Proper 12

2 Samuel 11:1-15

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Sermon

I suppose it could be argued it wasn’t “that bad’ for David to take the ark of the covenant with him into battle against the Philistines, and it wasn’t his fault they lost it. Things happen, especially in war. And maybe it could be argued David was simply overly anxious to get the ark back that first time when he forgot to take any Levites with him, or he was still in the mindset of battle, and Uzzah’s death wasn’t his fault. I mean, David didn’t kill him. God had. If only Uzzah hadn’t reached out to touch the ark. And David only had the best of intentions when he began making plans to build a temple for the ark of the covenant. But as an outside observer, it is clear David has slowly been in a process of asserting his will over God’s. He has been doing what he wants without finding out if it is what God wants. It’s the danger we learned about last week. Walking with God for so long that we think we know what He wants or believing that no matter what we do, God is on our side.

But it’s this attitude that gets us here, to this point. Because David had not maintained a vibrant relationship with God, he will do some things he never thought he would have done. Perhaps no one would have thought this king would have acted like this. No one who loves and serves the Lord would do what David does. Yet, here we are. This is perhaps what we would consider David’s greatest failure. And it’s really a combination of things David failed to do.

First, David failed to lead. As this text begins, we learn it is the spring when kings go off to war. And when the people originally came to Solomon with their request for a king, they had specified they wanted someone to lead them like the other nations have, someone who will lead them into battle. 1 Samuel 8:19-20. But instead of leading the troops, he sends Joab in his place and David remains at home. He should have been leading. He should have been out with the troops. He should have been kingly. But he didn’t think it mattered what he did. He figured God would bless him because he was God’s man.

Second, David failed to guard his heart. Our text tells us David had difficulty sleeping so he got up and started to walk around. He was on his roof when he saw a woman bathing. Now, while this sounds innocent enough, the text gives us enough that what may have begun as an innocent event developed into lust. Now, let’s be honest. Many of us have seen things we didn’t intend to see. Whether it was on tv, in a movie, or even in life. Seeing is not the problem. The problem comes when we fail to look away. The problem comes when we begin to allow our heart to imagine the “what ifs”. The problem becomes when a look becomes lust.

David didn’t simply see Bathsheba taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was. He would not have been there had he been with the troops preparing for battle. When he accidentally saw Bathsheba, he should have turned away. He should have retreated and acknowledged a mistake was made. But instead, he thinks about her. And sends someone for more information. Anyone else here wanting to yell at your Bible and say, “Leave her alone David, leave her alone”? Because he doesn’t. Notice, David is told who she is, that was Bathsheba, and she is married to Uriah the Hittite. She is a married woman, David. Leave her alone. She belongs to someone else. She is not for you.

But that’s not what David did. He saw her, found out who she was, and then had messengers bring her to him. And the Bible says they had an affair and she became pregnant. David is acting immorally here. He has gone from making what some might have called a mistake, in taking the ark with him into battle, to full out sin in having a relationship with another man’s wife.

Third, David failed to accept the consequences. Or at least that’s what he thinks. After Bathsheba tells David she is pregnant, he sends for her husband from the battlefield. And twice he tries to set Uriah up to spend time with his wife so that no one will know the child is not her husbands. But Uriah shows greater honor than David and refuses to do what David suggests. Uriah doesn’t believe he should be at home with his wife. He believes he is to return to the battlefield. And after two days, that’s exactly what Uriah does.

And David sends a note with Uriah. But not just any note. It’s a kill order. Put Uriah on the front lines and when the fighting is the heaviest pull back and leave him so that he will be killed. So David has now gone from committing adultery to murder. He didn’t plan to. It just happened. But these things didn’t just happen. What happened is that as David had neglected his relationship with God. As his prayer life, his study life, his worship life declined, so did his love for God and his desire to please God in all he said and did. And life became more about pleasing self than it did pleasing God.

But David’s not alone. All of us who follow Christ are called to deny [ourselves]and take up [our] cross daily and follow [Christ]. Luke 9:23. That’s what He told His disciples and that’s what it means to be a follower of Christ. To live daily in that relationship with God. And opportunities like worship, and Sunday School, Bible studies and small groups are all ways in which we help and encourage each other to live life as a Christian. And it’s in prayer and devotions that we connect with God regularly to allow the relationship God wants us to have with Him to grow stronger. But here’s the other thing. No matter the distance that is between you and God right now, God is ready and willing to have you come back. God is prepared for you today to ask Him to forgive you for anything you may have done as your relationship has gone astray. And doing so today, means you won’t have to wake up tomorrow thinking, “How could I have done that? Why did I let this get so far?” God is ready now to accept you again.