David's Cover Up

Most of you probably know the story of King David and his affair with Bethsheba.

Contrary to popular belief, Bathsheba was not on her roof taking a bath.  Jerusalem had public baths for ritual purity where people went to obey the laws of Moses.

Living in the tallest house in Jerusalem, David was able to look out from the top of his house and see a lot of places, including the bath where women and girls bathed themselves after having their periods.  For David, this may have been a form of pornography.  David knew where women regularly bathed and on this particular day as night was falling, he saw one who captured his attention. 

Of course some religious people prefer to think of heroes like David as being always pure and holy, except of course for a moment of weakness which was completely not like David's norm. David's moment of weakness was very temporary and ended up with another moment of weakness when he had Bathsheba's husband killed to cover up his first moment of weakness.  They will think that somehow David happened by accident to look at the place where women took baths - a place that he never realized existed until that one moment.

In this case, it doesn't matter if David had one moment of weakness or if he looked at the bath on a more regular basis. What does matter is that David did give into temptation and did commit adultery with a woman who was married to someone else. Furthermore, to cover up his sin, and to protect his image, he killed her husband.

THE DILEMMA ADULTERY BIRTHS

When Bathsheba got pregnant, David was face to face with a problem that had no good solution.  If he let the truth be known, his reputation and his leadership would be in question.  Think of what would happen if the president of the United States committed adultery with someone else's wife.  David knew that this scandal would be devastating for him and for Bathsheba.  The law of Moses went so far as to claim that they were both guilty of death.  David's affair took him into a direction that left him with bad choices.

One of my students confessed to the class that as a youth pastor she got pregnant before marriage and was left with the decision of letting the teens know that what she said about remaining virgins until marriage was not something she was capable of doing or aborting the child.  She honestly thought that she was protecting her testimony of Christ by choosing to have an abortion.  She regretted having the abortion.

My student didn't commit adultery with anyone married, but she was left with the same dilemma as those who commit adultery.  She had big consequences with no easy solution to them. 

King David had no easy way out and made bad decisions to cover up his affair.

Covering up ongoing or past affairs easily becomes an unforeseen monster that will drive you to lie and to hurt others as well as hurt yourself. In the end, you will regret your actions.

The early chapters of Proverbs addresses adultery and its consequences.  Being a man's world, Proverbs talks like men who give in to adultery are victims of the type of women who have no shame.  In reality, it is true for male or female, for anyone of either sex considering or partaking in adultery.  Proverbs 7:27 says, "Her/his house is the way to hell, down the chambers of death."