Was it all for nothing?

As I was preparing to preach from 2 Samuel 12 – I hit the following verses:

¹⁶ David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. ¹⁷ The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them.  ¹⁸ Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might  do himself harm!”  ¹⁹ But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.” 

Now the context of this is David has been confronted by Nathan on his sins (affair with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah) and then confesses and repents.  He finds out that he is forgiven and he will not die (because his sins were punishable by death according to the Law) but finds out part of his consequence for his sin is that his son will die.  He then takes his response to this news that his son will die to God which is where he should have gone with it.

We see that he pleads for his son to God to  be saved.   David we see not only cries out and pleads but also fasted and lay on the ground seeking God.  I came across this comment:  Extraordinary prayer and fasting are not tools to get whatever we want from God. They are demonstrations of radical submission and surrender to God’s power and will.  The picture is that of David crying out to God and fasting.  In the middle of it David is surrendering himself to God.  David because of these sins David’s heart got out of line with God’s heart, but because of his pleading, crying, and fasting God then is able to align David’s heart with His heart again.

Then we come across the fact that 0n the seventh day the child dies – David has spent these seven days on the ground crying out to God, pleading to God and fasting before God but the child still died.  He did all this and his child still died – so I wonder and I ask you:

Was it all for nothing?  

Here is my response to this question:  This shows that prayer and fasting does not change God’s mind all the time but what it did here was put David’s heart in the right place with God.  Prayer and fasting does not force God to do anything but it shows God our willingness to connect with Him over an issue or struggle or sin in our lives and allows Him to put our hearts where they need to be which is aligned with His.

What is your response to the question – the pleading, crying, and fasting before God – was it all for nothing?  Do you see a connection in your own life?

Confronting Others–The Tough Job!

This week we start the process of David getting confronted on his sin with Bathsheba.  What we have as we start off in chapter 12 is it has been nearly a year since the affair; David kept his sin hidden within his heart. There is no record of him telling anyone about what he had done, no record of repentance, no record of anything. Now without question David knew what he had done and the depths of how wrong it was but he did not confess it to anyone. Now when it comes to Bathsheba, she knew about the adultery and I do not believe she knew about the murder but I would guess she would have her suspicions as her husband was in town with David right after the affair then back to the battle and was immediately killed. Can you imagine how the relationship between her and David suffered? . Every time their eyes met guilt flashed back and forth between them. There was no joy, there was no peace, there was no anticipation over the birth of the baby; there was only pain and guilt. Others knew about David’s sin, Joab knew a good amount about what had happened and some of the servants knew what had happened. Worst of all David knew that God knew even though he tried to forget about God!

We may wonder why the Lord waited nearly a year to deal with David’s sin. One answer may lie in the fact that David probably was not ready to be confronted when the sin was first committed. He might have rebelled at that time, caught up as he was in pleasure and the cover-up. God confronted David at the perfect time to secure the right response.

God will use the same tactics in your life and mine! We may feel like we are getting a pass for a time, but we need to be aware that God is working behind the scenes. And, when the time is right, He will confront our sins and call us back to Him. By the way, people never get away with sin as we looked at last week and as the Bible tells us.

Let us look now at 2^nd Samuel 12 beginning with just the first part of verse 1 for today: Then the LORD sent Nathan to David.   God sent Nathan the Prophet, a man David respected to confront his sin. He’s going to tell David a story. David doesn’t know that this story is being made up. In his role as king, David is constantly being asked to sit as judge over matters like the ones in this story. As far as David knows, he is being asked by Nathan to give a judgment in this matter.

David wouldn’t listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit or to his conscience. Now God sends Nathan to speak for him. God mercifully kept speaking to David even when David wouldn’t listen. No one should ever presume that God would speak forever to the unrepentant sinner. God said in Genesis 6:3, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever." When we hear or sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit we must respond to it immediately, because it might not always be there. You must respond before you harden yourself to God and his promptings.

So we here have Nathan coming speaking for God and he comes to confront David. We can learn something in the way Nathan is going to confront David. You will see that when Nathan comes to David, he comes prepared. Under divine inspiration, Nathan comes to David well prepared. He is not going to be just telling a story but Nathan is telling a well prepared story with a very important message for David. When you have to confront someone, it should never be done without preparing in advance which certainly includes much prayer and well as thought as to how to do it. Never confront a situation without planning when it can be helped

We will see that Nathan did use a story to confront David. Why a story? Why not just let David have it head-on, with both barrels? I think that generally is a wrong tactic anytime you have to confront someone because people get defensive and that is what Nathan was avoiding. I also see it would be a wrong tactic here because with the story Nathan gets David to pronounce judgment on the crime before he realizes who the criminal is. Nathan is confronting him in a way that touches a nerve which we see in the response of David. When you have to confront someone, do it in a manner that they will understand, not in a manner that is going to make you feel good, but one that will get the point across.

Another reason Nathan told David this story is that it was meant to expose David’s sin in principle, in a way that cannot be denied. We will see that here this very well, Nathan then presses on to deal with David’s sin specifically. When confronting someone, you want to do so clearly that they see it and that they cannot deny what it is they have done.

What we will see here is that Nathan used wisdom, courage, and a story about a lamb to get the message through to David. It was common in those days to have a lamb as a pet, and Nathan used this story of the pet lamb to speak to his friend David. David listened to Nathan because he was not a negative person who was always whining and complaining to David about everything and everyone else but he was a trust friend. True friends are willing to confront their friends on behaviors that are wrong and are willing to have the friend walk away from the friendship because they are doing the going to do the right thing and confront the wrong behaviors.

Is confronting others something you are comfortable doing or is it a real challenge for you?

Rumors, Covering Up, and the Truth

Yesterday we saw that Joab sends a messenger back with the report and tells him to tell the king when he gets angry about what happens in battle, to then tell him that Uriah the Hittite is dead and that will smooth over everything.  Look at how it does smooth over everything: 22 So the messenger departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 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. 24 "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." 25 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."

David I believe heard these words from the messenger with great relief. He has probably been waiting night and day for the report to come back telling him that Uriah is dead. He thought that now he could cover over his sin by marrying Bathsheba and that would give a plausible explanation for her pregnancy. The cover up is almost complete in the mind of David.

Notice what he says in verse 25 – 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." – What he is saying is something like – well these things happen in battle – in other words he is saying to Joab to not let the incident of the death of Uriah bother you because it came about as a one of the unfortunate results of combat. This Joab would know was a lie but David was trying to protect himself here and just maybe he is beginning to believe his own lies. After this then David encourages Joab to make the battle stronger and win it.

The relief has come and so now David can complete the cover up, look at what happens: 26 Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 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.

We have no reason to believe that Bathsheba knew that David arranged the death of her husband. It is likely that David concealed all this from Bathsheba. After Uriah dies and Bathsheba fulfills her mourning period, David takes her as his wife. The thing is that David thinks only he, Bathsheba, Joab, and a handful of servants know and he might think they only know the partial truth but most likely it is known by many others because I am sure the rumor mill worked overtime with this juicy gossip. That is a sad thing because the this would happen today – rumors would abound. Everyone would know and have a prayer request to share.

Something else that is very sad here in this story and that is that David shows no remorse. It appears that his heart is hard and that he has lost the sensitivity to the Lord that marked his earlier days. Sin has devastated his life. David was in that terrible place where he had too much sin in him to be happy in God, but he had too much of God in him to happy in sin. Let me ask you, has sin devastated you to the point where you no longer feel guilt about your sin? If so it is time to repent and confess before God.

How do you deal with the rumor mill when gossip comes your way?

Murder and Following Orders

What we have seen in the last two days is that David’s first two plans to take care of his sin do not work so now we see David move on to Plan 3 which is the have Uriah killed plan: 14 Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 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." 16 So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 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. 18 Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war. 19 He charged the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, 20 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? 21 `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.’ "

David now moves to murder. He sends the orders to Joab in the very hand of Uriah. He sends the note telling Joab to send Uriah to the fiercest battle and leave him there to die. Just think about this, Uriah takes his own message of execution and judgment back to Joab unknowingly. Imagine what Joab is thinking when he gets this letter?

What we have now is sin piling on sin and poor choice on poor choice. You have the adultery that is now turning to murder, in order to, cover up the adultery. It is a sad circle of events. We think about how sad this is but we do it in our own lives. We allow pride to keep us confessing sin. We allow pride to keep us from admitting our wrongs. How many times do we wrong others and never make any sort of apology to right the wrong, we just act like it never happened or do like David and try to cover it up or make it someone else’s fault. I have great respect for those who are willing and courageous enough to confess their sinful actions. I have pity for those who are unable to do such honorable things and ignore their actions or try to cover them up. I have great pity for David in this part of his life because he allowed pride, sins, and poor choices to keep him from doing what was God honoring. I challenge you – is there something you need to make right or something you need to apologize for that will honor God ultimately? If so, do it today and free yourself.

We see here that Joab followed the orders that David gave him. Just as Joab had planned, and as David had requested, Uriah died as the Ammonites came out of the city to do battle with them. Then Joab sends a messenger back with the report and tells him to tell the king when he gets angry about what happens in battle, to then tell him that Uriah the Hittite is dead and that will smooth over everything.

Kind of a different question today – Do you think Joab was right or wrong in following through with the orders given by David?  Why?

Blinded by Sin

Yesterday we looked at how David called Uriah home from battle so that he could be with his wife.  Imagine David’s surprise the next morning when he hears this news: 10 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?" 11 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." 12 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. 13 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.

David most likely is goes to bed thinking that this whole mess is now taken care of and then he gets up in the morning and finds out that Uriah did not go home. His heart had to drop and his mind had to start working on overload. Now what will he do – how to get this problem covered up?

He calls Uriah in to talk about this and asks him why he did not go home. Uriah shows his integrity and his devotion to God by his answer. Uriah outlines the fact that all the others are in tents in the open field, and how could he be an exception? The ark, Israel, Judah, his master Joab, and the lord’s men are all in the open fields sleeping and so he asks this question: “How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”  Imagine how this must have struck a chord of conviction in David. We see David trying to cover up his sin of selfishness and Uriah thinking of others before himself. Notice the contrast here between David’s lack of discipline and Uriah’s sense discipline. David did not have the discipline or control over himself to look away from Bathsheba and he went with his selfish and sinful impulses and took Bathsheba who was not his. Uriah on the other hand puts his selfish impulses to go home to be with his wife in comfort away and this shows he is a man of great integrity. He was a true "team player" who did not want to enjoy the comforts of home as long as his fellow soldiers endured hardship on the field of battle. David had expected and hoped that Uriah would prove to be like himself; instead he proved to be a man of integrity, whose first loyalty was to God and country rather than to his own pleasure.

Do you have the discipline, self-control, the team player attitude, passion for God like Uriah? Are you like David who did not want to confess or admit to his sin and guilt? David’s covering up just makes more and more of a mess and the same is true for you and me when we try to cover up. The more you try to cover up your own sinfulness the more of a mess you will make.

What we see here is since David’s Plan 1 – the send Uriah home plan has failed, that David now implements Plan 2 – get Uriah drunk and send him home. David kept Uriah and extra day hoping that he will go home but all Uriah wants is to get back to the battle front as soon as possible. David hopes that Uriah will treat the coming evening as his last before returning to battle and be with Bathsheba. David hoped that getting Uriah drunk would weaken his resolve to God and country. Yet Uriah did not go down to his house, refusing to enjoy what his fellow soldiers could not while the battle still rages.

We see in Uriah a good example of how Christians should conduct themselves in life. We should as Romans tell us: Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. David on the other hand is an example here of someone who was drunk with lust when he slept with Bathsheba; he hoped that making Uriah drunk with wine would help him cover up his sin. The sad thing for David was Uriah was a better man drunk at this point than David was sober.

Sin will blind you and create stinking thinking in your life. David is an example of someone who has their poor thoughts leading them because they are trying to cover up their sins rather than confessing them. David continues to make poor choice after poor choice. David is being led by self and not by the Spirit of God. Are you being led by self or by the Spirit?

What are you thoughts today on all this?

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?

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?