David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?” (2 Sam. 11:10)
Expanded Passage: 2 Samuel 11:6-11
I lay crying on the wood floor as the words finally spilled out of me. Quietly, my dad listened. He sat without flinching as I (a teenager at the time) recounted secrets I had been holding close. Fearful of what might happen or what people would think of me, I had been hiding so many things—from my parents but also from myself. I had been unwilling to look at and name the truth of my situation, and as a result, spent many months trying to ignore, fix, and forget what I knew in the deeper parts of my soul.
The moment David received word from Bathsheba, “I am pregnant,” he began to spin out of control, trying to find ways to cover up his indiscretions. But when his plan did not pan out, he panicked. We can almost hear the anxiety in his voice as he questioned Uriah, “Why didn’t you go home?”
We have all been there—that moment when we can either bring our dark secrets out into the open or find yet another way to cover them up. But what we see in David’s life (and maybe our own) is that secrets kept in the shadows gain unhealthy power over our souls. Shame suffocates and leaves us crouching in the darkness, but there is freedom in confession as we bring our full selves out into the light.
Reflect on what you might be hiding from yourself, God, or others.
Sarah E. Westfall is an author and speaker who currently resides in northeast Indiana with her husband Ben and their four boys; she is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University.
© 2024 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
