A FALL FROM THE ROOF TOP

INTRODUCTION

A. A little boy had just attended Bible Class where the Ten Commandments were the topic. When he sat by his father in the auditorium for worship, he asked his dad, “Daddy, what does it mean when it says, ‘Thou shalt not commit agriculture?’”

1. Some of us can probably identify with this dilemma – you do not want to give the child too much information, and neither do you want to put him off by withholding the needed answer.

2. Thus, the father says, “Son that means that you’re not to plow the other man’s field.”

a. I wish we were all as innocent as that child when it comes to the topic I’ll be addressing in this sermon.

b. I wish I could euphemize the subject so that all of us would get the message and yet be spared the details.

3. In this lesson I want us to see the pain and the ruined lives that results when people refuse to heed the warnings and plow in another man’s field.

B. Someone once described David’s life like two sides of a roof – the one side rises up, and then at the top, it suddenly drops off and falls an equal distance on the other side

1. David rose from the sheep pens of his father to be a great warrior, poet, and king.

2. But if we are going to understand the man, David, we are going to have to consider the other side of the roof.

3. Beginning in 2 Samuel 11, David breaks over the top and begins to slide down the other side.

a. The story involves adultery, deceit, cover-up, and murder.

b. It set into motion a series of events that would compound heartache upon heartache in the life of this man who was the king of Israel.

C. How does a godly man – “a man after God’s own heart” in this case, get involved in an adulterous affair. Let us study the account and we will see.

DISCUSSION

A. DAVID’S SIN OF ADULTERY

1. 2 Samuel 11:1

a. David has reached what we may call today, “middle age” by the time of the events described here. He is about 50 years old.

1) David is at a stage in life where his youthful investments are yielding a premium of prosperity and respect. In the past, he would always lead his troops in to battle, but now He can now slack off a little …

2) On this particular day, the soldiers amass for battle and they are sent into battle under general Joab. David decided to take the spring campaign off.

3) This would turn out to be one of the poorest decisions David ever made, because it would launch him on one of the toughest campaigns of his life – one in which he would be terribly defeated.

b. By the way, it would be wise for us to mention that times of leisure can be times of great vulnerability.

1) After a completed project we like some time off – times when we have no one else’s agenda confronting us…

2) But, the proverbial statement, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop” is all too often true. It is good to take time off, but Christians should never take time off from discipline and self-control.

3) The biblical writer seems to imply that David should have been in battle instead of bed .. “at the time when kings go out to battle.” There will be many times, I am sure, that David had wished he had gone to battle…

2. 2 Samuel 11:2

a. This was not something that David had set up or planned, sleep had simply alluded him and he was walking about minding his own business. Such an inadvertent thing could have happened to anyone.

b. A person has to wonder, though, what this woman was doing taking a bath on the roof in full view of the king’s outdoor sleeping quarters?

1) Was this a ploy on her part to get David’s attention

2) For reasons, I will mention in a moment – I think that exactly what she was doing. But I will say that there are some women completely oblivious to the affect that they can have on men due to their dress or lack thereof.

c. Ladies, men are stimulated by what they see. The way you dress and the way that you carry yourself in view of your Christian brothers can be a great help or a great hindrance.

1) Like Bathsheba here, you can destroy a man’s godly intentions by the way you dress. Do you realize that?

2) 1 Timothy 2:9 … Are you dressing modestly?

d. Much of the clothing that is being geared toward our young ladies is for the purpose of revealing – it has to do with “sex appeal.” Short dresses, skin tight clothing, low cut tops and the like should have no place in a godly woman’s wardrobe.

e. Of course, David wasn’t innocent in this situation either. David was a man who had difficulty bridling his passions… 2 Samuel 5:13 – this was in addition to the six or more wives he had in Hebron.

f. The law of Moses had laid it on the line in Deuteronomy 17:17 … David did not obey this teaching. He would pay for his disregard, as we shall see.

g. Adultery is seldom something that just “happens” on the spur of the moment or as an after-thought. It nearly always has a background – a history of letting down of the guards and barriers.

1) Lust that is allowed to grow in one’s life becomes a tolerated habit.

2) But beware, it will grow stronger and stronger, and if not brought under control – it will grow out of control.

h. By the way, I think this makes something very clear that flies in the face in the face of a commonly held myth today: Having multiple partners does not diminish the problem of lust – as a matter of fact it feeds lust!

1) David had all the wives he wanted, but he still wanted someone else.

2) Feeding lust, thinking that if we can just get enough, we’ll be satisfied, only causes it to grow stronger until ultimately, a person will do things that are twisted and abnormal that he never dreamed he would do.

3) Before this chapter is over, David will have committed the murder of an innocent man!

i. The Bible commands us to limit our passions to our marriage partner alone

1) Proverbs 5:15-20

2) This verse isn’t a lesson on drinking water, in case you hadn’t figured it out!

3. 2 Samuel 11:3

a. Now, what David should have done upon seeing this woman was to call his servants to go down and tell her to put her clothes on

1) Better yet, he should have told his wife to do it. Don’t you think she would have had something appropriate to say to this woman who was exhibiting herself in front of her husband?

2) Instead, David starting indulging his curiosity. His fantasies were aroused he started to play with lust. He’s playing “what if.”

b. David should have stopped right there. Like a fish he was lured out of his safe hiding place by a tantalizing bait – he is not thinking about the hook and the line that will haul him out to destruction.

c. Potiphar’s wife put the make on Joseph – he didn’t stick around to consider the options. He ran! We should too!

4. David saw and he inquired …

5. 2 Samuel 11:4

a. As I mentioned earlier, I did not think that Bathsheba was a naïve, innocent party. I say that because there is not a hint of resistance in this verse

b. This was not rape. It was an act between consenting parties. Both of them were guilty.

6. 2 Samuel 11:5

a. In the roulette game of illicit sex, you never know when the spinning wheel is going to stop on that slot that reads “pregnant”

b. But far more was at risk for David than the embarrassment of an illicit pregnancy. This act, and the ones that followed it as David attempted to cover it up, would ravage David’s family.

c. You see, this father would lose the respect of his sons and as a result, one of them would be murdered, one would rape his sister, and another would lead a rebellion against his father.

d. But now, David is faced with two choices: call in the counselors and admit the wrong he has done, or attempt to cover it up

e. Sadly, David chooses the cover up.

B. DAVID’S ATTEMPTED COVER UP

1. 2 Samuel 11:6 … Uriah was on the battle field

2. 2 Samuel 11:7

a. What a hypocritical farce! David isn’t interested in Uriah and the war. This is simply a maneuver.

b. Proverbs 28:13

c. Once the decision is made to cover up, deceit and hypocrisy abound. Deceit and adultery go hand and hand.

3. 2 Samuel 11:8-11 … first cover up attempt

a. “Wash your feet” is an idiom that means, “relax and make yourself at home

b. Uriah was a man of integrity – something David had been up until this point.

1) David’s hypocrisy stands in bold contrast to Uriah’s integrity. You would think that this would have woke David up to his sin

2) But his sense of justice is warped at this point by his sin. Sin does that. Sin blinds us to the obvious right and wrong

4. 2 Samuel 11:12-13 … second cover up attempt

a. He got him drunk, thinking surely, he would want to go lay with his wife then

b. Plan 2 had failed

5. 2 Samuel 11:14-15 … third cover up attempt

a. This begins the third and final attempt at a cover up

b. David made this godly man carry his own death warrant!

c. David is so bent on covering up his disgrace that he is ordering the murder of this man of integrity!

d. Once you start down the slippery road of deceit, it gets harder and harder to stop and get off

6. 2 Samuel 11:16-17

a. Ah, the perfect cover-up. Now no one would ever know.

b. But God knew. He saw the whole thing.

c. David would reap what he had sown, bitterly!

7. 2 Samuel 11:18-21

a. So, Joab, an accomplice in this murder, knows full well they hypocrisy of his boss!

b. It would come back to haunt David later. He would never really be able to trust Joab fully because of his knowledge of this.

8. 2 Samuel 11:22-25

a. What a farce! What nonsense!

b. David and Joab are playing their little game to the hilt!

9. 2 Samuel 11:26

a. That verse just drips with hypocrisy, doesn’t it? This whole passage does! Here is a woman who had betrayed her husband and shares in the guilt of his murder.

b. How long did she mourn for her husband? It doesn’t say, but we can probably bet that it was as short as possible, since it would be to the advantage of David's reputation to get her to the palace as soon as possible.

10. 2 Samuel 11:27

a. Perhaps the whole thing was not noticed by the general public, but someone else noticed it.

b. You see, even the most well executed cover-up is really no cover at all. You can hide the sin of adultery from people sometimes, but you can never hide it from God. He sees all.

c. There is a passage of scripture that all of us should have marked in our Bibles as a reminder of this… Numbers 32:23

d. The adulterer or adulteress will be exposed. It is only a matter of time – time in which there will be constant worry that the truth will be known – time in which the spiritual life becomes a barren desert, void of any worthwhile meaning

e. David would keep this issue a secret for a full year after it happened until God would finally force him out into an open confession

f. Listen to what he wrote in the 32nd Psalm about his spiritual life during that time… Psalm 32:3-4

g. No psalms were written during the time that David covered this up.

CONCLUSION

A. I would like to leave you with two thoughts about what has been described in this passage

B. The sin of adultery can happen even to people who seek after God.

1. There is not a character in all of the Bible who sought God like David did. Yet, he fell into sin. Why? How?

2. He did not control his lust in the times leading up to this event.

a. If you are feeding lust by not controlling your fantasies, by viewing illicit material, by spending time with someone of the opposite sex who is attractive to you but doesn’t belong to you, understand that you are setting yourself up for a fall

b. Some people have managed to avoid the sin of adultery, not because they are strong, but because the opportunity hasn’t presented itself. Control lust in the early stages and you won’t need to fear the action later.

C. God sees everything that is going on in your life

1. There is no effective cover up. There is no way to hid our thoughts and actions from God

2. There is an “All-seeing Eye” watching us