August 8, 2011

Sin Has Unusual Beauty

by Ashley Jensen in Blog, Getting Up

Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding excerpts from my upcoming book,Getting Up. Here’s another! Check it out!

2 Samuel 11:2 NLT
Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.

As we get back to the narrative of David, it says David saw Bathsheba and he took notice of her that she had ‘unusual beauty’. I’ve always found that description a little interesting. Really? As if she was the only super hot chick in Israel? I highly doubt it. At this point David had seven wives and many concubines; the bible isn’t clear on how many but at least ten (2 Sam. 20:3). It wasn’t like David was starved for affection. It wasn’t that he just had to have sex. “Unusual beauty” tempted him in a moment of weakness, selfishness, and complacency.

The temptations that we take notice of will always have “unusual beauty.” The enemy is stupid and smart at the same time. He’s stupid because he tempts you in the same area over and over again and he’s smart because he tempts you in the same area over and over again.

Wait, what? You said the same thing.

Exactly.

The enemy has a plan for you and your areas of weakness. Your weakness will always be your weakness. I believe you can be free from sin absolutely but temptation will always present itself. Your weakness won’t be the same as mine and my weakness won’t be the same as yours, but one thing is guaranteed, we all have a weakness and when temptation presents itself, it will take on an ‘unusual beauty’ and attack us at our weakest point. We must recognize it for what it is… sin. The problem is we don’t recognize it. We give in to the temptation and intellectualize a reason why we must have this unusually beautiful thing. Our sinful flesh tells our intellectual brain to come up with a good reason as to why this makes sense. This is when the justification starts to set in and we take the flying leap into the deep pool of sin.”

One Comment

  1. August 8, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    I tell my college students all the time that we are never tempted with something we don’t like. The areas we sin in are the things that, some way or another, we want. The enemy can’t tempt me with getting drunk. I’ve never liked that drunk feeling. But he knows the things I like, and is able to tempt me in that way.

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