Lust and desire to have what someone else has is called “coveting” in the Bible. Defined, to covet means to yearn (crave and ache) to possess what you do not have. Since Adam and Eve, many of God’s beloved and called over the centuries have fallen for the desire to have it all which leads to getting it all at all costs.
Coveting is mentioned as numbers 9 and 10 of the Big Ten commands of what not to do: (Exodus 20)
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.”
When God commands it and we disobey Him; it is called sin. Sin separates us from God who deserves an intimate, growing, maturing relationship with Him. Sometimes, sin tempts us when life is good and we are at rest from our conquering pursuits. Our minds wonder, and instead of living in gratitude for all that God has provided; we begin to search for what else we do not have. Evil pounces on this unfocused state of mind that wonders while wandering away from God. Our minds work overtime to convince us we deserve more. We look back on our success (by God’s hands) and think; “Look at all I have accomplished.” “Everyone bows down to serve me, now.” “Whatever I command; it is done!” We get cocky and arrogant in responding to the life God provided for us, and we fall for sin more than we liked to admit.
David whose heart was known for lining up with God’s heart, turns his focus from serving God to serving self. David is resting on his laurels as a warrior to just being a king who commands. David has time on his hands. Evil tempts him and he falls. David’s lust for his loyal soldier’s wife led him to fulfill that lust by being with her. This led to the manipulation of lives which eventually led to murder. We’re sure David thought he had succeeded in his cover up of sin. David had it all and wanted more—but at a high cost. David’s actions greatly displeased God. God will discipline David because He loves him like a son.
2 Samuel 11
David and Bathsheba
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”
22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
Adam and Eve’s perfect, intimate relationship with God was severed by their disobedience to God.
Moses led the people to the Promised Land but was not allowed to enter because he took matters into his own hands one day in anger and frustration against God’s whiny people.
Jacob manipulated his twin brother Esau out of his rightful inheritance. God had to deal with him a wrestling match over the will of God. Later, Jacob was manipulated by his future father-in-law who placed a veil over the older sister and gave her to Jacob instead of the woman of his dreams.
We could go on…but I think we get it! Our desire to have it all because we think we deserve it and do everything we can in our own power to get it no matter who it hurts is sin and displeases God. God wants HIS best for us. His best is beyond our wildest dreams or imaginations but we when we covet and selfish decide to choose what we want; sin is born and gives birth to more sin to cover the first sin! Crazy! Before spiraling out of control, we have the option to repent, halting the madness and destruction of sin.
Truth: Our sins affect all those around us, not just us.
Yes, we are born into sin and our nature to sin is strong. But God is stronger still! Repented sin to God in Jesus Name is the best way to remove sin! We overcome sin’s temptations as we lean on God’s resurrection power, the power that brought Jesus, our Redeemer of all sin, back to life! THIS power, God’s Holy Spirit’s power, lives in us to help us overcome the temptation to fall for sin! We cannot do this on our own! We must trust In Jesus who saved us and set us free!
RECAP:
Warren Wiersbe comments; “David looked over the city, but he focused on one woman. In modern terms, he was doing the equivalent of idly clicking the remote or surfing the Internet. He didn’t think he was looking for trouble, but trouble found him in the form of temptation. Not only did he notice the woman, he kept looking and decided to find out who she was. David’s temptation and sin illustrate the truth that ‘each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death’ “ (James 1:14, 15).
Although a successful commander of Israel’s army, King David let himself be conquered by lust. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, then arranged to have her husband murdered. David was not immune to temptation. When he sinned, God held him accountable for his actions. Stay tuned…
Lord,
Thank you first for forgiving us of our sins. Thank you for providing the power to run from more temptations to sin. May we run to you instead and be filled by your overcoming power to resist the devil’s distractions and our own self desires. Keep us focused on you and your best for us according to your will and purpose all day long and into the night. May overthinking that leads to worry be replaced by thinking more like you that leads us to your peace of mind.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 