David . . . saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 2 Samuel 11:2
Years ago, I met a retired physician near the end of his life, which was hastened in no small part, by his drug addiction. He did not want to address the issue directly, but still, he warned me, “Be on guard against the small compromise. You start by giving away little parts of yourself, and soon there’s nothing left.” At the time, I was not addicted, and thus, failed to see how his warning applied to me. Looking back though, his haunting words were eerily prophetic and applicable.
We all have our weaknesses. We may live most of life pretty well, but like the apostle Paul, we all have those things that we don’t want to do, but which we do anyway. We all have our own kryptonite.
King David, the superman of Israelite kings, lived his life for God. His faith was superhuman – he killed giants – and when in doubt, he simply asked God’s will, and obeyed. He was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). David though, had at least one weakness: women.
David had many wives and when he saw a woman he wanted, he simply took her. In today’s story, his appetite was piqued by Bathsheba. He saw her and just had to have her. Never mind that she was already married to a soldier in his army, David wanted her and he took her.
Though David was a superman of the faith, he had his weaknesses, which led him to compromise who he was. As the story progressed, that failure led to more and more compromise, until the consequences rained down on him in disaster.
This is what our weaknesses do when we indulge in them. Though they may seem small when we first give in, once we open the door, we end up giving away far more than we ever intended.
“Be on guard against the small compromise”, the dying physician said. I did not listen twenty years ago. If I desire to follow God instead of myself, I would do well to listen today.