The Holiday
Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 11:1 NASB
Stayed – The story is so well known that Hollywood has used it many times. Of all the stories of the kings of Israel, none is as publicized as David’s adultery with Bathsheba. And it all starts so innocently. David takes a holiday. He is supposed to be with the troops in the battle, but, he’s the king and kings need breaks too. So he stays behind. One night he gets up and walks on the roof of the palace. Perhaps he can’t sleep because he knows he is supposed to be with his troops. Perhaps he is just restless, frustrated or anxious. Whatever the reason, he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He sees a beautiful woman bathing. He didn’t plan it. He just happened to be there. What man wouldn’t look? And at this point in the story, it’s still just “accidental.” But things quickly change. Because David is not where he is supposed to be, a whole host of other opportunities arise; opportunities that would never be possible had he done what kings do in the spring. The rest is consequences.
Oswald Chambers once wrote, “You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit.”[1] David’s holiday drives the point home. The only question is whether or not we are listening.
Life is full of “accidental” encounters when you aren’t where you are supposed to be. The rabbis noted that if a man desires to circumvent the will of the Lord, creation will conspire to provide the opportunities. If, however, he chooses to be where he is supposed to be, then YHVH Himself will assist him. Perhaps our struggles with temptations and sins are as much determined by location as they are by motivation. David didn’t plan on adultery. He just didn’t choose to be where God wanted him to be. How many times have we chosen a spiritual holiday and ended up in the mire. We didn’t plan to disobey, but our choice of location offered possibilities we were not supposed to entertain. And then it was too late.
We often think that the will of the Lord for our lives is some grandiose plan of occupation, marriage, destiny or passion. But what if the will of the Lord for us is just location, just being where He wants us to be? What if God’s will for your life is as simple as geography? What if the first order of business is avoiding the question God asked Adam: “Where are you?” Have you considered location as a bulwark against sin?
David thought staying home was a good idea. What do you think?
Topical Index: stay, location, sin, holiday, Oswald Chambers, 2 Samuel 11:1
[1] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, April 15.
I think the single biggest ‘wrong location’ for me is an altered state of reality: addictions. I run from pain. I avoid encounters with myself. When I am not in my right body-mind-spirit state I am in my bushes again, looking for love in all the wrong places.
Addictions; or, what I think the KJV Bible translates as “appetite” In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, may be the single biggest thing that will keep people from settling their accounts with heaven. Lack of relationship drives down all the feel-goods, which creates a vacuum in our reality, and there is where desire springs up, for we cannot live without love. However, what I do with that very uncomfortable state is going to determine whether or not I see my sin, and whether or not I seek my salvation. I have noticed the only ‘place’ I can be in to bring the offering of a “humble and a contrite heart” to my temple is sobriety. I think Nadab and Abihu demonstrated this one. We are told more than once to be sober, for only in sobriety are we in the correct state to be able to have a true love exchange. Only when I am sober am I present in my present, which is the only ‘place’ love can ever find me.
We are admonished to be “be holy”, which to me is also a location command. My body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, but when I am not present and accounted for in it, no repentance or cleansing is going to occur – so, therefore, no restoration is going to be possible. God help me!
The thing that fascinates me in this story is the writers comment that ‘spring was the time when kings go out to battle’. What better time to kill, as when the weather warms and the flowers bud. The harshness of winter makes the war effort too difficult. Better to ‘huddle-up’ by the warmth of the palace fire and wait for warmer days to exhibit the king’s prowess. That said, I see nothing in the scripture that indicates God wanted David to slaughter Ammonian men, women and children, at least in that particular spring. What if David was just ‘sick of it all’, sending his proxy instead, to ‘do what kings do’ when the skies clear and the weather warms. I don’t know, nor does anyone else. It’s just a thought. What I do know is that the Messiah would eventually come from the Bathsheba tryst and that may well be yet another example of God creating a ‘secondary good’ from a moral lapse, in the very human David. Maybe David saw that particular spring as what spring really is, a renewal of life, not the season to begin the taking of life. Then again, maybe this morning, this spring morning, I am not in an aggressive “kingly mood”. No, I am in a ‘come from love and be your best’ mood, and that to me has springtime written all over it.
Hi Skip, Laurita, David and others,
I think accidental encounters occur even when where we are where we are supposed to be humanly speaking. I write for a living and also read the writing of others. A line in a story, suggestive in nature but subtle in tone, can push all the addiction buttons – or if there has been a short period of life where the pressures of a day have worn me down, a day-dream may ensue with an accidental encounter therein. Then, if I choose where I am supposed to be, on my knees before YHVH asking his aid and naming the issue, then as you said, YHVH himself assists. Amein. There is something about Spring that suggests liberty and liberation. Come to think of it, Shavuot, an appointed time, occurs during this season too. A time to both commit to the Lord and to be empowered by the Lord. Thanks, it does help to share and helpful to hear you share too!
How do we ever know whether we are at the exact location where God wants us?
May be David’s location was fine, but the fact that he did not listen to his GPS recalculating and not walking next to YHVH as His partner, was the issue. Even in the worst of location( a hi-jack, war, holocaust) we always have a choice. Think of the many times Yeshua was in a “wrong” location (with tax-collectors and sinners( Mark: 2: 15-17). And if we are to trust God in our weaknesses, then I guess that is the place where we exercise our trust and faithfulness. And yes, the only spiritual vacation is when God is alone, that being, sin.
Lev. 3:17, 7:26, 23:17 – do this in all your dwelling places ….no matter where you live.
Any location – one direction of choice.
I would not title this a “Holiday,” but rather “Dereliction of Duty.” Yes, it was a failure of “location,” and had David been were he should have been, temptation might have been averted. A recovering alcoholic has no business “testing” himself or herself by frequenting the local watering hole. “He who would not fall ought not to walk in slippery places.”
This event in David’s life also is a warning for us to be on our guard 24/7. How many times in the scriptures are we enjoined to be “on guard?” [At all times] ~ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour ~ (1 Peter 5.7) ~ Above all else, [at all times] guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. ~
One last comment — Had David been busy doing the right thing, he would have no time to do the wrong thing. And there is also this “takeaway” for us: ~ Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall ~ We need to “daily” at the dawning of each new day, to spend some quality time with the One we love.
And interestingly, there were significant “Rooftop” ( גָּג in Hebrew, and לל in Paleo Hebrew) happenings.
( ל – shepherd staff – means authority, or rod of discipline)
Rooftops-
the high place of altars-
Jeremiah 19:13 “…because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.
the place of prayer =
Acts 10: 9 where Peter was shown all manner of unclean creatures
the place of proclamation-
2 Samuel 16:22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
Matthew 10:26-27
“….What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.”
to mourn-
Isaiah 15:3 In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth; On their housetops and in their squares Everyone is wailing, dissolved in tears.
a place of refuge, etc…
It was crucial king David was brought to terms of his dreadful transgression, and he fully paid with the consequences of losing his son, and deeply / painfully bewailed his folly to be reconciled to YHWH.
Perhaps he was taken aback from events that took place in the previous chapter, and was caught off guard. He was truly a man after YHWH’s heart!