{"id":2847,"date":"2015-09-18T18:23:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T22:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/faithkids\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2015-09-18T18:23:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T22:23:31","slug":"sunday-school-preview-september-20-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/faithkids\/sunday-school-preview-september-20-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday School Preview: September 20, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

God allows us to experience the consequences of our choices. Therefore, we should flee temptation and repent quickly.<\/p>\n

In our upcoming Sunday school lesson from 2 Samuel 11-12, we witness the devastation that results when we indulge temptation. At the start of chapter 11, we learn that the army of Israel was engaged in conflict against the Ammonites at Rabbah.\u00a0 But David, the king, had remained in Jerusalem, and was walking around on the roof of his palace when he saw a woman bathing below. David found this woman so desirable that he sent someone to find out who she was. The woman was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of David\u2019s mighty men. Because he desired her, David sent messengers to retrieve Bathsheba, and he slept with her.<\/p>\n

That was the beginning of a series of events in which the compounding effects of David\u2019s sin grew greater and greater. Bathsheba became pregnant. And in order to cover up his sin, David brought Uriah back from the front in an attempt to get him to sleep with Bathsheba so that everyone might believe that the child belong to Uriah. When David\u2019s efforts proved unsuccessful, David had Uriah killed by ordering his general to abandon Uriah to the fiercest part of the battle. In the process of carrying out David\u2019s order, several of David\u2019s men died in addition to Uriah. And when he learned that Uriah was dead, David made Bathsheba his wife.<\/p>\n

However, because God loved David, he sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin. When David recognized the wickedness of his actions, he repented. You can read the expression of David\u2019s repentance in Psalm 51. And because God is gracious, He forgave David.<\/p>\n

But that does not mean that David could not escape the consequences of his choices or God\u2019s righteous judgment of his sin.\u00a0 The son that Bathsheba bore David became ill and died.\u00a0 David was told by Nathan that the sword would never depart from his house; and we see later in David\u2019s life how his family would be devastated by violence.<\/p>\n