Sin Makes You Stupid

David sinned with Bathsheba and that led to more sin as he tried to cover it up. He tried his best to get Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to do wrong in the process. Uriah didn’t. So David convinced himself the solution was to have the noble warrior killed by the hands of the Ammonites. His actions made him an adulterer, a liar, a despicable leader and a murder. But it also made him stupid.

You see in order to make the death of Uriah happen; he had to enlist the help of his commander Joab. Joab wasn’t the type to not take advantage of the situation. So when Joab made an error in battle by letting the men get too close to the wall, he used the information of Uriah’s death to distract David from criticism.

“and if it happens that the king's wrath rises and he says to you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 'Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?'--then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'"

2^nd Samuel 11:20-21

David should have been critical. History had shown this was a dangerous maneuver. Joab should have been reprimanded. But David wasn’t thinking about his duty, he was thinking about his sin. Since it got him what we wanted David didn’t much care that his commander had lost good men, weakened his army and endangered kingdom.

Sin does that to everyone. We’ve seen it for years when smart people do very dumb things in pursuit of or in the cover up of sin. Politicians, CEOs, stars athletes who should know better ruin it all by their vices. Ordinary people do it as well. Sin is a toxic substance that corrupts pollutes and dulls everything it touches.

Sin is a dark veil that clouds your judgment. Don’t get hoodwinked by it!

Comments

Until Midnight

In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Mighty Gulf

It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding. To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two. Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God? In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission. It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog