The Slippery Slope

 

The Cost of a Glance - 2 Samuel 11

Dear Friends, one spring evening, when kings usually go out to war, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. From his rooftop he saw a woman bathing—Bathsheba—and the look lingered. What began as a glance became desire, then action: he sent messengers, took her to the palace, and lay with her. When she conceived, David tried to cover his sin. He brought Uriah (the woman's husband) home from the battlefront, hoping he would sleep with his wife and the child would be assumed to be Uriah’s. But Uriah, ever loyal, refused the comfort of home while his comrades were in the field (v11). David tried again—getting him drunk—but Uriah still slept at the palace gate (v13). Finally, desperate, David sent Uriah back to the front with orders for Joab to place him where the fighting was fiercest and then withdraw, ensuring his death (v17).

The sequence is chilling: one look → lust → adultery → deception → murder. David, the shepherd-king who had trusted God against Goliath, now used his royal power to destroy an innocent man and hide his guilt. The consequences would haunt him—yet even here, the story is not the end. God would confront David through Nathan, and repentance would follow (Psalm 51). The child died, but later Solomon was born to the same woman, and from that line came the Messiah.

What a sobering warning. Sin rarely stays small. A glance becomes a choice, a choice becomes a chain, and soon we’re entangled in things we never imagined. Yet the grace of God is greater still—He does not abandon the repentant heart.

Today, pause and ask the Spirit to search you. Where has a “look” lingered too long? Bring it quickly to the cross before it grows roots.

Point to Ponder: Sin promises pleasure but delivers chains; confession brings forgiveness and restoration.

Verse to Remember: “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In it he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.’” (2 Samuel 11:14–15 ESV)

Question to Consider: Is there any area of your life where a small compromise has grown into something heavier? What would it look like to confess it to the Lord today?

Article written by Shaun Fereday, Leader @SFGH Church