2023_07_19 Insight Post- Rusty Coram
This week’s reading- 2 Samuel 11-12, Philippians 2, 1 Chronicles 17, Hebrews 12
Make sure to read Kim Feld’s posts from this Monday and on Friday as she contrasts episodes in King David’s life that show the great capacity a person can have for both righteousness and unrighteousness. We read in 2 Samuel 11:17 that as King, David should have been leading the nation’s army, but instead, he delegated the responsibility to others and relaxed back at home. Had he just been faithful to his role as king, a horrible chapter in his and the nation’s life would have been written very differently.
Now let’s look at the New Testament letter to the Philippian church that reads, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.” Philippians 2:12 (NLT) It is clear that God expects us to carry an important responsibility in our relationship with Him. He supplies everything we need to be faithful and honor Him. All that is required of us is to provide the will to work at it. David was chosen by God, miraculously protected by Him, and then given the ability and resources to lead the nation. His failure came when he slacked off in His devotion to God and took a break from diligently following Him. The same thing can happen to us. Maybe we are tired, or we compare our effort to others, and we feel we have earned a break from deliberately pursuing God. It could be that we have been toying with temptation and have convinced ourselves that what we want “isn’t that bad” or “everyone is doing it.” Whenever we slide into this kind of thinking, we are replacing “reverence and fear” with “rationalizing and forgetting” who God is.
Just like in marriage, there is never a time when slacking off in devotion to our mate is acceptable, and neither is it ever appropriate for us to back off on our time alone with God, prayer, Bible reading, and surrender.
It may be tempting to be super critical of David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, but we need to be careful. Disobeying God in the big things begins with slacking off in small things, and then gravity takes over.
Rusty Coram
Senior Pastor