Archive Poster : June 2017
When it's high in the sky the sun's beauty is fierce. Though, as it sets, your gaze can be full and frank. From a rooftop late in the afternoon, something more beautiful and more terrifying held the gaze of King David. Most men experience turmoil at the sight of a beautiful, naked woman. A primal, instinctual urge turns interest automatically into desire. Only a forceful act of the will can turn the gaze. But David kept looking. On an adjacent rooftop a woman bathed. The teller of David's story tells us, 'She was very beautiful'. Yet, although Bathsheba was married, David took her anyway. Then, when she became pregnant and the sin couldn't be concealed, David organized for the murder of her husband, Uriah.
When you read the fuller version of this Bible story you'll notice many lessons. Chiefly, that God sees who we really are. And He's angry when we behave badly. With David, God's anger burned. He cursed his household with evil, further adultery and the death of the child conceived with Bathsheba, promising that, 'the sword shall never depart from your house'.
David and Bathsheba's story also has lessons for us about beauty. Firstly, contrary to popular complaint, beauty is no modern obsession - it's always been a thing... because every society believes that good-looking people have more worth. Secondly, beautiful people get ahead in life. Bathsheba's husband was not an Israelite. Yet her beauty overshadowed this stigma. David simply couldn't resist her. Later, their son, Solomon, reigned as King at the highest point in Israel's history. Thirdly, we learn that outward beauty is no guarantee of anything nice on the inside. The Bible tells us that David was also good looking. Specifically, 'he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome'. But God made it clear that this wasn't the reason he chose him. He said, 'man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart'.
Well, as we've seen, David's heart became a corrupt mess. Later in the Bible (Psalm 51) he pleaded with God for help to make him beautiful on the inside. He cried, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.'
So now, a disturbing question remains, 'What does God see when he turns his fierce gaze upon me?' Deep down we know the answer. Yet when we read the Bible we discover that God is willing to help. He's willing to forgive and to come into our hearts so that we might become beautiful to Him.
Prayer: Dear God, please forgive those things that I've thought, said and done that are ugly. Please help me to be beautiful on the inside.
Bible Verse: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10)
