It Helps to Have a Trusted Person That You Can be Accountable to - See King David

This is the first of a 3 part article. The background for this article can be found in 2 Samuel in Chapter 11. Parts 2 and 3 can be found here: http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/jeffery-reed/43729.htm 

It is always good to have someone that you trust to be accountable to. King David was called "a man after God's own heart", yet at a time in his life when he had no one to be accountable to, he committed a terrible sin. It is said that sin takes you further than you had planned to go and makes you stay longer than you had planned to stay.

Once David committed this first sin, he sinned more to try and cover it up. David impregnated another man's wife, had the man killed and then married his wife so that no one would find out what he had done.

This happened during a time of the year when the men were off at war and David should have been there with them. Instead of going, he sent Joab in his place. I can imagine that since the other men were off fighting that he was probably bored and definitely did not have any counter parts to keep him out of trouble.

One evening (probably after staying in the bed all day), David went to the roof of his palace, was walking around and saw a beautiful woman bathing. Now being king, he did not even have to worry about how he was going to meet her or how to approach her, he just sent someone to find out about her.

David was told that it was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah, but obviously it did not register that the lady had a husband. We will never know if she was just that beautiful or if he was just that bored, but he sent for her and he slept with her. A little while later, David got a knock on the door and a message that I'm sure floored him. It was a messenger sent by Bathsheba telling David that she was pregnant. The scripture text goes a little further in explaining that she knew David had fathered the child.

Now David could have cut his losses there, admitted to his sin and repented, but he chose to keep sinning by trying to cover up the first sin. David sent word to his buddy Joab to send Bathsheba's husband, Uriah home from the war. His plan was to have Uriah sleep with his wife so that he would think that the child was his. In those days, I am very sure that there was no DNA testing, and no Maury Povich to say 'Uriah, when it comes to Bathsheba's son, you are NOT the father!!', so David probably would have gotten away with it.

When Uriah arrived, David tried to make things comfortable for him so that he would go home and sleep with his wife. Uriah was so dedicated to the cause that he refused to go home and enjoy himself while his fellow soldiers were off sleeping in tents in the woods fighting a war.

After this plan did not work, David sent Uriah back to war with a message to Joab which basically amounted to instructions on how to have Uriah killed. Joab executed the instructions, the two of them pretended to be sad and then David Married Bathsheba.

I can imagine that if David had someone that he was accountable to, when he said I am about to sleep with someone’s wife that the friend would have said, “man, you know that’s wrong”. After that, the mere thought of having to look his buddy in the eye and say I did it any way, even after you told me not to may have been enough to keep him from committing this sin.

When you are tempted to do something that you know is wrong find a buddy who will make you accountable for your actions. Even if you are trying to do good things, like exercise more and eat better, find a friend who will keep you accountable.