The Strand Study Bible

II SAMUEL II SAMUEL where you get it from, as long as you get it for him. It doesn’t matter if it’s from the Internet or cable television or even your neighbor’s wife. He wants it and he wants it now, and he will bug you until he gets what he wants. Did you notice that the traveler didn’t care whom David had to take advantage of, just as long as he got what he wanted? The traveler . He has an insatiable appetite, a ravenous hunger for the carnal things in life. You’ll know when he’s “dropped by.” Its when the sins of the flesh begin to pop into your thoughts. Paul put it best when he said in Galatians 5:19-21: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like... The traveler . He hates anything that gets into his way of gaining what he wants. That’s why he hates God. Paul said in Romans 8:5-8: 550

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

The traveler . He abhors God. Reason being: the moment a sinner gets saved, the HOLY SPIRIT (called the new nature) immediately indwells the new believer and informs the old nature (called the traveler ) that he’s got company –the new nature has just arrived. Paul said in Galatians 5:16-17:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Paul understood the traveler all too well. Paul said in Romans 7:15-24:

I don’t understand my own behavior–I don’t do what I want to do; instead, I do the very thing I hate! Now if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am agreeing that the Torah (Law) is good. But now it is no longer ‘the real me’ doing it, but the sin housed inside of me . For I know that there is nothing good housed inside of me –that is, inside my old nature. I can want what is good, but I can’t do it! For I don’t do the good I want; instead, the evil that I don’t want is what I do! But if I am doing what ‘the real me’ doesn’t want, it is no longer ‘the real me’ doing it but the sin housed inside me . So I find it to be the rule, a kind of perverse ‘Torah,’ that although I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me! For in my inner self I completely agree with God’s Torah (Law), but in my various parts, I see a different ‘Torah’ (Law), one that battles with the Torah (Law) in my mind and makes me a prisoner of sin’s ‘Torah,’ (Law), which is operating in my various parts. What a miserable creature I am.” (David H. Stern, Complete Jewish Bible, Clarksville, MD, Jewish New Testament Pub, 1998, p. 1409 1 ) Paul understood full well that when the traveler wanted something, he usually got it… unless, of course, Paul gave his mind to God. Paul said in Romans 7:24-25: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God ; but with the flesh the law of sin. Paul reminded us that the only way to stop the traveler from getting what he wants is to put the new man ( HOLY SPIRIT ) in charge via God’s Word. Paul said in Colossians 3:9-10: Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: While no man can avoid the traveler , he can combat him successfully through the Word. Yield to the Word of God and you will have yielded to the new nature ( HOLY SPIRIT ) that lives inside of you (Colo 3:16 and Eph 5:18). The more you allow the HOLY SPIRIT to take control of your mind (via God’s Word), the less the traveler gets his way (Rom 12:1-2). Had David allowed God to control his mind that day he would have told the traveler to move on and to stop panhandling him concerning his appetites. The next time the traveler comes to you and tells you he’s hungry for something (sex, money, drugs, alcohol, etc.), just tell him to go and get a job –for thus saith the Lord, “If a man doesn’t work, neither should he eat” (II Thess 3:10). And we know that the wayfaring man doesn’t work; he just wants. THE ADAGE IS TRUE: You can have it all, but you’ll never have all you want Why is it you can have it all, but you’ll never have all you want? Because the traveler has an insatiable appetite. Question – Has the traveler “dropped by” to see you lately? What’s been “popping into” your mind? 12:8 Interestingly enough, God would have given David “more of the same” ( such and such things ). God would have given David more influence ( thy master’s house ), more sex ( thy master’s wives ), and more power ( the house of Israel and of Judah ), had David not taken advantage of another man’s wife and committed adultery. Apparently God had no problem giving David more wives in order to satisfy his sexual needs. The fact is, had David taken care of his sexual urge through one of his many wives and/or concubines, or even through an act of self-gratification, (for the most part that is what lovemaking is all about for the man - I Cor 6:9b ), he would not have fallen into immorality.

1 Stern, David H. Complete Jewish Bible , Clarksville, MD, Jewish New Testament Pub. 1998. Print.