That Wicked Heart

2 Samuel 11:6-17




Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. ⁸ And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
¹¹ And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
¹² Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
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.




Jeremiah 17:9-10 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?  I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruits of his doings."  This was Uriah's King, a man God placed over his nation to protect and love them.  However, God tells us in Jeremiah 17:5 "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord."  Only God knows how much we are sacrificing in all we do and say for our Lord Jesus Christ.  We have been bought at a price and no longer belong to ourselves God says, and it should be our honor to serve Him.  But our spirit is willing, and our flesh weak.  The lengths David went through to keep his name, reputation, and mind in a place of pleasing himself, even murder, causes us to ask ourselves who's really in charge?  God?  Who would not want a friend like Uriah?  He was dedicated, trusting, loyal, and caring.  And with all his wonderful traits he still lost his life behind an adulteress man and woman who couldn't control their flesh and obey God's commandments.  King David even brought others in on his fleshly desires to sin.  This is why God asks us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.  If these events can happen while serving our Lord with one foot in the kingdom and one in hell, just think if we gave Him all of us, loving Him as we want to be loved by Him.  Get rid of that wicked heart and serve our Lord.  (Ephesians 4:17-19) "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."


Blessings to all as we remove wickedness from our lives,


Vincent Young, Christian Analyst