will know that you have insulted him beyond hope of reconciliation, and they will give you their support.” - 2 Samuel 16:21
Do you ever think you can sin and get away with it? “Nobody will know,” we say to ourselves and then try to cover up our trails. But it can’t be done. God has decided that we won’t get away with it. “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).
King David had thought he could cover up his sin with Bathsheba, but God made sure David didn’t get away with it. David confessed his sin and received forgiveness (2 Samuel 12), but that didn’t stop the consequences of sin in his own life, or the repercussions of his sin that rippled through his family.
Absalom, one of David’s sons, revolted against his father, raped his father’s concubines in public, and tried to kill him (2 Samuel 13–18). Could this have been merely a reflection of David’s sin?
Joab, David’s general, had received David’s message delivered by Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband: “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed” (2 Samuel 11:15). Did General Joab’s decision to kill Absalom come from watching his boss’s coldheartedness (2 Samuel 18:14)? Did Joab later join Adonijah’s rebellion against Solomon as a reflection of his disillusionment with King David’s leadership (1 Kings 2:28)?
You reap what you sow. The far-reaching results of sin are appalling, and God would spare us.
For Further Study: 2 Samuel 15:1-14; 16:15-22
Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.
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