Making A Bad Situation Worse

506 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 2Sa 11:14 In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die." 16 So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Wow! Just look at the ripple effect of David's sin with Bathsheba. Not only is Uriah murdered, but Joab is now an accomplice. It's true that Joab was only following orders as a good soldier is supposed to do. But this order was not about strategic battle maneuvers, it was about the murder of one Uriah the Hittite. Yes we are to obey and respect those that God has placed in authority over us, but when they command us to do something contrary to the Word of God, well, we must obey God rather than man. And in this case God's command “Thou shalt not kill” should've been Joab's overriding concern. When the ruling authorities forbade Peter and John from preaching the Gospel, Peter's response was, Ac 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men.” Joab's refusal to put God's Word first, not only resulted in the death of Uriah, but in order to carry out the ruse, Joab had to send other men into the battle alongside Uriah. If he followed David's orders, he then retreated from them, left them alone to die, their blood effectively shed in the kings bedroom on that spring night with Bathsheba. How many wives were widowed? How many children were made orphans all because of a couple of minutes of illicit pleasure? Think it through, the sooner David stops trying to cover up his sin, and deals with it in accordance with God's Word, the fewer lives are negatively affected. Father, we are all sinners, and we thank You for the gift of forgiveness, help us to stop making bad situations worse as we try to cover our sins on our own.