Being held accountable for our self-control
2 Samuel 11:1-5
11 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ 4 So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’
The problem began not in vs. 3, when David decided he wanted to have sex with Bathsheba. No, the problem began in vs. 1. David the king chose not to be with his forces when they were on the front, instead he stayed in Jerusalem and travelled down a path that he would never have travelled down if he had been on the front.
Yes, David should have handled things very differently in vs. 2. He should have turned away when he realized that he was looking down into Bethsheba’s garden and seeing her there. He should have decided when he heard that she was married to someone else (vs. 3), “She is not for me.” But again, the problem begins back in vs. 1. Joab and the people who had the ability to tell David, “No, don’t do this.” They were all at the front. David’s accountability group were not around to hold him to account.
Self-control works best when we have people around us to hold us accountable. When we have people around us who we know we will have to explain ourselves to. When we have people who can say to us, “you have made a mess, you need to own what you have done.” But David with his power, and no one around but a few servants, had no one to hold him to account. No one who could see what he was thinking and say, “You are really going to do this thing?!?”
We as human beings are capable of self-deception and self-justification, our self-control (our consciences) needs support. Our consciences work best if they are sharpened by the Holy Spirit and if we draw around ourselves people who will hold us accountable.
PRAYER:
O Lord, you put us in community with other people. Give us the courage to be held account by those communities of care and compassion into which you have put us. Give us the humility to be held accountable for our actions and our words. In Jesus’ name. Amen.