Are We Relinquishing our Duty?

Today I read the familiar passage in 2 Samuel where King David commits adultery with Bathsheba and then ends up having her husband killed in battle after she conceives a baby.

When I read stories like that I constantly try to learn from them – how can I avoid falling into sin like that? ‘Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.’ David was said to be a man after God’s own heart – yet he fell into enormous sin. How did he get to that point?

Well as many people have pointed out, it started with him staying at home when he should have gone out to war. It was spring and the kings went out to war, yet he stayed at home. He probably thought the battle would be fine without him, since his right hand man Joab was in charge, and they did in fact win. But his post, and where he really should have been, was out there with them. Instead he stayed at home which is when he saw Bathsheba; which led to a one night stand, her pregnancy, and his eventual murder of her husband.

That led me to think, are there any ways I am delegating my responsibility to someone else, when I really should be overseeing it myself? Thinking about it, there are many ways we can do that, maybe because we’re lazy, or because we’re busy, or it’s just easier for someone else to do it, or we don’t like it…

One way I think we can do it as parents is to give too much of our responsibility for our children over to others, or to TV as a babysitter. Not that we can’t have people look after our children, but God has given us responsibility for bringing them up, so we need to make sure we are still overseeing it and maybe some of us should have more of a hand in it than we do.

I could let someone watch my children while I did more ministry during the day. But God has given me the children as a responsibility so I need to watch out that I don’t delegate it to someone else unless I’m sure it is right.

Husbands often relinquish their responsibility to lead the family to their wives, and I think wives can relinquish the responsibility to make sure their family have good and healthy food to whoever makes the ready meals! I am NOT saying we can’t eat pizza and have ready meals and delegate our jobs though!

I have just been struck by how we need to be careful to remember what God has called us to do and not just give it away to someone else who won’t do as good a job. Or maybe like in David’s case, they will do a good job, but we open ourselves up to problems in other areas because we’re not where we’re supposed to be. Delegation is a good thing, but I think we need to watch out how we do it, how much we do it, and whether we should be doing it, especially when it comes to the things that God has called us to do.