This passage hit me recently as I was driving to the office. It offers some helpful points for our back-to-schoolers. Young people: 

2 Samuel 11:1–17 (LEB):

¹ It came about in the spring, at the time kings go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel. They ravaged all of the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David was remaining in Jerusalem. ² It happened late one afternoon that David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king’s house, and he saw a woman bathing on her roof. Now the woman was very beautiful. ³ David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” ⁴ Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house. ⁵ The woman became pregnant, and she sent and told David, and she said, “I am pregnant.” ⁶ So David sent to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ Uriah came to him, and David asked how Joab and the army fared and how the war was going. ⁸ David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” So Uriah went out from the king’s house, and a gift from the king went out after him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his master and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ They told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” David said to Uriah, “Are you not coming from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹ Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are living in the booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping on the surface of the open field; and I, shall I go to my house to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I surely will not do this thing.” ¹² David said to Uriah, “Remain here today, and tomorrow I will send you away.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem on that day and the next. ¹³ David invited him, and he ate and drank in his presence so that he became drunk, and he went out in the evening to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. ¹⁴ And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵ He had written in the letter, “Put Uriah in the front, in the face of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him so that he may be struck down and die.” ¹⁶ When Joab was besieging the city, he put Uriah toward the place which he knew there were valiant warriors. ¹⁷ The men of the city came out and fought with Joab. Some from the army from the servants of David fell; Uriah the Hittite also died.

Be where you are supposed to be. David remained at home while his soldiers went out to battle. The historical record wants us to see “Kings go out” for war at this time, but David didn’t. You will be tempted to go somewhere your parents didn’t permit you or to simply go without asking—don’t. It might end up alright this time, or even several times, but actions like this eventually lead to something that you don’t want. 

You will see things you shouldn’t this year, don’t chase them. While David was walking on the roof of his house, he saw something he shouldn’t have seen; he investigated and eventually committed adultery. You will be minding your own business, trying to make it to the next class or catch up on some homework, and inevitably see something you shouldn’t. There will be plenty of opportunities with what passes as acceptable wear among your peers, or maybe it’s someone passing around pornography on a phone; either way, it will happen. Don’t chase after it. Take Paul’s advice, “RUN!” (1 Cor. 6:18). Do what Joseph did, RUN! (Gen. 39:12). 

Your actions have serious consequences. David had no way of appreciating all that this would cost him. Sin always comes with a high cost (see Rom. 6:23). Don’t think you are the exception, that it “won’t happen like that to you,” or “that’s not the way it will be.” Be wise and discerning. Older folks warn you repeatedly about this. Please listen. It might seem insignificant, but the ripple effect could never end. You might sin with little issue this time, but eventually, sin comes back around, because sin bites, gnaws, and kills.

Sin will make you do things you normally wouldn’t. Do you think David woke up that morning for his stroll on the roof and thought in a little while, he would kill a loyal soldier to cover up his actions? David was cold-blooded. He had Uriah carry his own death sentence (v. 14). Sin always takes you further than you want to go, further than you planned, and leaves you worse off than you were. Don’t entertain it, pacify it, or play with it—stomp it out of your life.

As you start back to school, consider these things, and they will spare you heartache.