Daily Manna from Heaven

by Dr. Harold Sala

“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.” Psalms 51:7-9

When a friend of many years became involved in an affair, Annette Lawson began asking, “Why do people walk out on good marriages for someone who is totally different from themselves and the kind of a person they would live the rest of their lives with?” Finding answers to that question led to more than a decade of exhaustive research.

When this sociologist was asked, “What advice would you give to someone contemplating an affair?” she replied, “One thing that hasn’t changed about adultery is the danger. It really is a risky undertaking that can leave people’s lives in ruins.”

It’s the bottom line which doesn’t come across today when the media portrays the glamour of romance a dangerous fling which leaves the lives and families of people in ruin.

Seldom, if ever, does a movie or a television production tell it like it really is the hell of a burning conscience, the fear of discovery, the concern over HIV or venereal disease, the question of ultimate cost. That forbidden fruit may taste sweeter than that which is legitimate isn’t the issue. The issue is the cost which is always paid in the currency of human suffering.

Should you, for one, be toying with thoughts of an affair, there are three questions which always must be answered: 1. How do I appease my conscience? 2. How do I tell my husband or wife? and 3. How do I handle my thought life and memory?

Occasionally, when I deal with an issue such as this, I get letters from people who say, “I was aghast at what you said. Why don’t you just stick to the Bible?” Should you ever feel like that, you need to discover that this great book addresses the issue of life as it is today. Issues such as our sexuality, fidelity in marriage, and adultery are all discussed in the Bible, and the Bible realistically conveys the consequences of our choices, something which the media quite consistently fails to do.

The first issue to be dealt with is this: How do I deal with a troubled conscience? This was the question which confronted David following his affair with Bathsheba. Make a note of Psalm 51 and see the steps which David took as he poured out his scalding confession to God.

First there was confession as David cried, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Then came cleansing as David prayed, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” Then David asked that God would restore the joy and gladness which he had enjoyed as the reconstruction of a life took place.

The second issue of how you ask forgiveness of the one to whom you are married, and how you rebuild the relationship which has been damaged, is a delicate one. A pastor or a counselor can help you as you seek forgiveness and restoration.

Final issue: How do you forget, picking up the pieces without your memory’s playing the situation back like a broken record that won’t shut off? Make a note of II Cor. 10:4, which talks about bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

Replaying the broken relationship in your mind only keeps the memory alive, but giving it to the Lord, asking the Holy Spirit to bring healing, eliminates it once and for all. It did for David, and it will do the same for you as well.

*Permission to reprint the above article is hereby granted by Guidelines, Inc.*

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By Dr. Harlod Sala

“When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.” -2 Samuel 11:26-27

“There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him,” wrote Solomon 3,000 years ago. Numbers three and four on that list of character disorders which the Bible calls sins are “hands that shed innocent blood,” and “a heart that devises wicked schemes.”

I have no way of knowing whether Solomon thought of the circumstances of his own family, especially involving his own father and mother, but he well could have. His father was David; his mother, Bathsheba. “In the spring, at the time when kings go to war,” begins 2 Samuel 11:1, David stayed at home. One evening when he was on the rooftop of his palace, he saw a beautiful woman bathing–the woman who eventually became Solomon’s mother. Do you remember the story how David took Bathsheba and slept with her? After all, he was the king, and he was not accustomed to having anyone deny him.

But then when Bathsheba became pregnant as the result of this adulterous affair, David’s conscience began to deeply trouble him. Bathsheba was married to another man, and a good man, at that. For David to take Bathsheba as his wife, Uriah had to be destroyed, and it had to appear to be a grave accident. Without taking time to recount the details which I would encourage you to read for yourself, if ever a man devised a wicked scheme and shed innocent blood, it was David who was responsible, completely and fully for the death of Uriah, the rightful husband of Bathsheba.

Just a minute, you may be thinking. Is this not the one who took a sling shot and in the name of the Lord, went against Goliath? Is this not the one who wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…” (Psalm 23:1, KJV). And, of course, the answer to all these questions is yes.

Should you take the time to ponder the six things which God hates and look at the life of David, you will find an example of almost every one in David’s life. He was proud and arrogant. He lied. His hands shed innocent blood. His heart devised the wicked scheme to put Uriah in the forefront of the battle, then order the troops to pull out leaving him exposed to the enemy. His feet rushed to do evil, and he deliberately hurt the woman who became the object of his lust.

Though Solomon did not mention his father’s adulterous affair with his mother, he undoubtedly thought of the consequences which followed his wrongdoing: the death of his half-brother who was the love child of David and Bathsheba, the public humiliation which came as the result of his sin and the ongoing conflicts which resulted in his personal, immediate family because of what David did.

But–and this is the point that I want you to get–there is forgiveness and healing for our wrongdoing, no matter what it may be. As the Psalmist–perhaps David himself–wrote, “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared” (Psalm 130:4). David paid a price for his wrongdoing–a substantial one, yet in repentance he poured out his heart before God and asked for God to restore the joy of his salvation (see Psalm 51).

Friend, if you see yourself in these six things which God hates, do what David did. Confess your wrongdoing, forsake it, and find God’s strength to overcome your human weakness. This is what grace is about.

*“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”*

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