Daily Devotions – Identity Issues

Daily Devotions – Identity Issues

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart: 

2 Samuel 11:1-5English Standard Version (ESV)

David and Bathsheba

11 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

Making plans is wise, but wise planning is rooted in who we are: loved children of God. In 2 Samuel 11 David forgets this. He is God’s chosen and anointed King of Israel. He did nothing to deserve this. He forgot who he was and whose he was. This simple thing, forgetting his identity as a loved and blessed child of God, led him to make huge mistakes (adultery, impregnating another man’s wife, covering it up, murder). This seemingly small thing changes the rest of David’s life. Are your plans rooted in Christ? Do you seek God’s will in buying a house? When searching for jobs or schools? When making seemingly normal life choices? Is your identity as a child of the risen King your foundation? It can have bigger future implications than we often realize or are willing to admit. Start your plans for the week in God’s love.