Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The dilemma Of Sin (Part 1)

The dilemma Of Sin (Part 1)
1And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.  2The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:  3But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.  4And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.  5And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:  6And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.  (2nd Samuel 12:1-6)
     In the 11th chapter of 2nd Samuel, we find that it is springtime. This is a good time to go to war because the roads were dry, making travel easier for troop movements, supply wagons, and chariots.  Israel went off to war, but David stayed behind in Jerusalem.  One evening, he decided to walk around on the roof of the palace.  While on the roof he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, bathing.  To make a long story short, he became filled with lust for her, he found who she was, sent for her, slept with her, impregnated her, and had her husband killed on the front line, to cover up his sin.    David allowed himself to fall deeper and deeper into sin, because: he abandoned his purpose by staying home from war (11:1), he focused on his own desires (11:3), when temptation came, he looked into it instead of turning away from it (11:4), he sinned deliberately (11:4), he tried to cover up his sin by deceiving others (11:6-15), he committed murder to continue the cover-up (11:15, 17).  Eventually David's sin was exposed, punished, and he had to deal with the consequences.
     David thought that he had gotten away with his dilemma of sin; Uriah the Hittite was dead, and nobody else knew his secret.  Or so he thought.    For a whole year David kept his secret but one man was aware of the secret.  Nathan the prophet.   As a prophet, Nathan was required to confront sin; even the sin of a king.  Nathan told David the story of a poor man with one ewe sheep, and a rich man that had stolen that one little sheep.  David was angry and pronounced that the man is worthy of death.  Because he thought his secret was safe, and due to his insensitivity to his own sin, David did not even know the story pertained to him.  Nathan the prophet had to point it out to him.
     We must come to understand that when we do wrong, although, God does forgive us, there are still consequences for the sin.  The question is what will it be?  It is foolish to believe that when choose sin over righteousness, that nothing comes of it.  Romans 6:23 says: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  If you choose to sin it will cost you something, and chances are, leave you in a dilemma.

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