The View From The Top - A Lesson For Leaders

This morning while sitting in my hotel room in South Asia I made a cup of coffee with my AeroPress coffee maker, because if you want good coffee while you travel abroad you carry your own coffee maker. While sipping on my delicious, freshly brewed coffee I opened my Bible to 2 Samuel chapter 11. You know the story. It's the story of King David and his rape of the wife of one of his Mighty Men, the elite fighting force of David's army. This is one of his Special Forces men. A trusted warrior. A man of valor and honor.

David was a man who had fought his battles valiantly and won. He deserved a break. It was time for him to rest. So David sent Joab out to fight for him. Then the Bible records that David got off the couch  and went up to the roof to stretch his legs in the cool of the evening, and that's when things start to go south. David sees a beautiful woman bathing on her rooftop. Now before you blame Bathsheba, step outside of your culture and into the culture of David's day.

The other day I was on the roof of a guest house in Kathmandu. As you can see in the picture, rooftops are a useful part of the home. This would have been similar in the time of King David, except for the satellite dishes. The roof is where the women would dry the laundry, but it is the roof where the family would go to bathe as well. The average person did not have servants to heat water and fill a soaking tub. They would take a bucket of water, usually room temperature, to the roof where they could enjoy some privacy. Bathsheba would have gone to the roof to wash the sweat of the days work off while there was still some daylight left.

King David went to his roof to survey all that he had accomplished and because his roof was higher than any other around him he was able to see this beautiful woman pouring water over her body in what we would call a bucket shower or camping shower. The problem wasn't that David saw her bathing, it was that David watched her bathing. It is so very ironic that David stood there in the fading daylight transfixed on that which did not belong to him as the sun was setting on his kingship. He did not see what he was setting in motion. He had let his guard down. He wasn't thinking clearly. He was lost in lust.

You know the rest of the story, but what struck me this morning as I was reading was the unintended consequences of his actions. David think he would get caught in his sin. He thought he was smarter than everyone else. But when Uriah has more integrity than David he decides he has to kill him in order to cover up his sin. But the unintended consequences were that Uriah was not the only one who was killed because of David's sin. Verse 17 of chapter 11 tells us that "some of the people among David's servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died." Uriah was not the only one who died because of David's sin. Other men died who were not a part of the story. David did not rape their wives, but he did orphan their children. What a tragedy!

When the prophet Nathan confronted David he told the king these words from the Lord:


2 Samuel 12:7–8 (ESV) Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.

David went to the roof to survey all that he had accomplished but he failed to see it was not his accomplishment, it was what the Lord had given him. And then these words, "I would have given you as much more." David settled for too little. He stole what did not belong to him with his own hand when the Lord was ready to give him so much more.

So here are a few things we can learn from David's mistake as a leader:

1. Do not surround yourself with "Yes" men. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. I have a friend who told me over 30 years ago, "I love you enough to tell you the truth, even if it costs us our relationship." And there have been times that he has, and I love him like a brother.
2. Never let your guard down. Guard your eyes. Guard your heart. Guard your mind. When you let your guard down the enemy will attack you at your weakest point, and sometimes the weakest point is where you think you are strong but you neglect you protection in that area. Your pride will be your downfall every time.
3. Don't try to cover your mistakes. Take your lumps and move on. The coverup only makes things worse.
4. Sin will cost you more than you want to pay. There is no such thing as a victimless sin. People who have nothing to do with your sin will also pay the price. Uriah died. Other innocent men died. And the baby born from David's sin died.
5. Don't settle for too little. God wants to give you so much more than you can even imagine.
6. Don't live in the failures of the past. When you were a child learning to ride a bike you probably fell off the bike at some point and scraped your knee. But you got back up and rode your bike like a boss. Learn from your mistakes, don't live in them. That is not your identity. The Lord said of David that he "is a man after my own heart" even knowing David would make a huge blunder. The Lord does not see your failures, He sees Jesus. Get back up, get back on the bike, learn from your mistake, and move on forward.