The anger boils within your veins, you clench your jaw tight, and turn around quickly to leave the room. “Argh! If only that person would just let go of their stubborn ways and just accept the plan I have created to take care of everything. But no, it always has to be difficult, doesn’t it!? People…I just can’t stand their rejection of this great idea. I might actually shake that guy by the shoulders and scream ‘Accept this or you’ll regret it buddy!’ but that wouldn’t really work would it? Surely there must be another way…” Your mind begins to reel as newer solutions flash into your mind, your new plan begins to formulate and before you know you’ve made it your quest to conquer this stubborn rejection of your little plan.

Ever had a solution to a problem and be rejected? It’s funny how we can go into destructive mode toward that obstacle that just will not move out of our way. But what if that obstacle is there to teach us that we are the problem and our little plan is just a cover up to something bigger that is lurking in the darkness behind us?

King David’s plan didn’t work. He did his dead level best to lure Uriah the Hittite back into his home to be with his wife. He provided a feast and he gave him prime vacation time from the heat of the battle. But no, the stubborn man chose to sleep with the servants outside the king’s house. David tempted Uriah to stay another night and provided the wine to make him drunk, hoping that his drunkenness would lead him home to be with his wife. Yet again he slept outside with the servants in front of King David’s house. His integrity determined him to stay loyal to the soldiers on the field unable to be with their family members and see their own wives. Uriah was known as one of David’s 30 mighty men and King David abused his position to right his own personal wrong. King David’s last resort was scribbled on paper and sealed with his seal, placed in the hands of the man he was betraying. Uriah delivered his death sentence to the leader of the army and was stationed to the front of the battle, dying on the battlefield by innocent hands of the enemy because the true killer that schemed against him was inside the walls of Jerusalem with a crown upon his brow.

Lust, immorality, and pregnancy with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, caused King David to sink to the depths of homicide. His plans were rejected perhaps so that he could repent and make the wrong right before his loyal soldier but he could not see past his little plan. The account seems to highlight the obstacles King David faced, revealing his character and desperation for a cover up. Certainly the obstacles revealed Uriah’s character also. David breathed a sigh of relief that his problem could be resolved in wrong manner and after a time of mourning sent for Bathsheba to then become his wife.

The relief ended when Nathan the prophet confronted David about his actions. Thankfully he saw himself as a murderer, a robber of life and family, and was able to acknowledge not only had he destroyed a life, he disregarded God’s laws and expectations of him as a king of God’s chosen nation, Israel. He had taken lightly God’s position upon lust and marriage by giving into temptation, the temptation brought forth sin, that multiplied itself to a rotten plan to kill what stood in his way.

Let us be careful not always be mad at what does not seem to be working but to be able to step back sometimes and say “Am I trying to accomplish this for my own purposes?” “Is there something I’m trying to cover up?” We can even, imagine this, pray and ask God to reveal the thoughts and intents of our hearts. If we have a determination to plow over those that stand in our way of obtaining what we want so that we can get it immediately – Red flag!

Some of us need a good dose of good preaching, just like Nathan the prophet gave David, to slap us upside the head and knock a little Holy Ghost conviction into our hearts so that we can repent and do right! So if your little plan doesn’t work… in the end, what will it reveal about your character? It’s better to always do right than to have to make things right later.

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