Morning Challenge David

2 Samuel 11:1–5 ESV

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. 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.”

1. David was Blessed

The kingdom is Established

Everyone Loves David

David has just arose as a victor of a slew of battles.

Note: It may be surprising that David’s great sin comes at the moment of a seemingly easy blessed life.

2. David was Disengaged

David the warrior had become David the vacationer. At the time of year when kings were going out to battle David was back home, not engaged which made him susceptible to cheap thrills.

The way to successfully overcome the enemies attacks is not just to a strong will to say no. It’s to be busy with a higher purpose.

We were not designed to live life on the sidelines.

3. David was in a Place to be Tempted

David is wandering around on the roof, alone, peering over at one roof after another. This is the ancient equivalent to staying up late and browsing the Internet.

It is no surprise that what happens next. David put himself in the position to be tempted.

Note: It is far easier to avoid temptation than to resist it.

David’s dark continuous road into his fall wasn’t immediate, even here we see how he was given a way of escape.

This is Eliam’s daughter, this is Uriah’s wife someone tells him. Why are these details important?

This woman was not just anyone’s wife, it was one of his comrade in arms wife who was out fighting for the king. In essence what this person was trying to point out to the king was, “I know what is going through your mind, don’t do it.”

Sin Hurts people, it affects someones daughter, someones mother, someone’s son, even if that son is you.

God doesn’t want to keep us from sinning to ruin our fun.

THE ROAD TO DESTRUCTION AND DAVID’S COVER UP PLAN

2 Samuel 11:6–27 ESV

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.

David’s plan “A”

He will call Uriah back from the fighting to give him an update on the war. Easy enough he will send him home and he will sleep with his wife and no one will be wiser.

David did not count on the nobility of Uriah. Uriah cannot go sleep with his wife when the other men are out sleeping in the field away from home and family so Uriah sleeps out with the guard.

David’s plan “B”

This is really just an upgrade of plan “B”. The plan is to get Uriah hammered. Apparently despite Uriah’s nobility he cannot resist a good Corona. The plan was going great, Uriah was just steps away from his house before he fell face down passed out drunk.

David’s plan “C”

By this point David is desperate. He writes a note to Joab and tells him to put Uriah at the front line where the worst fighting was taking place and then to call the rest of the men to withdraw from him leaving him exposed and vulnerable to a fatal blow.

Davids plan succeeded only until we read that “the Lord considered what David had done as evil and it displeased the Lord.”

No one ever truly gets away with sin, others around us may not know, but, God is always watching, he neither sleeps nor slumbers.

Some of you here this morning are in danger of running headlong into a situation you shouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.

It might be an adulterous affair, it might be pornography, or a grudge you have been nursing that is consuming your heart.

As the famous Author and theologian John Owen’s once said....

“Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

Few of us have sinned as egregiously as David did in open adultery and murder. But we all sin. And all of us left to our own devices could just as easily be in David’s situation.

2 Samuel 12:1–10 ESV

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.’

What was it about Bathsheba that David wanted, was it a show of power, was it her beauty, was it her beauty.

Ultimately David was swept away because he wanted something specific. David was captivated by Bathsheba’s beauty because he was no longer captivated by God.

What is captivating your Heart.

Psalm 51.....

Note: David realizes that God was the most significant one that he has sinned against.

I feel like none of us truly realize how big and majestic out God truly is.

But think: the bloody cross was the price for my sin.

That should change how we think of sin against God—not merely as treason against a mighty king but as a betrayal of a close friend’s trust.

We need to see the hammer fresh this morning gentlemen, as being in your hand, and your hand, and my hand, driving the nails deep into Christ’s hands and feet.

Here is the problem, our hearts are desperately wicked, our hearts are desperately sick. David needed someone to blot out his guilt, and that person is Jesus Christ.

David needed someone to create in him a clean heart.

Here is the beauty of Davids cry to God to cleanse him. He not only knew how great God’s love was for him and power to heal him, he also knew how deep his sin’s and offense God were.

The Cross is God’s promise for each and every one of you this week.

The promise that there is not a situation so desperate that God cannot heal.

There is only one true remedy for sin and that is Repentance!

Gospel Centered Repentance makes it’s sole hope in the Mercy of God.

Note: So many religions are good at saying do this, avoid this and maybe God will be merciful to you.

I will rely on the mercy of God that is based on nothing about me.

We try to convince ourselves that we are basically good people who do bad things. The thing that David fully understood was that He was a sinner in desperate need of God’s mercy.