The Quandary

So what we have seen in the last couple of posts from 2nd Samuel 19 is that Judah and Israel have themselves in a quandary in that Absalom is dead and they have run David off, so how is Israel and Judah going to get out of this mess that they find themselves in? Well, David is going to help them, let us look here in verse 11 and following: 11 Then King David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, ‘Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house, since the word of all Israel has come to the king, even to his house? 12 You are my brothers; you are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’ 13 Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me, and more also, if you will not be commander of the army before me continually in place of Joab.’” 14 Thus he turned the hearts of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, saying, “Return, you and all your servants.” 15 The king then returned and came as far as the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal in order to go to meet the king, to bring the king across the Jordan.

The first thing David does is makes sure that Judah is with the rest of Israel in wanting him to come back. Israel has decided they want David back as king but Judah has been quiet on the issue which is strange. This is like winning a landslide victory and losing your home state. Judah is his home tribe and he has not heard anything from them on him being king. Everyone but Judah has declared their desire for David to return to the throne. You have to wonder, why not Judah? Maybe they were afraid, because they had been forefront in Absalom’s rebellion. Regardless, David shows his humility and forgiveness as he tells them he does not want to do this without them. Talk about forgiveness and humility – this is such a great example for us all. Do you live with forgiveness and humility like this? We all should!

David calls on his two friends who are priests, Abiathar and Zadok. These two are good friend and David sends word to them and says, “Why haven’t I heard from you? I’m sure not going to come back without you all being involved in this.” So he is helping by getting everyone on board before he steps back into leadership of the whole country. He is not rushing into anything – again a great example for us – how are you at being patient and allowing things to develop?

The next thing David did was to replace Joab with Amasa. Amasa is the guy that led the battle against David because he was the leader of Absalom’s or Israel forces. He is also David’s cousin and from Judah. He is taking over as the command of the army with a track record of one loss, no victories. The guy he is replacing, Joab, had a string of victories over thirty years and it appears he never lost a war. Joab is a seasoned military genius and has just finished winning the biggest battle of all which was giving back David the kingdom. Now you have David replacing him with the guy he beat. It seems so strange. We have to ask, why is David doing this? I believe that most likely, David has by this time heard the whole story of how Absalom died and that Joab thrust the spears that killed his son so he is demoting him. I do not believe that to be the only reason because I think it also a political move in that it was to offer a gesture of reconciliation to the former supporters of Absalom in Judah.

The results are seen in verse 14: Thus he turned the hearts of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, saying, “Return, you and all your servants. What you will see with this move will be short term positives but some long term negatives, but for now it does though bring David back to control of the country.

Again remember that David wisely does not try to take the kingdom by force but rather waits until he is asked to return. He had already had to face a rebellion and he knew that if the people did not of their own free will ask him to again reign over them as king, that any attempt to force them would only result in a further rebellion. By waiting until he was asked to reign again as king, David acted as a type of Christ figure. Jesus will not force His rule over any person against their will. People have to ask the Lord to come into their life before He will come and rule over them and be their Lord. We have to by our own free will allow Jesus to rule in our lives. Have you allowed it? If you have – have you pushed him off the thrown and started living life selfishly again? Allow Jesus on the throne or to come back to the throne of your life! It will change your life!

Have you ever found yourself in a quandary like this?  How did you get out of it?  What do you think of David replacing Joab with Amasa?

Feelings: the engine or caboose?

Continuing on in 2nd Samuel 19 that we started in the last post – here we see that David is in fellowship with the Lord. Look at verse 8 and following: ⁸ So the king arose and sat in the gate. When they told all the people, saying, “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate,” then all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled, each to his tent. ⁹ All the people were quarreling throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. ¹⁰ However, Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. Now then, why are you silent about bringing the king back?”

In the last chapter David says, “I’ll go fight with you” and his troops respond by saying, “You better stay here and don’t go.” Then David says, “Whatever you say I’ll do it.” That was David’s teachable moment and it is what happening again. You can tell when a man or woman is in fellowship with the Lord because they are sensitive to the godly counsel of others and they are teachable. What we see again is that David is teachable. He was humble enough to know that he needed to listen to what Joab was telling him. He needed to get out and get with the people and encourage them for their bravery and courageous fighting.

I am sure David did not feel like doing this. His feelings most likely told him to keep mourning and remember all he had lost. Yet David let his understanding of what was right be bigger than what he felt. Feelings make a great caboose but make a terrible engine. Never let how you feel, keep you from doing what is the right thing to do. The teachable person knows this and lives it out. Do you allow your feels to drive your life? Allow what is right to drive you!

Judah is David’s home tribe but here in these verses it is Israel in the north that is talking and they are talking about bringing David back as king. There is a movement throughout the land as we see in these verses to put David on the thrown again. Here is something interesting and that is that David does not immediately march back to Jerusalem because he preferred to wait until he had been invited back to the throne from which he had been driven away from.

I believe that in David’s life he has learned many lessons and here is a great lesson that David has learned and is now living out. That is; when you hurry and take matters into your hands you always harm and hamper God’s ultimate purpose for your life. When you are most eager to act is when you are going to make the dumbest mistakes. So David does what we need to do sometimes and that is: just wait. Remember that most of the time, time is on your side, so do not rush. Whether it is making some major decision with regard to business, life, parenting, school, or whatever the decisions maybe; stop, think, pray and wait to make sure of what you are to do. When you were under stress and you make a whole bunch of decisions all at once, what happens? For me, the decisions are mostly made in the flesh and they are wrong creating painful consequences for me. Be teachable in life and pray and wait on the Lord.

David has learned his lesson of trying to do things on his own. We do not see him make too many mistakes in his life from this point forward because he becomes much more patient with himself and with others and listens to God. Instead of trying to make things happen, David is now waiting for God to have things to happen. He has learned to be teachable. Have you learned this lesson? Have you learned that forcing things to happen creates more struggles than it helps? Be teachable, be patient, and wait on the Lord as Psalm 37 says!

We see here that the people in all of the tribes of Israel were in a quandary after the death of Absalom.  They had supported the rebellion against David however their rebellion had been squashed when Absalom died and now what do they do? They know now that the Lord was not in this rebellion and they cannot undo the decisions that had been made and what had been done, so where do they go from here? Here is the thing, in their hearts, the people realized now that all along David had been the king that the Lord had placed over them.  However, they had offended David chasing him into exile.  How could they ever get their rightful king back after all that had transpired?

Think about this, they only seemed to want David back after the false king Absalom failed. We often only decide to bring back Jesus into our lives when we fail at life on our own. We get full of pride and think we know it all and go off our way and make ourselves the king of our life and when we do – we mess things up. When we make a big mess, we then say – I guess now that there is a mess I should run back and put Jesus on the throne of my life again. I understand it is normal in our flesh to do that but how much easier would life be if we just simply allowed Jesus to rule and sit on the thrown all the time instead of going off and putting ourselves there? Let us learn to keep Jesus where he is supposed to be, in the driver seat of our lives with us in the backseat.

How are you at having your feelings as the caboose rather than the engine?  Have you ever gotten in a hurry and hampered God’s ultimate purpose?  Anything else in this post that you want to comment on?

Confronting a Friend

Personal note – I will be out of town celebrating 20 years of marriage to my bride this week.  I am a blessed man and looking forward to it just being my wife and I enjoy life together for a few days.  I have blog posts set for  today through Wednesday.  I will not be responding this week at all – although with the busy schedule and trying to focus more on other ministry and family areas my responding to comments has been minimal.  I will do what I can when I return but make no promises.

In the last few post we saw David and Absalom his son go to war against one another. In the battle between David’s forces and the army of Israel, there was some good news and some bad news for David. The good news for David was that his forces won the war and the bad news was that Absalom, his rebellious son, lost his life in the battle when he got caught by his hair in an oak tree and Joab killed him by running three spears through him.

As we left the story in the last post, David was beginning to mourn the death of his son. The problem that we will see today is that David is mourning so badly that everything else in his life has stopped completely. Have you ever been there? Felt like it is not worth it to go on? You cannot take another trial and another one comes? You begin to ask, why this? Why me? Why now? God are you there and do you really care? This is the point that David is at now. This chapter begins his restoration to the throne and the last phase of his life because he lives only ten more years after the death of Absalom.

Let us jump in 2^nd Samuel 19:1 -7: Then it was told Joab, “Behold, the king is weeping and mourns for Absalom.” ² The victory that day was turned to mourning for all the people, for the people heard it said that day, “The king is grieved for his son.” ³ So the people went by stealth into the city that day, as people who are humiliated steal away when they flee in battle. ⁴ The king covered his face and cried out with a loud voice, “O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” ⁵ Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, “Today you have covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines, ⁶ by loving those who hate you, and by hating those who love you. For you have shown today that princes and servants are nothing to you; for I know this day that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased. ⁷ Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants, for I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, surely not a man will pass the night with you, and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.”

What we see here and what we saw at the end of chapter 18 is deep grief on the part of David because of the death of his rebellious son Absalom. Remember when David’s son he had with Bathsheba died and his reaction? At that point he prayed for the baby while the baby was alive, but when the baby died, David got up, put on clean clothes, washed his face and went to worship. This time, David covered his face so that he could not see anyone else. This time he is crying so loudly so that he could not hear anyone else. This time he made a wall between himself and everyone else with his grief. This time is different because with the baby David made the statement that nothing he could do would bring the baby back, but he would go to be with the baby someday which meant they would see each other in heaven. So just maybe here, David knows Absalom’s spiritual state and that he may never see him again. I am sure Absalom’s evil actions broke David’s heart and helped push his mourning. Just maybe there is part of this grief that is David’s own guilt about how things turned out and how he lived and parented. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been so broken because of the choices you have made in life? David will not stay at this too point too long and neither should you but it takes a teachable spirit to move from this spot in life. Too many get stuck here and never move.

Again, think about the life David has lived in the last several years. David is a broken man because he has lost everything that he cherished. He has lost his throne, he was driven out of Jerusalem, and he has lost it all to a son who rebelled against him and if you go back a little bit more you see he lost a lot more than this in life. The truth is that all this can all be traced back as results of David’s sinful choices. David now has lost sight and been blinded by grief and I believe guilt. David is stuck and he can either be teachable and get better or be hardhearted and get bitter. The same choice is ours in life – be teachable and get better or be hardhearted and get bitter – which will it be for you?

We see here that Joab hears of the king’s weeping and mourning for Absalom. It should have been a day of great victory for the army and instead it has turned into a time of national mourning. David’s excessive sorrow made his loyal friends and supporter feel ashamed they won a great victory. Instead of coming in with the confident joy of victory, the men had to sneak into the city like they are ashamed of what had happened. David should have met his soldiers as they returned from the battle because they had been brave and loyal. David should have praised them even in his time of personal loss. But by David’s reaction, they felt guilty about Absalom and thought David did not care about them or the victory they brought him. What we are seeing is that David in his grief is destroying things. He is destroying the morale and the loyalty of his men. We need to make sure that we do not do the very same thing in life by our actions, attitudes, and words. These things will kill the morale of our family, the church and community when we do not acknowledge and celebrate victories and acknowledge other’s achievements! This attitude is devastating for people and it will be for David’s army if not confronted.

Joab is going to confront David on what he is doing with his grief so that he does not lose everything. Joab has to do some stern and courageous talking with the king at this point, and he levels this charge at David: “Today you have humiliated all your men. And these are the men who have saved: your life, the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubines.” Joab tells him straight way what he is doing is wrong by reacting like he is and he is being ungrateful for what he has been given. Think about what he says: “You know David, the way you’re acting; it sounds like you would be pretty happy if Absalom were here and the rest of us had gotten killed out there and become casualties in war.” Joab does not mince words here! He tells David the truth but in love because David was going to lose even more than Absalom if this poor attitude and grief continued.

It really took a lot of courage and holy boldness for Joab to do this. Sometimes it takes a courageous friend to tell us the truth. Remember Proverbs 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” The reality is that here we see that Joab helped David through his grief and lack of gratitude and get back on target. Joab loved David enough to tell him the truth and confront his areas of weakness.

What we see is that Joab basically tells David to wash his face and dry his tears and get out there and unselfishly encourage his men. He then gives a very serious final warning: “I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall.” In other words, everyone is getting ready to leave David. Then Joab’s last words for David most likely really stung: “This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come upon you from your youth until now.” Joab has been around and seen nearly all the calamities of David – so this is serious and he lets David know it!

Have you ever had to lovingly confront a friend with the truth in love?  How did it go?  Have you ever had someone confront you with the truth in love?  Did you make changes or not?

Tact.

These last few post have been looking at 2 Samuel 18 and what we can learn in this chapter to help us be better people and to be more teachable in life.  Let us finish this by looking at the last part of this chapter.

The war is over and now David needs to be told about Absalom his rebelious son dying – look at verse 19 and following: 19 Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Please let me run and bring the king news that the Lord has freed him from the hand of his enemies.” 20 But Joab said to him, “You are not the man to carry news this day, but you shall carry news another day; however, you shall carry no news today because the king’s son is dead.” 21 Then Joab said to the Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” So the Cushite bowed to Joab and ran. 22 Now Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said once more to Joab, “But whatever happens, please let me also run after the Cushite.” And Joab said, “Why would you run, my son, since you will have no reward for going?” 23 “But whatever happens,” he said, “I will run.” So he said to him, “Run.” Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and passed up the Cushite.

Joab is trying to protect Ahimaaz by getting the Cushite to take the news to David because David has a tendency to kill the messenger who brings bad news. Even though they won the war there is really no good way of telling David that his son is dead. Ahimaaz is like one of those people who wants to be important and involved in everything but really had no reason to be but he annoys Joab to the point where he lets him run with the news after the Cushite and passes him.

Here is the thing – some people just want to be involved because they think it is their calling to be involved in everything that happens but that is not the case. People who want to be involved in everything either do not trust God or the leaders or they are just nosy – in any case it is sinful and wrong. There are people who are called to be involved in things and Ahimaaz did not have that call here.

Let us look at what happens: 24 Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and raised his eyes and looked, and behold, a man running by himself. 25 The watchman called and told the king. And the king said, “If he is by himself there is good news in his mouth.” And he came nearer and nearer. 26 Then the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gatekeeper and said, “Behold, another man running by himself.” And the king said, “This one also is bringing good news.” 27 The watchman said, “I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.” And the king said, “This is a good man and comes with good news.”

So David is now waiting and expecting good news from Ahimaaz! Let us continue: 28 Ahimaaz called and said to the king, “All is well.” And he prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. And he said, “Blessed is the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted their hands against my lord the king.” 29 The king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” And Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king’s servant, and your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I did not know what it was.” 30 Then the king said, “Turn aside and stand here.” So he turned aside and stood still.

So what do we see here? Ahimaaz for sure knew that Absalom was dead because Joab said it verse 20 but he lied to protect himself which was sinful! He also said “All is well” when he knew it was not for David. He took no time to figure out what he was going to say while running to tell the king – all he came up with was that there was a commotion and he did not know what it was. We see is Ahimaaz was a messenger without a truthful message. That is like many in the believers in Christ these days – they are messengers but yet they do not share the truth of message of Christ because they do not want to be considered closed minded and so they lie to people and show their lack of courage! We are to be sharing the truth of Jesus constantly and consistently with others! All of us are messengers – we are to share the truth message of Christ with all!

Here at the end of the chapter we read: 31 Behold, the Cushite arrived, and the Cushite said, “Let my lord the king receive good news, for the Lord has freed you this day from the hand of all those who rose up against you.” 32 Then the king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” And the Cushite answered, “Let the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you for evil, be as that young man!” 33 The king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And thus he said as he walked, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

The Cushite shows up and shares the whole message – even the painful truth. Since being in ministry I have had to be the bearer of bad news. Each time I prayed and thought and tried putting myself in the person’s spot who was hearing the news. I would do my best to say what I had to so that the person understood with the least amount of hurt – I wanted to tell the truth in love. That is what the Cushite did. Someone has defined “tact” as the knack of making a point without making an enemy. The Cushite had tact here – he was able to tell David about Absalom in a gentle way. Do you have tact? Can you make a point without making an enemy? We all need to practice having more tact with each other because tact is a part of being teachable.

How would you define tact?  Do you feel you have tact? Why or Why not?

Act First and Pray Later?

So do you speak first and pray later? 

Look at these verse:  13 Then a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.” 14 David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise and let us flee, for otherwise none of us will escape from Absalom. Go in haste, or he will overtake us quickly and bring down calamity on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

So we have in these verse the news of Absalom stealing the hearts of the people making to David.  So then we have David who said right away to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, “Let us inquire of the Lord.” Is that what verse 14 says? No, instead of praying and asking God how to handle the situation – David screams “Everybody run! Flee! Get out of here because we are all going to die if we do not”!   What this reaction does is shows how things are slipping for him spiritually.  What we know about David and his is life is this: whenever David is successful in his life it is when  he seeks God first and whenever David fails and struggles in life is when he goes on his own. We are the same as David is – when we go without God – we will fail – whenever we go to God – we will be successful.

Listen closely to this:  You never flee or run into the will of God as David tries to do. You will find the will of God by actively taking everything to God in prayer and by seeking out his Word and by gaining godly counseling. Know that when you are the most eager to act, is when you will make the most painful mistakes if you are not prayerful. We have got to take the time to think through and pray through everything so that we do not make the painful decisions.

What we see here is that has David hit the panic button. It is panic all around the palace. How do you react when sudden tragedy or surprise comes your way? Do you stop and pray and then act or speak? Or do you act or speak then pray and ask God what was the right thing was to do? Too often – many of us act or speak then pray and ask God what we should have done rather than pray to find out what we should do or say. Always pray first and speak or act second.

Any thoughts here?  What is something that I can be praying about for you right now?

The Cover Up….

Have you ever done something wrong and tried to cover it up? I have and it has never really worked out for me. I have thought I have gotten away with things but I have always been found out. Sometimes being found out was way down the road but I have been found out and it is painful to have those sinful things found out.

There is a real truth in the bible which is found in Numbers 32:23 – But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out. “Your sin will find you out” – those can be some chilling words when you are not living life in a way that is honoring to God. It is too bad David and many of us today do not recognize the truth of this verse because if we did I think we would live, think, and act much differently than we do.

How many political leaders do things and think they will not be caught? How many celebrities and athletes do things and think they will not be caught? How many people think they are above getting caught and they can get away with anything? How many men and women have affairs and think no one will ever know? Let me just remind you of a couple of recent sad examples of powerful people who were doing things that were wrong but they thought that they will not get caught. Tiger Woods the golfer who had multiple affairs while married and his life and career have fallen apart since getting caught. Anthony Weiner the congressman who sent illicit comments and pictures via twitter and thought he would not get caught and now his life and career too have fallen apart. Both of these examples are people who tried to hide and cover up and lie about what was going on and when they got caught. We start today seeing the very same thing with David – a man after God’s own heart – he is trying to cover his sin.  It is nothing new to try to cover up sin.

Before I went on vacation we began looking a David and his poor choices. David made the first poor choice years before this incident with Bathsheba when he went against God’s way to have more than one wife. That sin I believe grew into a sinful lust that was brought to the forefront when he saw Bathsheba bathing. His poor choices are seen throughout this whole story. He made the poor choice of not being at war with his troops, the poor choice of not looking away when he saw Bathsheba, he made the poor choice to find more out about her and then to call her to the palace and then the choice of the affair with her. David made poor choice after poor choice. We looked last week at the power choices and how we have painful consequences in our lives as a result of the poor choices we make, which is clearly seen in David’s life. We cannot blame anyone else for our poor choices but us. When we make poor choices we block God from view in our lives and when that happens many things fall apart and we have painful consequences because our sin. We saw this beginning to take shape in verse 5 of 2 Samuel when Bathsheba sent word telling David that she was pregnant. Her pregnancy is a result of David’s poor choices and he continues with poor choices and an attempted cover up today.

Let us look on today into 2^nd Samuel 11 and start with verse 6: 6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war. 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 a present from the king was sent out after him. 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.

So David decides he will try to cover up his sin by bringing Uriah home to be with his wife and once that happens then things will look like nothing happened between David and Bathsheba. David thinks things will be free and clear and to get back to normal. Here is the thing that David missed – he is doing his best to conceal his sin rather than confess it which would lead to healing. Again a poor choice on the part of David to cover it all up – look at this Proverbs 28:13 – “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them, will find compassion.” David is just making things so much worse for himself by his trying to cover up his sin – again your sin will find you out! Confess to the one you sinned against then move forward and there will be real healing but still consequences to deal with but not as bad of consequences as the covering up will bring on you.

The whole idea that we have of hiding our sin is deceptive. Our sin is never hidden before God or from our conscience. Our hidden sin hinders our fellowship with God and others and is a barrier to spiritual life and power. What sins are you hiding that is a barrier to your spiritual life? What sins are you hiding that is taking away all your spiritual power?

In verses 6 and 7 we see that David has Uriah brought to him. Imagine how awkward of a scene this would be with his fake questioning of Uriah. Here David covers up the real purpose in bringing Uriah home by asking him these three questions: How is Joab? How are the other soldiers? How the war was going? Uriah has to be wondering in his mind – you brought me back 43 miles to ask me these questions — Really?  It has to be perplexing to him.

David then ends the awkward conversation by saying, “Hey go on home and rest and relax with your wife”. This is the first of David’s three plans that we will see him use in trying to cover up his sin. He wants Uriah to go home and be with Bathsheba and get him out of the hot water he has got himself into. We then see that this plan does not work because Uriah does not go home but goes and sleeps with the other servants. Think about this for a moment, Uriah’s discipline and devotion to the country far exceeded that of David’s here – David who is the king. David’s mind is on self because of his sin while Uriah has his mind on others. Sin will always lead us to selfishness and doing the right things will always lead us to selflessness. Which way are you being lead or moving – toward selfishness or selflessness?

When you were a teen, did you ever try to cover up something that you did?  What was it and how did it work out?

Choice Or Consequences

We have been looking at David and his wrong choices that led him to the affair with Bathsheba.  If you have not read the previous post you can read them  – here – here – and -  here.  David’s list of poor choices include: more than one wife, not going to battle with his troops, not looking away, making contact, and the affair itself.  These all pile up and the first fruits of these poor choices are seen in verse 5: The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant." David’s poor choices now have him in a position where his sin can find him out. David and Bathsheba did not plan on this happening but I promise you that they were terrified of the pregnancy itself because it meant that their adultery would be found out.

This is pregnancy is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the consequences as a result of the poor choices and it will lead to an attempted cover-up which we will take the time to look at next week. But for now let me challenge you with what choices are you making that are heading you in the wrong direction? What choices are you making that are going to be bearing bitter fruit? David’s poor choices made a difference not only in his life but in the lives of his family, his friend, and his nation. Your poor choices will affect more than just you – you must realize this. Your sinful choices are what Jesus bore on the cross.

As you think about all this,  I challenge you with Psalm 139:23, 24 – Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.  What will God find in you when He searches you, your heart, and when He tries your thoughts? 

Today is the day to repent. Repent means to turn and walk the other way. Do not let things get to the point David did and you are comfortable living in sinful rebellion. If you ever remember a time that you were closer to God than you are right now – God did not move – You did. Move back toward God. Face your sinfulness head on and confess your sins to Christ!

What is a negative consequence you have had to deal with as a result of your poor choices?  What is a positive consequence you have had as result of a good choice?

Choices Of The Heart

We have spent time looking David and Bathsheba this week.  We started looking at David’s poor choices in verses 1 and 2  here and here and now we will seem them continue in  verses 3 and 4.  Look at verses 3 and 4: 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.

You see David could have ended this whole thing  by making the choice to turn away from looking at Bathsheba but he does not do that, rather he embraces the temptation. David asks about her and learned she came from a notable family. Her father was Eliam, one of David’s Mighty Men and the wife of another of his Mighty Men – Uriah. He also would then know her husband was away, because the Mighty Men were away in battle against the Ammonites. This knowledge made the situation far more tempting. David most likely began to think, "I could get away having her at least for a night." His poor choices are piling up!

In this we see the man after God’s heart went against God’s heart, following through on his lustful impulse. David ignored every warning and way of escape God set before him. Just think about all this and know that David knew better! He is fifty years old and he has been King in Israel for twenty years. He is a man who has sought God, a mighty warrior for God, and the man after God’s own heart but we then see that he made the saddest of choices when he brought Bathsheba into his bed and he committed adultery with another man’s wife! He dishonors her; her husband; his wives and, most of all, he dishonors God.

What we see is that in all of his poor choices is that David has forgotten his relationship with God. The sin of lust has blinded him to the point where David has become a practical atheist. He is living as if there were no God! His choice to feed his lust is standing so tall in his heart that it has blocked the face of God from view!

I am sure that David and Bathsheba enjoyed the pleasures of their affair. We read in Proverbs 9:17, “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant,” We will see as we continue looking at this that David will pay for his moment of pleasure with the rest of his life being filled with pain!

David forgot God and if you make poor choices, you will forget about Him too! When poor choices rise up in your heart, you will be unable to see God! When that happens, you will find yourself doing things that you never thought possible. You will find yourself doing the very things you said you would never do. You will find yourself filling your life with painful consequences. That is why it is so important that the choices we make in life are the right ones. That is why it is so important to keep your heart and mind clean and clear before God. It is important to always consider the consequences of your choices before you ever make them. Consider each word you speak, each picture you look at, each website you go to, each song you listen to, each show or movie you watch – it is a good choice or a poor one. Consider what it is doing to you – consider the consequences to the choices you are making. Always keep in mind that the choices you make – make you.

If David thought about all this maybe he would have understood how great the cost was and maybe he did but maybe the cost was so much greater than understood at the time. Would it have made a difference if David knew that this pursuit of pleasure would result in: an unwanted pregnancy, the murder of another, his baby dying, his daughter raped by his son, one son murdered by another son, a civil war led by one of his sons, a son who imitates David’s lack of self-control and it leads him and much of Israel away from God. Do you think this would have made a difference in the choices David made? Does it make a difference in your life to know that there are consequences for your behaviors? Do you know that your sinful choices will have consequences? Do you care?  Do you consider your choices – I mean really consider them? All choices have consequences be they positive or negative – all choices have consequences.

What are three things you do before you make an important choice?  What other thoughts do have on all this?

The Choice To Not Turn Away

Yesterday we started looking at the poor choices of David and you can check that out here.  We saw how David made some poor choices and wanted the greener grass on the other side of the fence.  Today we see that begin to take shape with David seeing Bathsheba.  Let us look at verse 2 of  2nd Samuel 11: 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.

We see that David is having a hard time sleeping during his late afternoon nap – he tried watching some baseball but even that did not help him so he gets up and walks on the roof of the palace. Now the Hebrew verb form of walked suggests that David paced back and forth on the roof. He couldn’t sleep and felt unsettled inside himself. I would say that this unsettled feeling was because he wasn’t where God wanted him to be which was out with his troops. He really has too much time on his hands and that is a result of his choice to stay behind.

Now let me deal with Bathsheba, some say she was immodest and some say she did nothing wrong but the writer of 2^nd Samuel does not put any real blame on Bathsheba by the way it is written but does place the blame squarely on the shoulders of David, where I believe it should be. Regardless of that though there is some responsibility that does fall on her shoulders in that she should have been more careful about what she was doing on the rooftop because men are visual creatures and seeing creates lust in a men. She had to know that it was possible she could be seen so she should have taken extra measures to insure she was not.  

When it comes to the time she choose to bath, it was a normal thing. Women would bath on the rooftop in late afternoon or evening because all the men were either still out in the fields, at war, or protecting the city. The women of the day would bath then because they would catch rainwater in cisterns on the flat roofs and while the water was warm from the afternoon sun, they would bath. That is what you have happening here.

We then see that David saw this beautiful woman and the way that it is written in the Hebrew really makes it know that she was a real beautiful woman. David’s sin was not in seeing Bathsheba. It was unlikely that he expected or planned to see her. David’s sin was in choosing to keep his eyes on an alluring image after the sight came before his eyes. It was the choice that he made to not turn away that was sinful. All of us, but men especially, must learn to never let their eyes or their mind rest on alluring images except for what is theirs in marriage. Our eyes must bounce off of an alluring image that comes in sight.

Here is something else to make note of and that is that David’s many wives did not satisfy his lust. This was because you can’t satisfy the lusts of the flesh because it is a selfish rebellion against what you have not being enough. It was not that David just wanted Bathsheba; it was that he could not be satisfied with what God gave him. This same principle would be illustrated in an exaggerated way in the life of Solomon, David’s son. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. David and Solomon show us that if one woman isn’t enough, 1000 women aren’t enough. It is not just true with this sin but all sin – when we are in sin it is just never enough.

The issue again is David’s choice, the first wrong choice was is taking on more than one wife, second wrong choice was not doing what he should have which was going to war with his troops and now his choice to not turn away and the wrong choices continue which we will see tomorrow.

How do you deal with lust in your life?  What thoughts do you have to add to what I wrote?

Choice and Greener Grass

When you think of the life of David, one of two events probably come to your mind. You either remember the young David who slew Goliath; or you remember when the older David who committed adultery with Bathsheba. Both events were monumental moments in the life of David – one for good reason and one for a bad reason. In the first, David revealed fact of his humility which led him to eventually being crowned as King of Israel. In the second, David revealed the fact of his humanity and the choices he made and the troubles following these choices. In the first, David proved that he was a man of faith and God provided him with many victories over many powerful enemies. In the second, David proved that he was a man of flesh and his fleshly desires were his greatest enemy. When David met a giant named Goliath, we are privileged to read about his greatest victory. When David saw Bathsheba, we sadly read his greatest defeat and with this defeat we see many parts of his life crumble.

Many times you hear this story of David and Bathsheba and it is presented in a way that makes it sound like David just fell into this sin. I do not see that as the case at all. If he were to have just fallen into the sin, it would all be an accident but nothing in this story or the way it is presented shows us this was just an accident. What happens in this story is set up by choices, the choices that David made. The same is true for you and me. We are not just falling into sin but we are making choices that lead us into sin. We do our best to blame others for our sin but that is simply not true, it is the man or woman in the mirror is the one you need to blame for your sin. You are responsible for your sin so stop trying to blame it on others. We blame our problems on everyone else when it is quite frankly our poor choices, decisions, and not following the Word of God is what gets us into the sinful places we end up in life.

David, as the Bible itself says, is a man after God’s own heart and he was capable of an affair, a murder, a cover up, and so much more. Never think that you are not capable of doing horrendous things and never point the finger at others saying you could never be capable of doing do this or that because it is simply not true. As we see with David’s life, if we make the wrong choices, it could easily be us.

Now let us move forward to the verses for  today and and start with 2^nd Samuel 11:1 – 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.

There are a number of things to cover here in this opening verse and the first thing is David’s age at this point because I see it might help us to understand some of the choices that he made. David is approximately 50 years old at this time which would mean that he has been king for about 20 years. What I see in this is that David is facing midlife. There are things now in David’s life that are showing up and they are making problems for him. The first is that I see it as David has realized all of his goals. He has everything anyone could possibly want. He is powerful, he is successful, and has any material good that he could ever desire. I believe that because he has all this that he has become complacent. The second thing I see is that in a real sense he has become bored because of his defeating everyone and anything that has come against him. Challenges that have come his way have all been conquered be they armies, women, or whatever has come his way. The third thing is in midlife he is most likely physically beginning to slow down which for a man is a hard thing. For women they always want to look beautiful and men always want to be strong. David most likely is losing his strength and as a man this is a hard thing to have to deal with and I would bet that David is becoming self-conscious about it.

So what do we have? We have David who is most likely getting complacent because he has anything and everything. We have David getting bored because he sees that there are no real challenges out there for him. We have David getting self-conscious because he is slowing down and getting older. This is a deadly combination that lead to poor choices.

The poor choice we see in this verse comes when we see that David did not go out to battle. It was springtime and the time of the year when kings went to war. They would fight spring through fall but took a break from war in the cold winter months because rains and cold weather made travel and campaigning difficult. Once the spring time rolled around again the fighting would resume.

What we see here is that David sent Joab and his servants and the whole Israelite army to fight but David stayed at Jerusalem. Now this was not the normal way of doing things. We today have our leader/generals stay as far away as possible from the battle but in that day and time the King would lead them out to the battle. David did not do that this time which is different from times past. The reason why David did not go to war is I believe is what we just discussed: complacency, boredom, and getting older, plus going to battle just did not seem like something he wanted to do at this point in time.

Now the choice for David to not go out to battle is a bad one but I do not want you to think that this was the beginning of the choices that David made that ended up with adultery and murder. Never forget that David showed his disregard for God’s plan many years before when he took more than one wife. You see it was David’s poor choices of adding wives and the indulgence of his passions are what started him down this road of poor choices that lead to the affair and the murder. This corrupt seed, sown long ago, has grown unchecked long enough and will now begin to bear bitter fruit. David became complacent and stopped doing some of the right things he needed to do and just did what he felt like doing.

What corrupt seed is sown in your life that is going unchecked? What choices are you making today that are going to make a negative difference in the future? What sin are you tolerating in yourself? Are you tolerating gossip, lust, anger, greed, selfishness? What seed are you tolerating that is growing and that if not pulled now will produce a bitter fruit that will damage you? We cannot tolerate sin in our own lives or it will badly damage us.

You see I believe that David stopped doing what he knew he should do and just did what he felt like doing. You know what that is like, right? You know you should exercise but you don’t feel like it, so you don’t. You know you should eat right but you do not feel like it, so you don’t. You know you should worship with other believers but you get up, don’t feel like is so you don’t. You know you should pray but you do not feel like it so you don’t. You know you should read and study the word of God but you do not feel like it so you don’t.

So what happens in this case? We end up not doing what we should be doing and that is when the desire for what others have comes along. Others worked for it but we want to get it the easy way – just take it from them. Most of us have everything a man or a woman could ever want like David did. We end up though seeing as the grass being greener on the other side of the fence and so we want the greener grass. So instead of watering our own grass we go and take someone else’s grass. That is what we are going to see David that did, he saw something that he wanted and then took it from someone else, he took what looked good. You see David like us does not understand that really the grass is always greener where septic drainage field is. When we go to the other side to take that greener grass we end up in a bunch of dung. That is what we will see happen with David – he is going to try to relieve his complacent attitude, his boredom, and his self-consciousness with his desire or lust for Bathsheba but he will end up with a whole lot of dung in his life. Why? Because he was doing not what he should be doing but what he felt like doing.

What are your thoughts on what I have written today?  Have you dealt with the corrupt seeds in your life?