David & Bathsheba I

I. Introduction
A. Today we begin a new series on David and Bathsheba. We’ll talk about the first half of the story this week and the second half next week.
B. Though I didn’t plan this, this story bears some remarkable similarities with the story of Camelot, which our Gainesville Theatre just performed. Parallels:
1. A young, inexperienced young man with no pedigree chosen by God to be the new king.
2. The reign begins very well: the king is much-loved and much-blessed and prospers greatly.
3. The whole story turns on an inappropriate royal relationship with someone near to the king’s inner circle.
4. On account of it, the very fabric of a very prosperous and successful reign begins to unravel, and the story ends with conflict and tragedy.
II. 2Samuel 11:1–27
A. 1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
1. The winter is over, the flowers have blossomed, it’s spring.
2. It is “the time when kings go out to battle” but instead of going himself, “David sent Joab.”
3. David is “at ease in Zion.” (Amos 6:1)
4. It’s hard not to conclude that David has changed, that power has begun to go to his head. His zeal for the Lord’s work has waned, and he’s relaxing in the substantial accomplishments of the past.
B. 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
1. After he got up from his nap, he began to stroll around on the roof of his palace.
2. His house was the highest place in the city. God has brought him to the heights.
3. It is hard not to think of Nebuchadnezzar on the roof of his palace in Babylon (Dan.4:29-20).
4. It starts with small, maybe even innocent-looking steps that aren’t sin but move toward sin.
5. It begins with something beautiful: “the woman was very beautiful.”
a. Beauty is a dangerous thing.
(1) Eden: the tree “was a delight to the eyes.” (Gen.3:6)
(2) Satan comes as an angel of light (2Cor.11:14).
b. Sexuality is a glorious thing. It is one of the most beautiful and enjoyable parts of God’s creation. But because it is so wonderful and beautiful and enjoyable, it is also very dangerous.
c. This godly king, chosen by God because of his righteous heart, David was melted by the sight.
6. He didn’t even know who she was (see v.3)! She was not a person to him, just a body, an image he allows to be branded on his eyes and onto his soul.
C. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
1. She is the granddaughter of Ahithophel, David’s trusted counselor.
2. She is the daughter if Eliam, one of David’s mighty men.
3. And she is the wife of Uriah, one of David’s most trusted soldiers.
D. 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
1. He didn’t go over himself to woo her. He sent messengers, meaning she had no choice but to come. He knew what he wanted and he wasn’t going to beat around the bush.
2. This is abuse of power.
3. David took her, like she was plunder of battle, and then sent her home: a one night stand.
4. Her purification is mentioned so that it is very clear that she was not already pregnant when David took her.
E. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
1. After a few weeks Bathsheba begins to notice some changes in her body.
2. Talk about an unwanted pregnancy! Complications galore! Sin has consequences.
F. 6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 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 there followed him a present from the king.
1. David marshals all of his intelligence and creativity to come up with a plan to cover up his sin.
2. No longer is he using his mind and effort to serve the Lord or prosper His kingdom. He is now neck deep in the cover-up business.
G. 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. 10 When they told David, “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 dwell in booths, 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? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
1. But Uriah is not like David. He really believes in what Israel is doing. He is a man of conscience. He is a man who remembers that God is watching his every move.
2. And oh! The irony of v.11, where Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, 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?”
a. He doesn’t know that this is exactly what David has done!
H. 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
1. So David has to push harder to try to make his plan succeed.
2. He resorts to alcohol, the great uninhibitor, the great conscience-reducer.
I. 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.”
1. When he can’t get Uriah to sleep with his wife, David has to resort to Plan B.
2. Unbeknownst to Uriah, he carries in his hand his own death sentence.
3. David is desperate, so desperate that he’s willing to commit murder.
a. And not just murder: murder of a guiltless man, a righteous man, a sinless man, a loyal man who is serving him and his God faithfully.
4. Not only that, but he’s willing to bring blood guiltiness upon others by involving them in his plot.
J. 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.
1. Plan B is successful. Uriah — along with some others — are dead in the chaos of war.
K. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast 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.’ ”
1. Whatever else went wrong in the operation, whatever collateral damage was sustained, Joab knows that David will be happy when he finds out that Uriah is dead.
L. 22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
1. They’ve committed murder together, and now they’re winking at each other.
2. David would never have stooped this low when he was younger. But war is a dirty business and it tends to make people callous to things which should be shocking.
M. 26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.
1. Some of david’s officials show up at Uriah’s house again, this time to tell his widow the bad news that her husband has been killed in battle and she is crushed.
2. Her sorrow makes us realize that at this point David is not displaying any love for Bathsheba. He was all about getting away with his sin, not about loving her.
3. We don’t know what she knew when, but there’s no reason to think she knew about David’s evil plot at this point.
N. 27a And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.
1. Abuse of power is now crowned with marriage. Not only that, but David comes out looking virtually heroic, taking in this needy widow who’s husband died valiantly in the war.
O. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
1. David thinks once again that he’s gotten away with it. Isn’t it amazing how those who are so sensitive to the Lord’s presence and watchful eye can suddenly be acting as if He’s not even there.
2. But He is, and He’s watching. And He’s not happy.
III. Application
A. How could David do this? Adultery, murder, deception, causing others to sin
1. At first we think maybe we overestimated David. Maybe he didn’t have such a godly heart after all. But then we remember that this is God’s assessment: He had a heart after God (1Sam.13:14; Acts 13:22).
2. How could David do this? This is actually an ignorant question.
3. Many think that there are good and bad people. This is far from the truth.
4. All of us have a sinful nature which never improves.
5. All of us are capable of the worst sins.
6. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9
7. God upholds us. God protects us. God sustains us in righteousness. And if He ever withdraws His hand from us, this is what happens. When we sin, it’s us. When we don’t sin, it’s God.
8. When we look at this story, we need to think: This is us! We are David. David is us.
9. American Christians have lots of fears — far too many in my opinion. But the fear of being led astray by their own hearts is often WAY down on the list, if it’s on the list at all.
B. And do you know another fear which doesn’t even make the list? The fear of success, the fear of prosperity, the fear of being good looking or highly talented, the fear of being smart and achieving academically, the fear of being loved and admired and well-thought-of, the fear of what these things do to your soul.
1. David’s failure came from within him, not from outside him.
2. We should wish for only as much success as will not cause us to stumble.
3. And who can be trusted to know exactly the right combination, the perfect mixture? There’s only One who is wise and good enough to trust.
C. But this tragedy is not the end of the story. David’s sin could be forgiven because David’s Son was sinless and bore His ancestor’s sins and suffered on the cross. The tragedy of sin is the first part of the story, but the coming of the Redeemer is the second and greater part. Let me give you a sneak preview of where this story is headed by quoting words of David after it is all over: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity.” (Psalm 32:1–2a)