It was a delightful spring afternoon, King David was lounging around the palace with nothing to do. Typically, he would have been with his army, because this was the time of the year when kings go out to battle, but David stayed home. His kingdom was blossoming. Everything was going so well, he could take some time to relax and rest. In fact, he chose to do nothing productive this afternoon. After deciding to get off the couch, he took a little stroll along the roof of his palace, likely the highest building in all of Jerusalem. It was at this moment that he saw something that could occupy his time–a very beautiful woman bathing on a rooftop a few houses over!
David’s life was about to change drastically. The entire rest of his life would be lived in the shadow of this one lazy afternoon. David found out who this lovely woman was and sent messengers to bring her to the palace. It didn’t matter that she was the wife of Uriah, a trusted mighty man of David who was off fighting in his army. David yielded to his fleshly desires. The consequences of this choice and the subsequent cover-up would involve death, family discord, public shame, and guilt before God (2 Samuel 11-12; Psalm 51).
Why? While we could speak to several of David’s failures that lead to his sin of adultery and murder, the first failure that started the snowball down the mountain was an idle mind. David wasn’t being productive and focused with his life. He allowed an idle mind to become a devil’s workshop.
An idle mind has been a huge problem for many in 2020. The quarantine has meant for many extra time on their hands sitting around the house. An idle mind has lead to increased online pornography traffic. An idle mind has caused online affairs to increase through apps or social media platforms. An idle mind has caused a rapid surge in child predators attacking children because they have time and are online more. An idle mind has lead to increase in depression, drug and alcohol usage, and domestic violence. An idle mind causes us to check our phones constantly. The average American pulls out his phone 150 times each day, often because we have nothing else to do. The problem isn’t the pulling out of the phone, it is the content and use we are doing with it during our idle periods. Just like David, our sins often get started because of our idleness.
Paul commanded us to “make the best use of our time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16). Be careful when you have time vacuums in your life, because Satan will fill it with evil. If not careful, just like David, we will learn the consequences of an idle mind–grief, pain, and guilt!
