World travelers are a unique breed, a people who reach out to grasp the beauty that our world offers. From the sweeping mountain vistas of Bavaria to sun-drenched Mexico, who would not travel the world if money were no object?
How can we see such beauty and not want to take it all in?
2 Samuel 11:2 tells of a king who did just that. He looked out upon a sweeping landscape, and beauty filled his vision. He discovered he wanted to reach out for it no matter what it cost.
“It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.”
We know the story of David and Bath-sheba, a woman of great beauty who was already married to another man. David was drawn to her beauty, and he committed a sin against God and Bath-sheba.
It was a sin of great beauty, and in its moment of consummation, David probably enjoyed it very much. However, the results were a good man David brought to his death, manipulating Bath-sheba’s husband Uriah on the battlefield so that he was killed. Then the child born of David’s sin sickened and died.
David was that world traveler who had the means to reach out and possess all the beauty the world had to offer. Uriah had claimed one small part of the beauty for his own, and David took it. The beauty he beheld with his eyes became a sin unto him, and it was beautiful no more.
Matthew 5:28 tells us:
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
2 Timothy 2:22 encourages us:
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
Galatians 5:24 gives us our goal:
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
David was consumed with passion, and it twisted on him, turning his moment of satisfaction into a time of untold sorrow. 1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us we are bought with a price, and we are to glorify God in our bodies.
So, what are we to take from this? God gives us beauty in this world to provide us enjoyment. However, there are lines in the sand that speak of what’s available to us and what’s not. If we cross one of those lines, the backlash is greater than the beauty ever was.
Finding beauty in God makes the world’s beauty pale in comparison.
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