The Anatomy of Spiritual Failure

Last Time:

We’ve Seen the Amazing Faithfulness of David and the Providential Care of God that has Been with Him

David Became a Great Conquering King

Then He Showed Grace to Mephibosheth

Mephibosheth Became like a Son to David

Then He Showed Grace to Hanun, King of Ammon

Hanun Rejected David’s Gracious Offer and the Israelites Defeated the Ammonites and Syrians in Battle

2 Samuel 11

Throughout this Lesson, We are Going to Notice How Temptations Present Themselves and How Sin Arises

We are Going to Look at Every Mistake David Made that Led Him to His Greatest Blunder

And then Learn How We can Keep from Making Those Same Mistakes

2 Samuel 11:1 NASB95

Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

Mistake #1: David Wasn’t Where He Should Have Been

David was Supposed to be Fulfilling His Royal Duty of Fighting the Battles of His People, but He Instead Stayed Home

How Many Temptations and Corresponding Sins have Come from Not Being Where We are Supposed to be?

How Many Adulteries Happen from Hanging Around that One Person Who Always Seems to Flirt and Show Affection?

How Many Times has Pre-Marital Sex Occured from Being in a Bedroom with the Doors Closed?

How Many Times has Stealing, Lying, Drinking, Drugs, Violence, and Things like These Happened Because Someone was Not Where They were Supposed to be?

Not Only is David Not Where He Should be, but He isn’t Doing What He Should be Doing

“Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop”

Temptations Seem to be Stronger and More Frequent When We aren’t Keeping Ourselves Busy Doing Something

David is Both in the Wrong Place and Idle

2 Samuel 11:2–5 NASB95

Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am pregnant.”

Mistake #2: David Didn’t Walk Away

After Seeing the Woman Bathing, He Should have Covered His Eyes and Walked Away, Forgetting the Incident Ever Happened

But He Doesn’t Do That

Instead, He Seeks to Find Out More Information on the Woman

The Information that He Receives is that He is Someone’s Daughter and Someone’s Wife

That Information Should Have Appeared as a Big Red Stop Sign

But Sadly it Doesn’t

He Sends Messengers to Take Her and Bring Her to Him

Then David Commits Adultery with Her and She Becomes Pregnant

Like David, We Often are Given Multiple Opportunities to Say No to Our Temptations

1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB95

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Sin Doesn’t Just Happen to Us Without Our Consent

We Face Temptations and then are Given Ways of Escape Out of Those Temptations

We can Choose to Take Those Ways of Escape or Ignore Them as David did

2 Samuel 11:6–24 NASB95

Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king was sent out after him. 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. Now when they told David, saying, “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?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, 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? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.” Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house. Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He had written in the letter, saying, “Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war. He charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, and if it happens that the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? ‘Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw 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.’ ” So the messenger departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. “Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”

Mistake #3: David Tried to Cover Up His Sin

Now that David has Sinned, He is Facing the First Natural Consequence of His Sin

Bathsheba is Pregnant with My Child, Do I Confess My Sin or Try to Cover it Up?

David Chooses to Continue Going Down the Dark Path of Temptation and Sin

He Brings Uriah Back Home in Hopes to Get Him to Sleep with His Own Wife

But David’s Problem is Now the Nobleness of Uriah

He Refuses, Even While Drunk, to Enjoy the Comforts of Being Home While His Brothers in Arms are Fighting a War

Uriah’s Righteousness Shines Bright in the Face of David’s Dark Sin

Everything that David has Done Wrong, Uriah has Done Right

But Uriah’s Stubborn Righteousness Eventually Leads David to Plan C

Plan C is to Murder Uriah so that this Sin will Not be Found Out

He Sends a Letter to Joab by the Hand of Uriah which Details the Plan to Murder Uriah

Joab Follows the Plan and the Ammonites Kill Uriah as Well as Some Other Innocent People

David’s Efforts to Cover Up His Sin has Now Led to the Deaths of Several Innocent People

Notice How Trying to Cover Up Our Sin will Only Lead to More Sin

It’s Really Terrifying to Think of How Far We will Go to Cover Up Our Sins

David Committed a Horrible Act of Taking Someone Else’s Wife to Sleep with Them

There was No Easy Way to Hide this Atrocity Now that a Baby was Involved

So David’s Mind Begins to Scramble for a Solution

And that Scrambling Eventually Leads to Cold-Blooded Murder

There Have Been Times in My Life Where I Have Sinned and Tried to Cover it Up

I’ve Done the Scrambling, so I Know What is Going Through David’s Mind Here

But the Truth Always Comes Out

There Have Been Times in My Life Where I Have Sinned and I Confess that Sin and Own Up to it

It’s Hard to Confess Your Sins, but It’s So Much Easier than Trying to Cover Them Up

No More Weight on Your Shoulders, No More Hidden Guilt, No More Scrambling to Continue Hiding Your Sin

It’s Always Better to Confess and Face the Consequences than to Try and Cover-Up Your Sin, Only to Continue on the Path of Sin

2 Samuel 11:25–27 NASB95

Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it’; and so encourage him.” Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Mistake #4: David Allowed His Conscience to Become Seared

After Joab Tells David about the Death of Uriah, Notice David’s Heartless Response

“Don’t let this thing displease you (be evil in your sight), for the sword devours one as well as another”

“Oh, Joab! Don’t Worry about it! People Die All the Time!”

The Righteous Anointed One is Showing Himself to Have Absolutely No Regard for Life at All

David Told Joab to Not Look at this Murder of Uriah as an Evil Thing

But Notice What the Last Sentence of the Chapter Says

“But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of Yahweh”

This is a Haunting Statement

When We Allow Sin to Persist in Our Lives, it Begins to Harden Our Hearts and Our Consciences

Before Long, We Won’t Recognize Sin as Sin Anymore

We will have Fooled Ourselves into Believing Our Wickedness is Okay

This is Where it Becomes Nearly Impossible to Turn Back to Righteousness on Our Own

But No Matter How We Feel about Our Sin, it Doesn’t Change in the Eyes of the Almighty

The Anatomy of Spiritual Failure

Temptation Begins When We are in Places that We Shouldn’t Be at Doing Things that We Shouldn’t be Doing

Sin Happens When We Don’t Choose the Way of Escape and Walk Away from Our Temptations

After We Commit Sin, We are Tempted to Cover Our Sin Up, Which Leads to More Sin

When We Allow Sin to Persist, it Begins to Sear Our Conscience, Hardening it

If this can Happen to the Great King David, it can Happen to Any of Us

1 Corinthians 10:11–12 NASB95

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.