September 28
“But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord…Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” (2 Samuel 11:27b, 12:13-14)
- Loss of God’s fellowship, grieving the Spirit, displeasing the Lord, giving God’s enemies an opportunity to reproach Him.
This is the last consequence of sinning in immorality that we will discuss, but I think it is one of the worst. It is one thing when we suffer consequences for our sins, but to grieve the Lord, after all He has done for us, and give His enemies and opportunity to blaspheme His holy and righteous Name? It is one thing if we want to trash our own names and suffer the reproach of others, but to drag the holy and precious Name of Jesus through the mud along with us? And give those who hate God an opportunity to revile Him and criticize Him and blaspheme His Name? Unconscionable!
God’s Name is very important to Him. Do a casual Bible study on the concept of God’s Name, and you will see hundreds of verses where God is establishing a Name for Himself or Jesus is telling us to ask in His Name or we are instructed to praise the Name of the Lord, and many other examples could be given. I wonder if in our society a good name is not so valued as it was in Bible times, but God takes His Name and His reputation very seriously. Nathan tells David, even though he orchestrated the death of a faithful servant of his, Uriah, and done evil in the sight of the Lord, it was because David gave God’s enemies an occasion to blaspheme that the child conceived in adultery would die.
So also we ought to highly value the Name of the Lord and guard ourselves very carefully lest we do anything to tarnish that Name. In the case of David, it was immorality that gave the Lord’s enemies and opportunity to blaspheme, and it is still true today. Immoral behaviors have an uncanny way of becoming known; I think God does that on purpose, even though it leads to dishonor for Himself. I believe this is because as bad as it is for God’s enemies to blaspheme His Name, He hates immorality even more, and He will bring it to light to avoid it getting any worse. He will actively bring it to light so that He can bring us to repentance, and if we refuse to repent, then He will remove us from our comfortable positions and cast us out.
In addition to these consequences, just the fact that we grieve His Spirit and put Him to the test should weigh on us and be motivation to avoid evil. Bringing God pleasure is one of the greatest works we can do in this life, I think, and it then goes to reason that bring Him displeasure is one of the worst things we can do in this life. And when we grieve the Lord, we inevitably become more distant from Him. His close fellowship and guidance are no longer available to us, at least not for a period of time, and certainly not until we have fully confessed and repented of our sins. This time of distance, this alienation from the Lord, this period where He turns His face away from us is a very great consequence of sin. We should not ever take for granted this fellowship and closeness, this amazing privilege God allows us, and we should guard our relationship with Him more than anything. He is our life. He is our strength. He is our hope. Let us guard ourselves carefully and continually, and make certain that nothing breaks this fellowship we have with Him and comes between us and our Beloved!