Troublesome Topic: The Examples of David and the Woman at the Well

The Example of David

Do you want evidence that God does not hold our failures and our past against us? Look no further than David. He committed adultery, and then committed murder to cover it up (II Samuel chapter 11). This is exactly the kind of thing that Satan will hold over someone’s head for his entire life. It is a form of emotional blackmail; and Satan is good at it.

But David did not focus on the negative messages from the enemy. He repented and was able to move beyond the guilt of those sins. God accepted him and he became a good example for others.

From David’s time until there were no more Jewish kings, David was used as an example of a good king, while Jeroboam was the example of a bad king. These two men became the measuring rods for the kings that followed. So the measure of a good king was not someone who never did anything wrong, but someone who knew what to do when he did do something wrong.

There are many biblical references in which kings were compared to either David or Jeroboam; here are just a few examples:

The Example Of The Woman At The Well

In John chapter four we read about the conversation Jesus had with a Samaritan woman at the well outside of town. Jesus knew the woman’s past before they started talking. Jesus used her past to bring her to God. He did it in such a way that she did not feel belittled or shamed, even though her sinful life was known by Him.

Satan always wants to make our past failures the issue; Jesus never does. For Satan past failures are a tool to make us look at ourselves and feel worse; for God our past failures are a tool to make us look to Him and become better.

The next lesson is Satan Uses Our Pain against Us