Lessons learned from David and Bathsheba
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Typical welcome stuff...
Recap of what we’ve been doing, why we’ve been doing it, and only a couple weeks left
Turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 11.
As you turn there, let me tell you what we are about to see. We are about to see, David, who so far has been pretty much been a constant hero in scripture…we are about to see him take a fall. A big fall.
In 2 Samuel 1:19 David says this...
19 “Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!
This will soon apply to him.
And most of you, are going to be familiar with this fall…with the story of David and Bathsheba. The long story short is…David commits adultery, and has a man killed because of it. But…there’s so much more to the story and that’s what I want to dive into tonight.
So here’s what I’m calling the message tonight.
Lessons learned from David and Bathsheba.
But first, I want to start with a few things that don’t matter to the story of David and Bathsheba…things that maybe you’ve heard matter before…or maybe things we have a tendency to assume…and they are things that are at the beginning of our story here.
So let’s do this…let’s read this passage a chunk at a time and just go over what we can learn.
1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Here’s the first thing that doesn’t matter.
David remained at Jerusalem...
Some people will tell you this is a sign of things gone wrong with David…that he was already starting to forsake his duties as a king…but that’s not true.
David had done this before in 2 Samuel 10:7. On top of that, we have proof that David’s men desired David to avoid active military involvement for fear of his safety, like in 21:17.
The reason why people want to point this out is…
Here’s what it does show us though here’s a lesson…
Idleness can lead to sinfulness.………
Talk about the difference between idleness and sabbath……..
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
Here’s another thing that doesn’t matter that people sometimes focus on.
Bathsheba’s intentions, or lack of intentions, doesn’t matter...........
Here’s what does matter, David commited a sin worthy of death.
The Leviticus law said the punishment was death.
Here’s the lesson we learn.
No one is above sin.
Think of all the implications here of sin. Lust, adultery, potential rape…and soon to be murder, and deceit…all from the greatest King israel has ever known…all from a man who was after God’s own heart…guys. No one…is above sin…and all struggle with it.
If someone tells you they aren’t struggling with any particular sins…they are lying.......
6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ”
22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Sin leads to more sin.
Us acting our own way, in accordance with our own desires…just leads us down a path of more sin. Without intervention from God, without him speaking to us…which we will get in a minute…we often just cover up our sin with more sin.
King David does this…I do this…you do this.
Back to what I was saying about lying about your sin…that’s an example right there...........
1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ”
Another lesson we learn...
We need God’s people and God’s word.
This right here is the perfect example of us needing the people of God around us to call us out on things and speak into our lives.
This is exactly what scripture speaks of when it says...
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Without Nathan bringing God’s word to bear upon David’s soul…we don’t know if David would have repented…we don’t know what he would have done to keep the secret…but the point is…Nathan did bring God’s word to him. Nathan was a faithful servant of God to speak to David about God’s will...
And this leads right into our next point...
Repentance is everything.
13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
Lastly, we are reminded.
Although the debt is paid, consequences remain.