David’s Adultery

When people think of biblical characters who had a weakness for women, they naturally think of men such as Samson or Solomon. David had a similar weakness, though many Bible teachers seldom make mention of it. Swindoll described David as “…being a man with a strong sexual appetite…” And David gratified his strong sexual appetite by practicing polygamy. A.W. Pink speaks of this as “…David’s besetting sin, to which he yielded so freely…”
David never learned to train his lustful appetite, at least not prior to his adultery with Bathsheba. During the early years of his kingship, David had a weakness for women, a weakness that he tolerated. And he not only tolerated it, but he nourished it as well. He indulged in it by taking wife after wife after wife. He allowed it to flourish until it eventually led to his downfall. In the words of Blaikie, “There was evidently a sensual element in his nature, … and he does not appear to have been alive to the danger involved in it. It led him the more readily to avail himself of the toleration of polygamy, and to increase from time to time the number of his wives. Thus provision was made for the gratification of a disorderly lust.” Concerning this “disorderly lust,” Blaikie states, “… instead of being satisfied it becomes more greedy and more lawless.”
Sin is like a hungry animal. If an animal is fed, it will be satisfied for a time, but its hunger will surely return, wanting more. And when the hungry animal is repeatedly fed more food, it, along with its insatiable appetite, will only grow larger and larger.
The radio broadcaster, Paul Harvey, illustrated this truth well in the story he told of how an Eskimo will go about hunting a wolf.

The Eskimo coats his knife blade with blood and allows it to freeze there. Then the Eskimo adds another layer of blood, and then another. As each succeeding smear of blood freezes to the blade of the knife the Eskimo adds an additional coating until the blade is concealed by a substantial thickness of frozen blood. Then the knife handle is buried in the frozen ground with the blade up. The marauding wolf follows his sensitive nose to the scent and tastes the fresh-frozen blood. . .. And licks it. . .. More and more vigorously the wolf licks at the bait until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, he licks harder. . .. In the arctic night so great becomes his craving for the blood that he does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue. Nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. . .. ‘More!’ his carnivorous appetite craves, ‘more!’ Until dawn finds him dead in the snow.

Such is the appetite of sin. It is never satisfied but always wants more and more. And the more it is fed, the more it craves until it eventually consumes even the very hand that feeds it. For that reason, John Owen states, “… be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
Sadly, David did not set himself to killing his lustful appetite. He did not set himself to exercising self-control over it. In the words of Calvin, “… he let himself go totally out of bounds.”
When an individual allows themselves to “go totally out of bounds” in regard to a specific sin, that person will sooner or later find themselves going further out of bounds than what they initially permitted. For example, a person’s conscience may not permit them to lie to their spouse or to their pastor. Doing so would simply be unthinkable to them. However, if that person permits themselves to lie to their boss, eventually they will continue to go further out of bounds as the sinful habit grows and grows. Next, they may start lying to their neighbour or to their friend. Eventually, but surely, they will start lying to those whom they previously would never have lied to, namely their spouse and their pastor. That which was so unthinkable became thinkable. How did it happen? They naively thought that they could give sin an inch without it taking a mile. As John Butler states, “Once we allow evil to get its foot in the door, we will soon open the door wider for the whole body of evil to get in. You may think that you have to compromise ‘only once.’ But that is a trick of the devil. ‘Only once’ is a mirage. Once you start compromising, you will be ensnared into compromising with evil more and more.”
The lesson for Christians is to not “allow evil to get its foot in the door” in the first place. David allowed evil to get its foot in the door. He permitted sin in one area of his life. He allowed himself to “go totally out of bounds” as he married again and again. Not surprisingly, he eventually went even further out of bounds by committing adultery with another man’s wife. In short, he did not work to defeat sin, and so sin defeated him.
James speaks in his epistle about the tongue and the devastating effects it can have when used for evil. He paints a vivid picture in the mind of his audience to illustrate the power of the tongue and the damage it can produce, stating, “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark” (3:5). To borrow from James’s comparison, David fanned the spark of lust into flame and allowed it to set his whole life on fire. The lesson for Christians is to examine themselves for any area of their life where they, like David, are fanning the flames of sin.