Long-Term Consequences
After recently wrapping up the story of David in my daily Bible reading, I started to really ponder the long-term consequences of our decisions. In 2 Samuel 11, we are introduced to a story that will change David’s life forever. It all starts with one little decision to stay home from war. In fairness, David had seen his fair share of battle and I am sure he was ready for some rest from war – but this one decision of choosing leisure will lead to a long list of consequences.
As David is walking on his roof – he sees a woman bathing. Instead of turning his eyes and working to forget the incident – David dwells on it and goes so far as to ask who the woman is. Even when informed that this is the wife of one of his mighty men, he still decides to invite the woman to meet with him, and you know how the story ends. However, I want to pause here and look at what can be discovered through other passages. In 2 Samuel 11:3, we are also told that Bathsheba is the daughter of Eliam. Guess who Eliam is? He is also one of David’s mighty warriors, and in 2 Samuel 23:34, we are told that this mighty warrior Eliam is the son of Ahithophel. Ahithophel was one of David’s primary advisors. Ponder on that a little bit. David has just discovered that this woman he has seen bathing is the wife and daughter to two of his mighty men (who are now out in battle FOR HIM) and the granddaughter of one of his primary advisors. But lust takes over, and the dominos of his choices begin to fall.
When Nathan confronts David with his sin, he gives the following message from God to David: “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight. You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel’” (2 Samuel 12:10-12).
This particular prophecy comes about in quite a tangled way – it takes one son of David’s (Amnon) raping his sister Tamar and inciting hatred in another son (Absalom). After Absalom stews for 2 years and David has done nothing, Absalom kills Amnon and flees for his life. Eventually he is brought back to the kingdom, and a very fragile peace is found between him and his father – but Absalom has lost all respect for his father, believes he can do a better job, and eventually pulls off a coup to overtake the throne. Interestingly enough, who is one of the men who betrays David and joins in with Absalom? It is Ahithophel!
I am not trying to justify Ahithophel’s behavior at all, but does the history provide some context to his decision? And guess what Ahithophel’s first advice is to Absalom? He states he should sleep with his father’s concubines left in the city, and they pitch a tent on the ROOF for him to show all of Israel what he is doing (2 Samuel 16:20-23). I don’t think this is a coincidence that this is the advice from Ahithophel.
Eventually, Ahithophel’s advice is not taken, and he chooses to kill himself knowing that Absalom can no longer win. The whole story is honestly sad and depressing, but there is a lesson for us. Our decisions can have long-term consequences that may take YEARS to come to fruition. These could be both good and bad consequences. In this case, something that most likely seemed minor and a reward for all of David’s hard work, led to the complete unraveling of David’s family and instability in the nation overall for a time.
May we follow the advice found in Proverbs 2:11-15 as we make our decisions:
“Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you. It will rescue you from the way of evil – from anyone who says perverse things, from those who abandon the right paths to walk in ways of darkness, from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion, whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.”
