Paul could write to the Ephesians, exhorting them this way:

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.Eph. 5:3

Job could assert with absolute integrity and conviction: 

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?.Job 31:1

But the reality of the modern church must take into view another reality – adultery!

It is a painful thing to admit, but men and women commit adultery! It is the occasion of divorce and much pain, but few think of the consequences of their actions with Bathsheba; indeed, it is the very failure of engaging the long-term consequences of an action that is the root cause of many a fall into sin.

Adultery is the scandal of the evangelical church. The titles to some recent evangelical publications reveal the presence and influence of this sin within the church:

• Every Man’s Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time, by Fred Stoeker and Stephen Arterburn.
   
• Pure Desire: How to Battle Sexual Sin … and win! by Ted Roberts (Gospel Light).
   
• Living with Your Husband’s Secret Wars, by Marsha Means (Baker).
   
• Torn Asunder, by Dave Carder and Duncan Jaenicke (Moody Press).

But the best book of all on relationships is the Bible, and the best person to help you is the “Wonderful Counsellor,” the Lord Jesus Christ!

Why is Bathsheba so attractive to David? What could possibly have occurred to lure him into such a deadly position?

1.  He Failed to See that sins like this Rarely “Just Happen”⤒🔗

Sins of this magnitude rarely occur spontaneously, devoid of subtle (and not so subtle!) precursors to the downward spiral of temptation. James makes it abundantly clear that there is a pattern, a morphology to temptation and sin:

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.James 1:14-15

How can such a thing happen to David? The answer lies in what David had allowed to occur many weeks, and perhaps months and even years before this incident. He had lost sight of God. The seeds of this sin had already been sown in his past. We often fall into temptation because we have secretly, sometimes subconsciously, sown the seeds for it to occur. The desire has been there and the only thing that has prevented it from actually happening has been the opportunity. One female Christian counselor writes:

I did not know the depth that men would go to and the risk they would take to satisfy their desires. I was unaware of how intense these temptations are and how much defense a man must muster to avoid stepping over God’s boundaries.

It is interesting to note the way the author of this chapter employs verbs in verses 2-4: he saw; he sent (for); he lay (with). What happened here is what always happens before we sin – David had lost his mind! He failed to engage his renewed mind in the ways of truth and righteousness. His understanding no longer ruled his affections. He saw Bathsheba and upon seeing her, he lost sight of his Lord. God no longer filled his vision. Short term gain blotted out the long term consequences of his actions. He made the fatal mistake: he did not ask how long this would last and where it would lead any more than a fish wonders whether there is a hook inside the delicious bait he is about to swallow.

This is why Scripture warns us against sin’s deceitfulness (cf. Heb. 3:13; Matt. 13:22). Sin hardens the heart and it was one of the first things the people of God were warned about as they crossed into the promised land (cf. Exod. 4:3; 7:3; 14:4; 14:17; Josh. 11:20; Heb. 3:8, 15; 4:7). This is why Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s words are so timely: that the seeds of every known sin lie within our hearts and that we need to be watchful and prayerful.

2.  He Rationalized Sin, making it appear as Something Small and Relatively Insignificant←⤒🔗

Like a dog with a plastic bone, we play games with sin. We treat it with less seriousness than we should. We make light of it.

David convinced himself after his adultery and murder that it was all part of the royal prerogative. Kings were allowed to act this way. Until Nathan said, “Thou art the man” (2 Sam. 12:7). It was then – and only then – that David realized that he had offended God. Until that moment, he seemed altogether convinced that he could safely cover his misdemeanor with impunity.

True repentance only begins when we pass out of what the Bible sees as self-deceptions (cf. James 1:22, 26; 1 John 1:8), and what modern counselors call denial, into what the Bible calls conviction of sin (cf. John 16:8). John Bradford, the English Reformer and martyr, signed his letters, “a very painted hypocrite,” and “the most miserable, half-hearted, unthankful sinner.” He was a man deeply conscious of sinfulness and the need of grace and forgiveness.

To salve whatever conscience he had, David yielded to the pitfall of self-pity as to the loneliness of leadership, rationalizing his dalliance with Bathsheba. The ethic of Paul, “the younger as sisters, with all purity” (1 Tim. 5:2) was a million miles away. “All purity” is a good translation. We are called to live like that in this impure civilization. Vogue magazine is the world’s top fashion journal. It has a French and English language edition. Recently, the London Times was reviewing the latest magazine and it said in bold type, “There is scarcely a word or an image in the 300-page French ‘Vogue’ extravaganza that hasn’t to do with sex” (The Times, Feb. 11, 2000, p. 39). How wearying and narrow a view of God’s creation. How cripplingly limiting. How tempting, causing a restlessness nothing can satisfy. How impure! And we are called to live in absolute purity in such a culture.

3.  Sin occurs because we Neglect Spiritual Disciplines←⤒🔗

David’s life had been one of constant strife and battle but now, for the last decade or so, things have grown relatively peaceful. And he is clearly no longer the man he used to be.

The author underlines the circumstances:

1. A time of neglected duty (v.1): when kings go to war in the spring, David sent Joab and stayed at home in Jerusalem.
    
2. A time of dampened zeal (vv. 8-11): Uriah shames him by contrast in his insistence on integrity before the Lord when David tries to get him to go home to his wife.

David evidently had not nourished his spiritual affections and consequently he had no energy to resist temptation when it came. The world had eaten what spiritual vitality he possessed. All that was necessary now was for opportunity and desire to coincide and David would be a ruined man. Sin need only whisper now and David would have no power to resist. And so it was. David fell into this terrible sin that rippled in its effects for generations after him.

Two little statements bring us to the essence of what happens here:

First, what happened in David’s heart: God says to him, “thou hast despised me” (2 Sam. 12:10). He counted his own satisfaction of greater worth than God’s word and honor.

Second, what happened in God’s heart: “the thing that David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Sam. 11:27). God’s own heart was “broken” by the faithlessness of one of His own children.

The tragedy was this: it was this man after God’s heart who sinned (1 Sam. 13:14). And the lesson is equally plain: that no amount of spiritual privilege will guarantee our holiness. Just as David would lament over his own son, saying, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!” (2 Sam. 18:33), so one imagines God saying to David, “O my son David, my son, my son David!”