Hi Folks:

When I decided to look at David, I knew eventually we would have to cover the episode of his affair with Bathsheba. To be honest, I’ve been trying to put it off because its like watching a train wreck. Something compels me to look, but I know its going to be bad.

We’re going to break the episode down into several parts, so in a way it will be like watching the wreck in slow motion. As we review the frames of the replay, we’ll see causes for this crash. We’ll see that it was preventable, but David missed the signals which might have kept his life from coming off the rails.

2Samuel 11:1 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.*

We understand from the passage that kings normally went to war in the spring, but David didn’t go that year. His top general Joab was a capable military leader and David trusted him with the entire army. The result was a successful, growing kingdom. As he defeated the neighbouring kings, the nation enjoyed security and the treasury filled with gold, silver and bronze. Things were going well for David and he could afford to take a break.

If you’re like me, you wish for a break from the normal. Routine says monotony - getting up day after day, doing the same things, going to the same places, seeing the same people, eating the same foods.

We’ve all heard the saying, "A change is as good as a rest." A change in routine can be refreshing. I’m sure David was thinking the change would be good for him as he stayed home from the battlefield.

David would have been better off going to war. If you read ahead, you’ll see that he would not have been around to lust after Bathsheba. His battlefield routine would have kept him occupied and the whole, horrible situation might not have happened.

I bet you’ve never thought about being thankful for your routine. I didn’t really think about it before. Routine can keep us out of trouble. We know what we will be doing. It is familiar and predictable. Most of all, we learn to deal with the temptations that our normal routine provides. So, we can be thankful for our routines.

We encounter new temptations when we step out of our routine. I know that the top row of the magazine rack never looks as tempting as when I’m walking through the airport in a strange place. Movies that I would never normally think of renting catch my eye when Jan and the boys are away.

A change in routine presents us with new temptations and challenges. I can’t always predict what they will be, but I have come to expect them when I do something different, when I travel or Jan goes away, when I find myself with spare time, when I move or start a new job, when I complete a big project, when a situation explodes unexpectedly. All of these represent changes in my routine which expose me to new attacks.

That doesn’t mean I should never vary my routine. Rather, understanding that I’m more open when I’m out of my routine helps me to protect my integrity and character.

In this first frame of our replay, we see that we can be thankful for our routines because they can protect us from trouble. At the same time, we also learn that when we step out of our routines, we can face new challenges and temptations.

Hope this helps. Be On Fire,

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. ">This letter published Oct 3, 2005. www.onfireletter.com