THERE NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAD AND UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT OF THE ADULTERY BETWEEN KING DAVID AND BATHSHEBA, if the revered Patriarch, King David, had been where he ought to be at the beginning of the year when kings went forth to battle(2 Samuel 11:1).
He was a mighty and unequalled Warrior in his time but where he positioned himself at a time when he ought to be
on the battlefield
made him an easy prey for the traps of lust, deceit and murder set by the enemy. That singular error, brought untold agony, anguish and violent bloodshed to his once tranquil and respected family. Not to talk of very many others who were also negatively impacted.
Our anchor scripture tells us:
“As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man who wandereth from his place.” (Proverbs 27:8)
Another translation puts it even more clearly:
“Like a bird that wanders from her nest [with its comfort and safety], So is a man who wanders from his home.” (Proverbs 27: 8; AMP)
This scripture is not about birds; even though a bird is it’s first subject. It’s a deep spiritual truth about being where you’re supposed to be at the right time and the grave consequences of defaulting on this truth. On the other hand, it also implies avoiding being where you ought not to be seen and people around whom your moral integrity would easily come into question.
As a married man or woman, notwithstanding how youthful you may feel, you’re already in that season of life where both God and Man expect you not only to be respectable, reputable and responsible but discerning and full of discretion as well.
In giving you a marriage of your own, God has squarely met your need for companionship, friendship, fellowship, togetherness, closeness and sexual intimacy. All these are available for you in your Spouse who lives under the same roof with you.
When you’re at your workplace, no one would argue about that. When the call of duty takes you some other place or places, God’s protective grace covers you, ensuring that you’re safe from harm and disrepute.
But when you wander out of the place of the call of duty and genuine responsibility and obligations, you have strayed into a warzone and you need to know this: the enemy will not spare you. He’ll be ruthless in handling you! That’s what happened to David when he stayed home instead of being at the warfront.
Wandering does not have to be for a week or even days before it can boomerang. Walking out of where you should be into the wrong place,
because of anger, misunderstanding with your spouse or hurt feelings over how your Partner has treated or spoken to you,
even if briefly, is all it takes for the enemy to tag you with “wandering” and hit you hard.
Many have been hit with false scandals they never imagined. Some have had a pregnancy suddenly thrust on them by a teenage girl. Others got infected with a sexually transmitted disease(STD): all because they strayed away from home as a result of a heated but resolvable argument.
When I was a civil servant, I arrived office one morning and met the top floor of the Secretariat abuzz with bad news. Mr Clayton (fictitious name), one of the three topmost officers had been arrested and clamped straight into prison; not even police cell. What happened? Here’s what happened:
The Wife of Mr Clayton’s tribesman whose husband had travelled went to visit Mr Clayton at about 7:00 PM in the evening. Quite contrary to all her expectations, her husband, Mr Melvin (fictitious name) arrived home from his journey while she was out. If you understand the mindset of husbands, you’ll know that the first thing or person a married man eagerly looks forward to seeing upon arrival home from a journey isn’t his bubbly Son or his vivacious daughter. Neither is it his furious Alsatian dog nor his newly refurbished and very comfortable set of chairs in the sitting room. The first thing he fondly and eagerly looks forward to seeing is his beloved wife. That’s how the minds of men work. So you can imagine how Mr Melvin must have felt on arriving home from a journey LATE IN THE EVENING and not meeting his wife.
She later arrived and met her husband at home. Asked where she was coming from she said she went to visit his friend, Mr Clayton. Visit Mr Clayton in the night? A man who lived alone and whose wife and children were in another part of the State? The husband instantly suspected that something was fishy. He quickly swung into action and got Mr Clayton arrested; and since he also had the clout, he got the law enforcement agents to send him directly to Prison on remand.
I never got to know whether Mr Melvin and his “wandering wife” were able to peacefully resolve the thorny issue between them or if he sent her back to her parents to be tutored on how to use her legs as a married woman.
Don’t visit a member of the opposite sex alone without the prior knowledge and CONSENT of your Spouse. Not even in the name of Evangelism or follow-up visitation.
Even in the Song of Solomon, there is an incident of wandering and the wandering woman got beaten, wounded and her veil seized:
“The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.”
(Song of Solomon 5:7)
Thank God she didn’t get sexually molested or even raped as happens in our time.
But how did she get into this trouble? By wandering in the night in search of her Spouse whom she dilly-dallied to show affection at the right time!
Finally, wandering is not only physical. It can also be mental. Some look at their marriage and feel they should have stuck with a man or woman whom they once courted. But in Love Life and Marriage, one of the things you must avoid like a plague is the tendency of wandering backwards in your thoughts!
A newly married woman in East Africa began wandering backwards in her thoughts and felt she shouldn’t have left her former man. She didn’t stop at thinking of him but picked up her pen and wrote a letter to him expressing how she wished that they had not separated. This was long before cellphones came. She kept the letter somewhere in the house with the mind of posting it later.
While she was out of the house, her husband needed to find something. In the course of his search he stumbled on the letter. That letter led to the breakup of that marriage FOREVER. Let your mind not wander into the past and to people of the opposite sex you once had a relationship with. If they didn’t marry you, then they’re not worth your thoughts.
Your home is your abode. Your workplace and Church are where you go for your livelihood and to nourish your relationship with your Creator respectively. As for other places ensure you’re there by the call of duty or some necessity.
Don’t wander away from where God’s protection covers your integrity.
🔥🔥🔥FAITH DECREE:
🔥LET DIVINE WISDOM, DISCERNMENT AND DISCRETION BE RELEASED UPON EVERYONE READING THIS DEVOTIONAL PIECE IN JESUS’ MIGHTY NAME!
🍷🍗 TAKE-HOME LESSON: ALWAYS ENSURE THAT YOU’RE AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. AVOID PLACES WHERE YOUR INTEGRITY WOULD COME UNDER ATTACK NEEDLESSLY.
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