2 Samuel 11

Ok, it’s spring, and you probably don’t want to think about snow. But please bear with me as I use the soft stuff as a metaphor for a hard reality.

Remember what it’s like to grab a handful of snow, pack it firm, then start rolling it in more snow, and more snow, until eventually you have a ball that’s no longer budge-able? We’re going to use that snowballing metaphor for what David put in motion in 2 Samuel 11.

At the beginning snowball stage: …King David opted out of his duty to join his army in warfare. Packing the snow firm: …he lazed around…became restless and got up…walked around the palace roof…spied a woman from his vantage point there and sent for her.

Here is where the snowball began the rolling-in-more-snow phase: …he slept with the woman (Bathsheba)…later she sent word to him that she was pregnant. 

Now the snowball is already mighty huge, but it’s about to get monstrous. 

David hatched a plan to get Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, home from the battlefield to prevent the truth about the father of Bathsheba’s baby from getting out. Uriah did come home, but, honoring his commitment to duty, he did not go to his wife.

His plan thwarted, David ordered that Uriah be set up to be killed in battle. Rolled up in this phase of his scheme were Joab (his nephew and the commander of his army), a messenger, and war casualties--including Uriah.

Again taken advantage of, Bathsheba was not told David’s part in Uriah’s death…was left to mourn…was taken to the palace where she became one of David’s wives, and gave birth to his son. The snowball had thus become excruciatingly monstrously un-budge-able.

Reading all this has a chilling effect, doesn’t it? 

That chilling effect may hit close to home. (Hopefully not to the same degree, but nonetheless.)

We are all different—in personality, background, family dynamics, position, faith journey, etc. But things snowball and we’ve all been caught up in that at some time or another.

Think of one difficult situation you are in now. Just one. 

Ask God to walk you back to when it was at the small snowball stage. This may take a while, which is okay. (“Awhile” may mean a very long time. Also okay.)

When you get back to the beginning snowball stage—or as close as you can get—together with God consider how you contributed to that small thing snowballing into something that has fractured you and/or your relationship with another, or others.

David wrote Psalm 51 after he owned what he had done. Savor the truth of this psalm when you have reached that same place.