Like Weeds on a Spring Day

“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, an all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.


“Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, ‘I am with child.’’’
. . .

“So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’”
(2 Samuel 11:1–5; 12:13)

David’s sin involving Bathsheba was a progression of sins as so many of our sins are. Early sins were likely pride and self-satisfaction as he looked upon his accomplishments and basked in his own glory in Jerusalem. Next his basking turned to sloth and irresponsibility—in “the spring of the year, that time when kings go out to battle,” this king was at home in his leisure: idleness really is the devil’s workshop. His idleness turned to lust, his lust to theft and adultery, his adultery to deception and eventually murder. Had God not graciously stopped him in his tracks, his sin could have progressed to apostasy and self-destruction.

Just so, our sins can progress from bad to worse and to the unthinkable when they are not confessed, abhorred, and repented from. Confess sin quickly and thoroughly before your sins get the foothold they need to grow like weeds on a spring day. Nip sin in the bud through confession and genuine repentance. But just as with David, wherever you find yourself and your sin in that progression—at bud or full bloom—God stands ready not only to point the finger at your sin but to offer forgiveness, mercy, and the grace to do better, if we will come to Him freely, sincerely, and humbly, asking and looking for these things from His hand.

“Have mercy upon us, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin. Move us, dear God, by Your Holy Spirit to repent early and often, to know our sins and acknowledge them before they lead to yet other and more and worse sins. We give thanks to You, O Lord, for Your mercy towards us through our Lord Jesus Christ, for Your faithfulness to us, for the forgiveness of sins we have through Him; and we pray that mercy would continue throughout our lives and throughout all eternity; for Christ’s sake and in His name. Amen.”