Here Is A Guaranteed Way To Get Into Trouble

​2 Sam. 11:1 - Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. NASU
 

• Hang Out At The Wrong Places

If you want to get in trouble then frequent places where you don't belong. David did exactly that. He was a king and it was time kings go out to battle, but he stays home.
 
In most times home is the right place to be but not this time. He is to be leading his army into battle. He doesn't lead his men into battle and because of this one little change, David will find himself in more trouble than he possibly could have imagined.
 
From this one seemingly little insignificant decision his whole world is about to change for the worse.
 
He is going to make one bad decision after another and these bad decisions will cost him dearly. His life will never be the same and all because he was somewhere he shouldn't have been. 

• Results Of One Bad Decision 

We don't usually stop and ask ourselves, "Where will this decision lead me?"  Even if David did stop and ask the question I am sure he would never have dreamed his life would have ended up being in this much of a catastrophe.
 
He stays home and he goes to bed but he can't sleep. So he gets out of bed and goes to his roof and there he sees a woman taking a bath. It just gets worse from here. He calls for Bathsheba and she is brought to him.
 
Her husband is in the army and is in battle, where David should be. David has a sexual relationship with Bathsheba. She becomes pregnant and informs David. David tries to cover up his sin so he has Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, summoned back to Jerusalem.
 
David is hoping Uriah would go to his house and have sex with his wife and his sin would be covered, but Uriah will not do such a thing. He says it this way:
 
 2 Sam. 11:10-11 -Now when they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?" Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing."
 
David will try even harder to hide his sins. He has Uriah stay in Jerusalem with the king and David gets him drunk, thinking that when a man gets drunk he will want to have sex.
 
Uriah got drunk but once again he will not have sex with his wife.
 
David makes another very bad decision. He sends Uriah back to Joab with a message and the message says, to send Uriah into the heat of a battle and then withdraw from him leaving him all alone.
 
David has now planned Uriah's death.
 
The decision to commit adultery with Bathsheba and to kill Uriah all started when David made the decision to hang out in the wrong place. 

• Think Your Decisions Over 

Before you make any hasty decisions do yourself a favor and think them over and even seek counsel from others as it states in the Proverbs (Prov. 12:15 - The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.). 
 
David was a fool for sure with what he thought would be his little secretive operation of covering up his sins.
 
But this is what God thought of David's action plan: 2 Sam. 11:27 - But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
 
Do yourself a favor and don't hang out in places that will only lead you into associating with trouble.
 
Think On These:
 
To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.
 
A wise man learns from the experience of others.
An ordinary man learns from his own experience.
A fool learns from nobody's experience.

Stay Pumped,
 
Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word