We're in 2 Samuel chapter 11
and we're continuing with the history of King David. But what a shameful and sad history
it becomes with the inclusion of this chapter in our Bibles. In fact, we might wish that this
chapter were not even in the Bible. It is a terrible comment
on human nature, and it is an even worse indictment of a child
of God. And yet, God the Holy Spirit
has given us this chapter in our Bibles for a reason. And
we cannot pass over it, we cannot ignore it, we cannot pretend
it isn't here. Because here we learn how corrupt
and deceitful the human heart is, and how powerful the lusts
of the flesh are. This chapter is a warning to
us all not to place confidence in human nature. And it is ever
a reminder that we are all capable of the vilest sins, but for the
grace of God. Even true believers, as David
was, are prone to fall grievously when they divert their eyes from
the Saviour. So our reading is in 2 Samuel
11, and reading from verse one. And it came to pass after the
year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle,
that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they destroyed the children
of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an evening
tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof
of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman
washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful
to look upon. And David sent and inquired after
the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba,
the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David
sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and
he lay with her. For she was purified from her
uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. And the woman
conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying,
Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto
him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people
did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down
to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the
king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of
the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went
not down to his house. And when they had told David,
saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah,
Camest thou not from thy journey? Why then didst thou not go down
unto thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The
ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in tents, and my lord Joab, and
the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house
to eat, and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As thou livest,
and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. And David
said to Uriah, Tarry here to-day also, and to-morrow I will let
thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that
day and the morrow. And when David had called him,
he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. And at
even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his
lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in
the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it
by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying,
Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire
ye from him, that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass,
when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a
place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the
city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of
the people of the servants of David. And Uriah the Hittite
died also. Then Joab sent and told David
all the things concerning the war, and charged the messenger,
saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of
the war unto the king, if and if so be that the king's wrath
arise and he say unto thee wherefore approach ye so nigh unto the
city When ye did fight, knew ye not that they would shoot
from the wall? Husmota Bimelech, the son of
Jerubbisheth, did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon
him from the wall, that he died in Thebes? Why went ye nigh the
wall? Then say thou, thy servant Uriah
the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came
and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger
said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us and came
out unto us into the field. And we were upon them even unto
the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off
the wall upon thy servants, and some of the king's servants be
dead. And thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David
said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let
not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as
well as another. Make thy battle more strong against
the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him. And when
the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she
mourned for her husband. And when the morning was past,
David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his
wife and bare him a son. And the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this rather solemn reading from his word. I won't need to enlarge much
upon the facts of the case and it probably will be better if
I don't. The facts of this matter, the
facts of this incident are all very clear. Indeed, no part of
the scandal is left unspoken and none of the shame is overlooked. This is one of the reasons why
the Word of God is so meaningful and authentic. It shows us even
the sins of the Lord's people. David's sin and David's selfishness
hurts everyone around him and it exposes the true heart of
sinful man. We open this chapter with a little
reference to it being the time of year when kings went to war. Well, at the time of year when
kings ordinarily went to war, David stayed at home in his bed. It has well been said that the
devil finds work for idle hands, and so it proved to be in this
case. Everything that David does in
the unfolding of this incident aggravates his guilt and makes
the situation worse and worse. He should have been a wiser man. David was not a youth any longer. He should not have been impulsive
like a young man. He was not a young man. He is
now over 50 years of age and he had many wives already. That's not a good thing. There
were troubles in David's life, in David's family because of
the numerous wives that he had. And yet here he is, greedy for
more. He had sons and daughters the
age of this girl that he saw from his rooftop. But Sheba,
the woman that he desired, the woman that he lusted after, was
not available to him. She was the wife of another man. And so David's offence was adultery. her husband, Uriah, he's called
Uriah the Hittite, not necessarily because he was a Hittite, he
may have been and he may have become a naturalised Israelite,
if you like, or he may have lived in the land of the Hittites for
some time, or he may have been a man who was honoured because
of his great acts of bravery against the Hittites. Sometimes
people took the name of the people that they had fought against
successfully. For whatever reason, he is called
Uriah the Hittite. But now he is fighting for David.
He is away in the field, in the battlefield, with Joab, and he
is fighting for David. And in his absence, David first
covets his wife, then he steals his wife, he seduces and dishonours
Uriah's wife. David should have known better.
You know, David knew something of the bitterness of such a situation
personally. You remember in David's early
life, he lost his own wife. He lost his wife, Michael, whom
he loved, Saul's daughter, when he fled from Saul and Saul gave
her to another man. And David regretted that. David
suffered the bitterness of that experience. But did that matter
to him now? Not a bit. He had no empathy
for Uriah. Instead of being an example to
his people, David instead used his God-given position to exploit
and to manipulate and ultimately to murder those who pledged their
loyalty to him. It was a despicable episode from
start to finish and every step was an aggravation of David's
sin. Why didn't the Holy Spirit hide
away this incident? Why didn't he cover up David's
shame instead of recording it here for everyone in the world
to read in every age of history thereafter? I think for these reasons. First of all, to give us all
a view of the nature of the human heart. Jeremiah writes in his
prophecy, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? There is evil
in the heart of every man and woman, boy and girl. That evil
resides there as a result of the fall and that evil will out. It will express itself. Sin in
man is not something that can be managed, it is not something
that can be constrained. Yes, we have laws against sin,
we have rules and regulations that are intended to deter sin,
and we have penalties that can be imposed to punish sin. But
selfish nature always looks for a way to fulfil its desire and
satisfy its lust. And in the end, all sin is primarily
against God. I doubt very much if David thought
about this as he was scheming and as he was planning his actions. I don't think it's very likely
that he thought about God much at all. He imagined that he could
indulge his passions without anyone knowing. He thought he
could get away with his crime of dishonouring himself, dishonouring
his body, dishonouring this young woman and her body. But when Bathsheba became pregnant,
one sin led to another. And David dug himself deeper
and deeper into the hole. So let this be our first lesson. Sin is a real and present danger
in all our lives, and it should never be treated lightly or casually. It has a way of creeping up on
us when we don't expect it. David was walking on his house
flat roof. The houses in those days had
flat roofs and you could go out and you could walk on that roof
if it so took your desire. And that's where he was. He was
walking on the flat roof of his house when he saw a pretty girl. And before long he was guilty
of adultery and then the murder of her husband. together with
the death of others of his soldiers who died alongside Uriah in that
part of the battle when Joab withdrew and left that little
group of soldiers exposed. How many, we don't know. But
David was responsible for the death of them all. And here's a second lesson that
we perhaps can take. Believers are not immune from
the danger of a deceitful heart. David was a true child of God. He was a man after God's own
heart. He was beloved of God. David
wrote, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He was inspired
to write beautiful psalms for the church to worship the Lord. He loved the Lord. He prophesied
of Christ Jesus. He was in personal possession
of great and blessed promises from God. And yet for all of this, the
battle went on in his own soul between the old man of nature
and flesh and the new man of the spirit. This is a battle
that exists in the heart of every believer. And David's experience
teaches us always to be careful, to look to the Lord for help
and strength, to seek his wisdom in our dealings with this world. It is true that the Lord protects
and preserves us. He must, for we've no preserving
power in ourselves. We cannot persevere in the Christian
life. We cannot persevere. We cannot
continue following after the Lord except the Lord himself
hedge us in and protect us. Sometimes we wonder why we have
the troubles that we do in this life. We have challenges that
we must face. But often these hard times are
employed by the Lord and they are used to protect us from becoming
complacent and careless and thinking too highly of ourselves. David might have said to himself,
why should I be out fighting the Ammonites? Let Joab deal
with that. I can take things easy. But easy isn't healthy. Easy
gives opportunity for temptation. And it should always be in our
minds that when the hardships of life meet us, It may be that
they are the very way in which the Lord is protecting us from
even more troublesome times and even more damaging experiences. It would have been better that
David faced the rigours of going to war with the Ammonites at
the head of his army. than to be leisurely relaxing
in his own palace and allowing his desires to bring him into
this sin. No doubt the Lord allowed David
to meet these sad episodes in order to humble the king. Had
David managed to succeed in his plan on any of the occasions
that he tried to deceive Uriah into going and spending time
with his wife, he would have thought himself smart and clever
and resourceful. And he would have gloried in
his own strength. but the Lord overthrew all his
schemes. And in time, he caused David
to face up to the man that he really was and the true nature
of his heart. David had many opportunities
to confess sin. The Lord gave him multiple off-ramps,
multiple opportunities to seek forgiveness, but he barrelled
through every one until his sins mounted up and up to where they
would have crushed him. May we be honest with the Lord
and may we be honest with each other and may we be open to the
lessons the Lord would teach us from the bitter trials of
those who have gone before. And finally, perhaps the finest
lesson from all this sad affair is that there is grace in God
because of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am so pleased that there are
examples in Scriptures of sins like these, because they teach
us that no matter how sinful we have been, there is mercy
with the Lord, and there is forgiveness through the death and shed blood
of Jesus Christ. When the Saviour died, he didn't
just die for little sins, the little sins that we commit, but
for all the sins of all his people. you may feel now, or perhaps
in a day to come, you will feel that your sins are too many,
that your sins are too great, that your sins are too overwhelming
to be covered by the blood of Christ. I want you always to remember
2 Samuel chapter 11 in your Bible. The Holy Spirit put it there
for you to remember. The Lord has left it there for
us to read so that we might know there is forgiveness with him
that he may be feared. That is, that he might be revered,
that he might be honoured, and that he might be loved. Though
David was terribly unfaithful to many people in this episode
from his life, and terribly unfaithful to the Lord, yet the Lord was
ever faithful to him. There is not a sin that we can
commit that will not be forgiven if we come to the Lord for mercy. David was not a good man, but
he was a saved man. And though David's conduct displeased
the Lord, Yet he was a sinner who found grace in the sight
of God and mercy from God for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all, in many ways, are like
David. And praise the Lord, we all can
find the same mercy that David found in coming to the Lord for
forgiveness. Amen.