An Erosion of Character

Introduction:

We have been looking at the life of David, the great king of Israel. He has been someone that God called a man after his own heart. He has had his ups and downs but has shown us what it is like to follow God.

We now begin to see a major shift in the life of David and the impact of his choices. I am so glad that God made sure that this story was in His message to us. The Bible doesn’t skirt the scandals and heartaches and that is a good thing.

Today, we catch up to a story that most everyone probably knows and I would think that some have been anticipating. It is like watching NASCAR. People love to watch Bristol because there are a lot of accidents there. No one wants to see a race with no action. It is the same way with us. You know that you slow down at the scene of an accident to see what is going on. We are curious and we love to see the scandalous affairs of people. That is why shows like Jerry Springer and the many that follow it are so popular. But what we see in this story of David and Bathsheba is more that just a tv program, it has devastating effects and a strong warning for us today.

Let us go verse by verse this morning and see what we can learn and apply some godly principles as we go.

2 Samuel 11:1 “In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.”

When the writer starts off with “In the spring…” there is a communicating that it like any other day. They were simply going about doing what was expected.

The spring is when military campaigns would start up again. They took the winter off to hibernate if you will.

No one expected anything out of the ordinary to take place. It was supposed to be business as usual.

It was anything but. There was an erosion of this mighty man, David’s character. It wasn’t during this spring that it happened, it was before that. It was only now that it showed up in a big way.

There are a few reasons that David’s character is now showing these flaws:

1. He has too many wives.

God has given such great wisdom to his people and we tend to shrug it off. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and they all were disobedient and died in the wilderness. Deuteronomy was written as a “Second Law” or a retelling of the law to the children of that generation. This is what God tells them:

Deuteronomy 17:14–17 ““You are about to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’ If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner. “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.”

David had a bunch of wives. He was married to Saul’s daughter Michal and then took Abigail when the fool died. He didn’t stop there, you remember, he took Ahinoam from Jezreel at the same time. This wasn’t all though. He ended up with 8 wives and many many more concubines.

David could have a different woman every night.

And it did just what God said it would do, it took his heart away from the Lord.

Some say that David has a problem with lust and I think there is some pretty strong evidence there for this. He tried to deal with it by adding wives instead of dealing with the issue.

Here is the principle for us: Lust must be dealt with. Desire does not decrease when you attempt to satisfy it, it only increases.

There is never enough! There is never enough sex to satisfy a lustful heart.

It doesn’t matter what the object of your lust is. There is never enough anything, you fill in the blank, to satisfy lustful desires.

2. His position makes him vulnerable.

David has fought some very tough times and dealt with people trying to kill him.

He is now firmly rooted as the king of Israel and all seems to be going well.

He is on top of the world.

It is when everything is going great, that people tend to drift away from God.

When David was on the run, he wrote beautiful psalms about how God was with him but now that he is in the palace, his eyes are elsewhere.

People don’t tend to sin as much when times are tough, its when everything is going well that we let our guard down.

Here is the principle for us: Position makes one vulnerable. If you are in a place of authority, make sure you are submitted and close to God. If you are on the top of your game, do not feel like you can go it on your own. You need God more now than ever.

3. His fulfilment as King made him lazy.

2 Samuel 11:1 “In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.”

David stayed home and sent Joab to lead the battle. He should have been out there and not back home. Why did he do that?

If he had been where he was supposed to be, he might have avoided all this heartache.

Here is the principle for us: Be careful what you ask for and realize that getting everything you ever wanted may be a pitfall.

That doesn’t mean that you have to be so poor that you can’t make ends meet. I love what Proverbs says:

Proverbs 30:7–9 “O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”

These things happened over time. They were not sudden. David’s character slowly eroded and the same thing can happen to any of us.

2 Samuel 11:2 “Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.”

David was going about his normal life and he notices a woman of unusual beauty.

She must have really been something to look at based on the way the writer describes this situation.

She wasn’t just pretty - she was unusually beautiful.

There are some people who look okay and then there are others who are just glowing and their very presence demands attention.

That is the kind of beautiful that Bathsheba must have been.

Let me let some men off the hook here.

There is nothing wrong with noticing a woman of unusual beauty.

God made attraction for a good reason. It is what draws men and women together.

If there wasn’t any attraction, there might not be any children.

But David didn’t stop at looking.

You might have heard that you cannot control whether a bird lands on your head but you don’t have to let it build a nest.

Or you might have heard that it is the second look that gets you. That may be true. but look at what David does:

2 Samuel 11:3 “He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.””

David doesn’t just get a good look, he starts asking questions and starts creeping her on Facebook.

This is no longer just a private fantasy, it begins to involve other people.

I love the way the KJV translates this incident:

2 Samuel 11:3 KJV 1900

And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

There is the suggestion there that the report comes back to David that this woman is off limits.

All the signs were there: she was the daughter of someone close to you and she is married to one of the men who lead your troops.

David ignores God’s warnings

How often do we?

Here is the principle for us: Beware of the warning signs. They are there to help guide us on to the path of godliness and toward God.

2 Samuel 11:4–5 “Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home. Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.””

A lot of commentators spend time talking about Bathsheba and whether or not she was trying to seduce the King.

Was she aware of her proximity to the palace? She would almost certainly have had to know.

Was this a normal practice? Certainly!

I cannot speak to whether or not Bathsheba knew what she was doing. But it really doesn’t matter because the message is about what David did.

He sent messengers to go get her.

When the king sends for you, a refusal is most certainly met with a penalty, most likely death.

She obliged the king and they had sexual relations.

The king not only saw but he acted and he involved others in meeting his lustful desires.

I am reminded of many challenges that men face today. Women are wearing less and less and revealing more and more.

Tight fitting yoga pants are all the rage. And sometimes they reveal way more than anyone needs to see.

Whatever the motivation behind the woman wearing this kind of clothing, the man has a responsibility.

Job 31:1 ““I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.”

It is one thing to look and see something but it is another to look and lust after.

Guys be careful what you do after you see…

Lust can be described as a desiring that is out of control.

Here is the principle for us: Its okay to admire beauty, but be careful not too give into temptation. Lust will destroy everything it touches.

Now the consequences of this lustful tryst have been fully announced. David gets the call, “Honey, I’m pregnant.”

How many people got that unexpected call?

This would have been a good opportunity for David to get things right.

Sometimes things happen to lead you to repentance.

David had a choice to make here:

He could be honest and admit what He did. After all, he was the king. Bathsheba and the baby would have been taken care of and Uriah would have gone about his life.

Or he could try to cover it up. He chose the latter.

Everything might have worked out if Uriah and God had gone along with the deceptive plan.

2 Samuel 11:6–26 NLT

Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. Then he told Uriah, “Go on home and relax.” David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?” Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.” “Well, stay here today,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. Then David invited him to dinner and got him drunk. But even then he couldn’t get Uriah to go home to his wife. Again he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers. Then Joab sent a battle report to David. He told his messenger, “Report all the news of the battle to the king. But he might get angry and ask, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls? Wasn’t Abimelech son of Gideon killed at Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall? Why would you get so close to the wall?’ Then tell him, ‘Uriah the Hittite was killed, too.’ ” So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David. “The enemy came out against us in the open fields,” he said. “And as we chased them back to the city gate, the archers on the wall shot arrows at us. Some of the king’s men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.” “Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow! Fight harder next time, and conquer the city!” When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

Now Uriah must have thought it very strange to be summoned back to the palace when there was a battle going on.

Uriah does as he was commanded and comes to report to King David.

David tries to get Uriah to go home but Uriah is a good soldier and remembers that he can’t go home just yet.

1 Samuel 21:4–5 ““We don’t have any regular bread,” the priest replied. “But there is the holy bread, which you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently.” “Don’t worry,” David replied. “I never allow my men to be with women when we are on a campaign. And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more on this one!””

Exodus 19:15 “He told them, “Get ready for the third day, and until then abstain from having sexual intercourse.””

Uriah was following orders and must have found it very strange to see the King acting in such a way.

That is what sin does to a person’s character. It makes them do things that are not who they really are.

Its been said that Uriah was a better man drunk than David was sober.

Whatever the case, David goes to great lengths to cover up his sin and all unsuccessfully I might add.

David must live with the consequences of his sin and it is the same with us. This one night is something he had to live with the rest of his life.

Sin affects more than just you and its results are not so easily wiped away.

2 Samuel 11:27 “When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son.

It appears that David’s scheme has worked out.

Uriah is dead

Bathsheba comes to live with David and now he adds one more to the list.

This may have been what it looked like on the surface. But not so fast, God gets the final word.

But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.”

David’s lust cost him dearly and it has cost many men their families as well.

In the end lust leaves us empty and unsatisfied!!!

Practical Steps

Uriah exercised control.

He slept at the entrance not in the house.

Get away from the temptation

Uriah got help.

He slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.

We cannot do it alone and we don’t have to. There is plenty of people to keep each other accountable. We need that.

God has a better plan.

He has given us the beautiful relationship of marriage where a man and a woman can share intimacy. Intimacy can be said this way — In to me You see. It is the lack of fear of rejecction.

God’s desire for us to have that with each other in the confines of marriage and with Him.

God uses marriage to illustrate the great mystery of Christ and His church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)

We can find the intimacy we desire and need in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Altar Call (will you stand with me please?)

You can begin to enjoy the intimacy that you are looking for starting today by surrendering your life to Jesus Christ.

Admit

Believe

Confess

You have let lust control you far too long, let Jesus touch and heal your heart today and position yourself to be accountable.

You want to experience greater intimacy with God, come and let God fill you today.