THE SILLY DOVE

“Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense— They call to Egypt, They go to Assyria. 12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them;

I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them according to what their congregation has heard. 13 “Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them, Because they have transgressed against Me! Though I redeemed them, Yet they have spoken lies against Me” (Hos 7:11-13). In the Bible, the Dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, gentle, pure and defenceless. But here, the same dove appears in a negative light, as naive, unstable, foolish and confused. As a natural bird, the dove has some weaknesses. It is generally overanxious, easily disturbed. The dove looks heavy but is a strong flier, up to 55 miles per hour. Once in the air, the dove loses focus and becomes distracted. It can change direction in mid flight. The dove is foolish. It easily enters the net of the hunter and gets trapped. The dove is a terrible nest builder. As a mother, it has no skills or sense of danger. She builds her nest with just some few sticks, not comfortable for her chicks. The nest is mostly on unstable thin branches, on the windshield of parked cars or on the roofs. A little wind and the eggs or the chicks fall and die. A silly dove is easily deceived. She can land on any branch, unaware of the snares.

Ephraim is not compared with the eagle, who flies high as the king of the birds. He is not compared with the hawk, an unclean bird. He is compared with the Dove, a clean but foolish bird, who flies in all directions without a sense of home. He is quick to panic and trust the wrong refuge, and slow to repent and return home. In the same way, God’s people forgot God and the home He has prepared for them. They got infatuated with idols. They looked at the mighty pagan countries like Egypt and Assyria in search of fulfilment in life. Their search ended in disappointment and disgrace. They clearly did not know God. Only God provides eternal satisfaction and joy in this life. Like a dove flying anxiously from place to place, Israel lacked spiritual discernment and ignored the covenant God had made with them. Egypt represented both their former bondage and a constant temptation to trust human strength rather than the Lord. King Hoshea appealed to Egypt for support against Assyria. Israel also pursued favour with Assyria, paying tribute and seeking security from the very empire that would conquer them. Samaria was defeated in 722 BC and all God’s people carried to Assyria (2Kg 17:4-6). Their shifting alliances exposed the instability and doubt produced by idolatry. This is spiritual adultery and God must punish it.

See God’s pain and tension in His heart. His people transgressed against Him. He must chastise them. This is His justice talking. At the same time, God says: I will redeem them. This is His mercy talking (Hosea 7:13). There is tension in God’s heart. Just the way a husband is angry with his wife who left him for lovers, God is angry with Isreal and with the pagan nations that deceived His people to abandon their faith in Him. Contrast this foolishness with God’s Wisdom. Jesus sends His disciples “as wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16). We must combine purity with shrewd discernment, the very qualities Isreal lacked. God promised to give us wisdom if we need it (James 1:5)!

These are some manifestations of foolish behaviour:

*Rebellion. They make friends without prayer or the leading of the Holy Spirit. “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin; 2 Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt shall be your humiliation” (Isa 30:1-3)

*Forgetting God. They forget God’s mighty works. Egypt once enslaved them. Assyria will soon conquer them.

*Forgetting God’s Word! They ignore the prophetic warnings. Study God’s Word and be filled with the Holy Spirit before crises arise.

Lessons:

*Worldly help looks powerful but is spiritually bankrupt. It deepens bondage. God will discipline us! “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14)

*Turning away from the Lord for help is foolish. “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” (PV 14:12).

*Blessings come by refusing the counsel of the wicked (Ps 1:1). Reject unbiblical guidance, even if culturally or politically influential!

*Trust in the LORD “with all your heart”; He directs our paths (PV 3:5,6)!

*Doubt is an enemy! Those who doubt God become “unstable in all their ways,” just the fluttering dove (Jam 1:5-8)

*Fear is an enemy! Emotional panic often drives believers toward quick fixes instead of prayerful obedience.

*Spiritually maturity in dangerous times is the antidote against being foolish. Not suspicion of everything but steadfast devotion to Jesus.  Anchored in the eternal Word, strengthened by the Spirit, surrounded by godly counsel, we can stay strong in Christ. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves… Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ” (Eph 4:14,15)

THE GULLIBLE WOMEN

“For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts” (2Tim 3:6). The word “gullible” means to be foolish, silly, naive, unsuspecting of danger, weak willed; easily cheated because you are too willing to believe what other people say. You accept stories without asking questions or checking the facts. Scammers (yahoo-boys) often target gullible people to steal their money with fake promises. The description of being gullible applies to both women and men.

False teachers do not come to preach in the living Church. They have their own secret way to quietly infiltrate homes, seeking influence thru private conversations. Christian households were often used as places of fellowship, prayer and Bible studies making them important targets for those who opposed apostolic truth. Their creeping recalls the serpent’s approach to Eve, working through deception rather than faithful obedience to God’s word (Gen 3:1–6). Paul is not referring to all women in the world, but to some women who were deceived by these impostors thru flattery. The women lacked true spiritual foundation, had unresolved guilt, inferiority complexes and were isolated from the Body of Christ. Unconfessed and unrepented sin brings real guilt and bondage before God. These false teachers exploit shame by offering false gospels. These women were led away by various sexual lusts, greed, pride, envy, covetousness, fear, craving for spiritual experiences apart from obedience to God. Lusts give birth to sin and sin produces death (Jam 1:14,15). Sound doctrine directs believers toward self-control, holiness, peace, joy, and the freedom found in submitting every desire to Christ. Praise the Lord!

These are open doors to deception: Spiritual immaturity, lack of discernment, doubts, a conscience burdened with unconfessed sin that produces guilt, shame and fear. Unrestrained, not satisfied appetites. Covetousness. Lack of contentment. Isolation from solid teaching. Why are some women romantically scammed by men? Cyber Criminals pretend to initiate a relationship with the intention to defraud their victims of large sums of money. Scammers create fake profiles on social networking sites with stolen pictures of attractive models and a made-up identity. They “groom” the victim, by developing a hyper personal relationship, until they feel that she is ready to part with her money. This scam is a “double hit”–a financial loss and painful emotional loss of a relationship.

THE SIN OF DAVID AND BATHSHEBA

This chapter (2 Samuel 11) shows the beginning of David’s fall. He never recovers his fame as a younger man, loving God. It is a reminder of the original fall of Adam. His fall is a warning! Anyone can fall into sin, backslide and damage his testimony. “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). In that part of the world, wars were not normally fought during the winter months because cold weather made travelling difficult. Fighting resumed in the spring. David sent Joab…. David should have been out at the battle, but he remained behind. In 2 Samuel 10 Joab and the army were preserved against the enemy, but they did not win. The decisive victory came when David led the battle. By tradition and experience God told David, “You need to be at the battle.” But David remained at Jerusalem.

Sin starts with an unrepented desire (lust) in the heart. When the right opportunity comes, that desire becomes the monster called sin. When sin becomes mature, it leads to death (Jam 1:14,15). This is God’s Law: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). If David’s attention had been where God wanted it, he would never have fallen into sin. While Joab is busy in attacking Rabbah, Satan was busy attacking David. He succeeded. The fall to sexual temptation did not start with Beersheba. It was only the climax. For about 20 years, David did not restrain himself sexually. Contrary to God’s will, he added wives. The corrupt seed planted long ago was producing now a bitter harvest. Staying at home from war only provided the time and opportunity to covet, commit adultery and murder.

It was evening. David arose from his bed and walked on the roof. He could not sleep because he had no peace. He was not where God wanted him to be. He saw a beautiful woman bathing. It is possible that Beersheba acted immodestly. In the Bible, women are told to dress modestly (1Tim 2:9). But David is totally responsible for the way he acted. His sin was not seeing a naked woman. He did not plan to see her. His sin was in allowing his eyes to gaze on her, to covet her, and because he had the power, to take her to himself. He had many wives. But he was not satisfied. This is because the sins of the flesh and the eyes are rebellious and cannot be satisfied except with what God provides. David and Solomon show us that if one woman is not enough, 1000 women are also not enough. Selah!

“The woman was very beautiful to behold”. Bathsheba’s great beauty made the sight tempting. But the real strength of temptation does not lie in the quality of the tempting object, but in the state of heart of the one being tempted. David was “prepared” to fail at this point. Even so, this temptation was not too strong for David, no matter how beautiful Bathsheba was. For example, Joseph was more severely tempted to commit sexual immorality than David was here, but he fled that temptation. David looked at Bathsheba and saw beauty. God saw this as ugly. We call it “an affair”. God calls it “adultery”. We call it “love”. God calls it “lust”. We call it “sexy”. God calls it sin!

David should have rejected the temptation here. But he went ahead and inquired about the woman going closer to sin. He discovered that Beersheba came from a notable family. Her father, Eliam was one of David’s men of valour. Her grandfather was Ahithophel, one of his chief counsellors. She was married to Uriah, also one of David’s men of valour, who at that time was away in the battle against where David should have been. The knowledge that he can get away with his sin was planted in David’s mind. He committed adultery in his mind while on the roof. That was bad enough. Adultery in practice is even worse. David should have received the news of the woman’s identity as a warning. In taking Bathsheba, David sinned against Uriah, Eliam, and Ahithophel – each man was close and important to David.

If David knew the price he must pay for one sexual sin. It resulted in an unwanted pregnancy, the murder of a trusted friend, a dead baby, a daughter raped by his son, one son murdered by another son, a civil war led by one son. Ahithophel, betrayed him. Solomon, who also lacked self- control and led Isreal away from God! At this moment David agreed with the world’s purpose of sex, seeing as pleasure. He did not understand the purpose for sex: God gave it as gift to “weld” the marriage relationship between a husband and his wife. Bathsheba became pregnant. This was an unwanted pregnancy. By the law, both should be stoned to death. David tries to cover his sin by killing Uriah. Our sin is never hidden before God. The solution is repentance and confession of sin. If you have sinned secretly, then confess secretly to God. If you have sinned publicly, then confess publicly but keep the details to yourself. If you have sinned spiritually, against the church, thru slander, unbelief, gossip, then confess it to the church leaders. David arranged for Uriah to be killed. David married Bathsheba. But we are told “The thing David has done displeased the Lord”. This is the first mention of God in this chapter.

From now on, the Holy Spirit convicts David of sin. He wrote: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah!” (Ps 34:1-5). David was in that terrible place where he had too much sin to be happy in God and he knew God too much to be happy in sin. The better the man is, the greater the price he pays for a moment of sinful pleasure. Lessons:

*David’s sin started with his neglect of duty. He delegated Joab to lead the army to war, and he stayed behind in Jerusalem. Be careful with idleness. Be where God wants you to be. Nobody hides sin from God. Covetousness is a terrible sin in the heart. It steals, kills and destroys.

*David’s willingness to abuse power was another way thru which sin came. Many successful people fall into this trap. Abuse of power is when one in a position of authority forces or harms others for personal gain; by bullying subordinates, demanding illegal favours, breaking the laws, taking bribes, threatening others with job loss, arresting people, using financial or emotional manipulation or intimidation. As a king, David had the power to control people and commit sin. But he did not have the power to control the effects of his sin! Selah!

*Run from sexual sins! Be warned! Even looking at the nakedness of others is in itself a sin. Pornography is not harmless entertainment. “Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” (1 Cor 6:18-19). Above all, don’t be deceived! God cannot be mocked! Sin leads to death!  David’s sin was rooted in covetousness. Like with Eve in the garden, sin started with his eyes. He sent and took the woman for himself. Visual impact is very powerful. Control your eyes like Job. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?” (Job 31:1). The punishment for sexual lust in men is bondage of the wife and poverty (destruction of harvest) (Job 31:1-12).

Beauty in a woman is a blessing and a curse, if not surrendered to God. Because of the many compliments she receives, it is easy to become proud and hard for her to invest in godly character, which requires humility. Only the Holy Spirit can humble a beautiful woman. Sexual intimacy belongs only in the marriage covenant established by God. Sin is a deliberate crossing of boundaries God has established. Sin is not just a personal issue but it affects the community. God treats families with utmost seriousness. While the law highlights sin, the New Testament offers redemption through Christ, who forgives and restores those who repent. Selah! Worship the Lord!