Year of the Bible: Part Five of Twelve Sample

Outside the Boundaries & Reaching for What is Not Yours

David had been formed by God to be a mighty warrior. From boyhood, whether fighting lions or bears to save his father’s sheep, slaying the giant Goliath, battling Philistines for King Saul, or clearing enemies from Israel as king, David had been excellent as a military leader.

David also knew that God was enough for him. He expressed in Psalm 16 that he was more than satisfied staying within the boundaries God had set for him: “Lord, apart from you I have no good thing … the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” David went on to say, “in fact, in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are the greatest pleasures for my life” (vs. 2,6, and 11). David tapped into something crucial here because he learned how to embrace boundaries and believed that when he did, God’s blessing came.

Something must have changed. Was David weary of bloodshed? Was he getting too comfortable with the successes he had experienced for so many years? Was he bored of the challenge that reared its head this spring concerning war with the Ammonites?

Whatever the issue, when it was the time in spring for kings to go to war and fight battles, this year, King David sent Joab out along with his servants and the army of Israel, but David stayed back. He took his time back home on the roof of his house, and from there, he saw a beautiful neighbor woman bathing. Stepping outside God’s boundary this time, he reached for one who was not his, then tried to cover his guilt with an action that cost the life of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, one of the most loyal and faithful members of his courageous “mighty men.” It is one of the most sobering moral failures in all of Scripture, when a “man after God’s own heart” fell hard and brought great hurt to his family and Israel. Given this tragic story and knowing our human frailties, all of us should humble ourselves before God lest we, too, think it cannot happen to us.

Question: How do you balance the need to fight the good fight of faith in advancing the purposes and will of God while being content with the provision you’ve been given and the boundaries God has set in His Word? How do you avoid becoming restless with continuing to do the right thing in your assignments?

Prayer: Lord, in Your presence is everything I need and fullness of joy. Help me cultivate a deep personal contentedness in You, the One I love but cannot see. Help me remain content in doing the things you have called me to do day in and day out, even if, at times, they become familiar. I trust Your Word that you provide all I need. I thank you for Your boundaries set for me in Your Word, and I submit to those boundaries that protect me and others. I pray concerning any moments in the future when I am tempted to reach for what is not mine, and I ask that when that happens, You will remember this sincere prayer made today and intervene by Your great power, “leading me not into temptation.”