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We're going to be in 2 Samuel chapter 11, so you can go ahead and turn there. While you're turning, I want to read a couple of verses out of the book of James. These verses are going to kind of frame the sermon. I think 2 Samuel 11 is something of an extended illustration of James chapter 1, verses 13 through 15.
Say, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
Can we ever say, the devil made me do it? When you sin, what is your first response? To blame shift to another person? That's what Adam did. Adam, where are you? What have you done? Well, the woman made me do it. Maybe to blame shift to the devil. The devil made me do it. That's what Eve said. It was that snake. He told me, he tempted me, and I ate. Perhaps most common in our age is to just blame outside circumstances, the economy or the state of your own personal finances, your job situation or your home situation growing up. Maybe the chemicals in your own brain are responsible for your decisions. To be sure, each of those things that I've mentioned and a thousand things more affect us. They have real impacts upon us. But the Bible never shifts the blame for sin. Not once. Or the penalty. Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death. And these truths, again, they're dramatically painted for us in 2 Samuel chapter 11.
So the first thing we see is verse 1. David is at ease. 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 1 says, 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 Rabob. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Now if you remember the last several chapters of 2 Samuel, including chapter 10 last week, David had been fighting with and destroying the Ammonites. The Lord had promised David peace on every side back in chapter 7, and he was providing him that peace through military conquest. After the last defeat of the Ammonites in chapter 10, verse 14, they had fled back to their capital city, back to Raboth, because it was a natural shelter, a natural fortification. It had a good high position. It had lots of sources of water. It was an easy city to defend. So when the Israelites defeated the Ammonites, the Ammonites all flee back to Raboth, and apparently it's moving towards a time of year that isn't isn't great for fighting. And so Joab brings his men back to Jerusalem.
But now it's the spring. And instead of going back out to attack and sack Rabah himself, David has sent Joab. Joab is leading the men and David remains in Jerusalem. And this is strange for David, right? If we're reading the first and second Samuel, Narratives. David has always been a man of action. In 1 Chronicles 28 and verse 3, God calls David a man of war. That's the reason God gives him there for not allowing him to build the temple because he has been a man of war. There's too much blood on his hands.
This man of war, this ultimate action hero from the Bible is now sitting at home. He sends Joab to lead. Ten times in this chapter, the verb send or sent is used. Seven times, it's referring to David sending someone else to do something, to take a message, to perform an action. The man of action, the man of war, never leaves his house in chapter 11. That's a striking contrast to other places in the book.
Often, the first step toward temptation is not a conscious step at all. It's not an action of, I think I want to rebel. Rather, it's an attitude of apathy, resting in past accomplishments, luxuriating, as David was here in his house, in current ease. In this way, David serves as a type for the nation of Israel, a people who, when God calls him out, I mean, probably the most vivid place God describes this is in Ezekiel 16, where God talks about drawing the people of Israel and forming them as a people, and then when they see how beautiful they are, they forget about him and they turn away. And David seems to be going through this process himself.
People are never more in danger than when things are going well. You are never in more spiritual danger than when everything seems to be going well. What things are you taking for granted?
To go back to our frame in James, it talks about being lured and enticed by your own desires, and we see that in verses 2 through 5. It happened late one afternoon. So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she had them purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.
David's not at war with his men. Instead, he's back at his house, a house which likely offered a commanding view over all of Jerusalem. He's probably got the biggest house in the city, probably set in the most prominent place in the city. And late one afternoon, after enjoying his siesta, laying on his couch, taking a nap. Nothing wrong with that. You live in a warm climate. People nap in the middle of the day. That's what they do. He goes for a stroll on the roof.
And we don't know what's going on in his head as he goes for this stroll, as he walks around back and forth on the roof. But as I read this text this week, my mind was drawn to Daniel chapter 4. When you go there and you read about Nebuchadnezzar walking back and forth on the roof of his palace, looking over the city of Babylon and saying to himself, look at this great city, which my might and my hands have built. And you know the story of Nebuchadnezzar. He ends up spending seven years in exile from his city and from his palace, eating grass like an ox, his hair growing long. He falls all to shambles. He goes crazy.
You wonder if something like that is going through David's mind. Look at this city that I am in charge of, that I lead, basking in the glory of it all. And then, what do we have here? Just a few houses away, David sees a woman bathing, and she is beautiful. David sees her, and when it comes to women, David is used to getting exactly what he wants. Remember, at this point, he has at least six other wives. But he sees, and he wants, and so he inquires.
Victor Hamilton notes in his handbook on the historical books that three times before in 2 Samuel, we're told that David inquires. And all of those times, he is inquiring of the Lord. Now, he's inquiring in those circumstances. He's facing a trial or a hard decision, and so he inquires of the Lord. What do I do? And Hamilton notes that now in the face of temptation would be an excellent time to inquire of the Lord. What would you have me to do with my temptation, Lord? Instead, David inquires after Bathsheba.
In what ways do you inquire after sin? Not, of course, with the intention of following through. We wouldn't do that. But just to take a peek into that world. what would it be like on the other side of the curtain? If you weren't a good Christian and weren't going to say no to that, what would it be like? Maybe that lady on the rooftop, maybe she just happens to be the only single lady with enough money in Jerusalem to buy her own house. Who knows? Maybe. Probably not, but what's it hurt to ask? What's it hurt to look?
Sin starts with lying to yourself. David couldn't control temptation. It's really not his fault that he's walking on the roof of his own house and sees someone bathing. That's not David's fault. But he's responsible for everything that follows. As he allows his own sinful desires to lead him down a trail of curiosity. So she's the wife of Uriah, he finds out. Uriah's out with Joab. What will it hurt for her to come over for just a quick visit? And then we'll send her home. And nobody's really hurt, right?
Desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And Bathsheba, the object of David's desire, conceives.
In verses 6 to 13, we see that sin leads to more sin. David sent word to Joab, Send me Uriah the Hittite. Joab is probably perplexed. What? This is one of the mighty men. Why do you want him pulled off the front lines? Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing, how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet.
Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of the Lord and did not go down to his house. 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? 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 drink and lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. 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. 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.
So David sends for Uriah. Maybe he can just get him to come home and spend the night with his wife and it will look like the child is his own and everything's going to be okay. David's clearly scrambling at this point. But it's about to get worse because Uriah won't go home. We've seen earlier in the Samuel narratives that one of the customs for Israelite warriors was abstaining from sexual relationships as part of how they committed themselves to readiness for battle, for action. So when David hears in verse 10 that Uriah didn't go down and questions him, Uriah gives this noble reply that we read. The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths. They're out there in tents. They're out there fighting. My lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. How can I just abandon them, abandon my vows, abandon all of those men who are fighting for Israel, and instead just come home and act like nothing out of the normal is going on? Go home, eat, drink, and be with my wife. No, he won't do it.
So David resorts to further sin and thinks maybe he can get Uriah so drunk that he forgets about all of his nobility and all of his commitments, and he'll just stumble on home and spend time with his wife. But again, no dice. Joyce Baldwin notes in her commentary how ironic it is that when Uriah comes, initially David is asking him, well, How are you? How's Joab? How's the army doing? How goes the war? He's asking about how is the welfare? How is the shalom? How is the peace of all of these things? He's asking about that, all the while doing everything in his power to destroy the peace, the welfare of a family, and soon enough of a life. Many lives it will turn out.
In chapter 23, as I said earlier, we find out that Uriah is one of David's mighty men. Likely enough, given that Uriah is a Hittite, he's not from the people of Israel, he probably is one of the people who joined David while David was in his wilderness years, hiding, fleeing from Saul, fighting the people around Israel. And so all of this time he's been with David, he's been faithful to David, one of just an inner circle of men who are David's top warriors. He's been too loyal, too noble. All that loyalty and nobility now make him an inconvenience, an inconvenience to be dealt with. And again, this is the nature of sin. People cease to be people to us when we're caught in our sin. They become objects, either objects for our own gratification, as what Bathsheba was to David, just an object to gratify him. Or, like Uriah, they become obstacles, things that are in the way of our sin.
Sin, when fully grown, brings forth death. See that in verses 14 to 25. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him so that he may be struck down and die. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 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. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger, When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger 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? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 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. 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. 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.
Uriah is so trustworthy, so trustworthy, that when David decides to write a death warrant for him, he sends it by his own hand. He tells Joab to put Uriah where the fighting is the fiercest, the hottest, and then draw back from him. Let him die. And here, here is Joab's chance to do his patented tell David he's wrong and being stupid thing. Joab does this several times in the book. Just the chapter before, we've seen Joab's confidence in God, his faith. Here's another opportunity for Joab to be obedient. Instead, Joab actually improves David's plan rather than abandon Uriah, which would be a little obvious. Like, why are we trying to get rid of Uriah? This wouldn't make any sense. Instead, Joab concocts a battle plan that's going to result in many people dying, but it doesn't look suspicious. He puts a whole unit up against the section of the wall where he knows Ammon has their premier warriors, and Uriah is killed, and so are many other men.
And this we see just in the exchange, like where, how Joab knows David's going to respond, that this has to be an unusual tactic for Joab and David to use. For good reason, it results in lots of men unnecessarily being killed. But Joab knows David will be angry, and so he has the messenger slip this little tidbit in at the end, and Uriah died too. And we see David's temperature shift from the passionate anger. How could you be so stupid? Why would you do this thing? If you read the book of Judges, you know that a woman could kill a soldier who's standing right next to the wall. She's just going to drop a rock on his head. But Uriah the Hittite is dead also. And David's temperature shifts from passionate anger to callous. Tell Joab that's just what happens in the war. One guy dies, another guy dies. Tell him to keep going. He'll take the city. Do you see how nefarious and deceitful sin is?
Some people will spend all their time in this passage talking about the dangers of lust, maybe even blame Bathsheba for her immodesty. Was she trying to bait David by bathing on her rooftop? If you're in ancient Israel, where else are you supposed to bathe? I'm not quite sure. That probably is just where people did bathe. The whole tone and tenor of the text is not aimed at Bathsheba at all. She's basically a silent, the only thing she says is, I'm pregnant. She's a silent character. All of the blame is laid at David's feet. He's the one with the power. He is the man who supposedly is a man after God's own heart, but he's forgotten God. He took the sin of lust and he treated it like a pet. I feed it a little, inquire, get some more information. I'm in control.
This is the danger of lust, especially in our day where pornography is so freely available on the internet through your phone. That's the danger. Do you think you can hide it and you think it won't matter? David thinks he's in control. He's sent for Bathsheba and indulged his desires. Not a big deal. Who's it going to hurt? And then she's pregnant, but he can just call Uriah in off the line and everybody will assume it's his child, but that doesn't work either. So David has him killed and takes Bathsheba for his wife. Verses 26 and 27. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Now Bathsheba's mourning here probably doesn't mean that David waited until Bathsheba was done being sad about her husband. It's more of a formal time, which, based on other things we read in the Old Testament, could have been anywhere from one week to three weeks of a formal mourning period. This whole event really happens in a pretty compact time frame. It's possible even that the people as a whole still have no idea about David's adultery and what he's done to Uriah. But God knew. God saw what David had done. And the narrator does something very unusual in 1 and 2 Samuel. I've mentioned several times over that when we're reading narrative, we just have to read carefully and see, is this character reflected in a good light, or is it seeming to be more negative, or is it mixed? And you just have to read carefully to kind of see what the author's doing. It's not going to be spelled out for you in black and white. But here it is. The thing that David had done displeased the Lord. I can't off the top of my head think of another place in 1 and 2 Samuel where it just tells you how God felt about something. He is upset with David. Sin displeases God and it leaves ruin in its wake.
The question for us then as we read this text, this depressing text in 2 Samuel 11 where the man of God tumbles and falls. How do we protect ourselves from that same sort of callousness to sin? How do we maintain our memory of and fear for the Lord? For the answer, I direct your attention to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 12 through 15. Hebrews 3, beginning in verse 12, reads, As it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Just very briefly, I see four practical helps for us in these verses. And number one is to take care. Recognize that an unbelieving heart can grow up inside of you. You are not spiritually above or beyond hardening your heart towards God. You could walk away from him. So take heed lest you do so. Again, verse 15, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. That's what the people of Israel did when they rebelled against Moses. That's the story that the author of Hebrews is referring to here. And it's exactly the same kind of thing that David had done. As he's rebelling against God, You can almost guarantee that he's not, especially based on what we're going to see in chapter 12, he's not consciously going, I want to rebel against God. He's just forgetting about him and hardening his heart. He's hardened his heart. When his conscience breaks him, he says, nope, I want to do my thing. And the author of Hebrews tells us, do not do that. Be aware, your heart is the one that can get hard. It's not somebody else out there. It's you.
Number two, he says to exhort one another, verse 13. Exhort one another. And that word means both to encourage, so when you're together and you see good things in another person, call those things out. Say, this is how I see God working in you. This is something that's encouraging. And it means to admonish, to call out sin. Because so often, we are blind to our own sins. We do not see ourselves clearly. We do not know ourselves as well as we think we do. That's another thing we're going to see in chapter 12. Nathan comes and gives David a story, a parable, about what he's just done. And David sees that that man deserves to die, but he doesn't see that as he points that finger out, three fingers are pointed back at him. He doesn't see it. He needs someone else to tell him, and we need that too. We need others to exhort us to admonish us to encourage us and this requires meeting together exhort one another every day as long as it is called today this requires at least at the very least getting together on sundays to worship and pray and sing and hear god's word together but here he says every day in acts 2 the People are getting together day by day. They're spending time with one another frequently, encouraging one another on towards Christ. We need that. We need each other.
Super practically for the guys this fall, I don't have a date set. So if you're interested, please talk to me and we can talk about dates and stuff. But I want to start working through this book. It's called Every Man a Warrior, How to Help Men Succeed in Life. And it's just walking through biblical principles for how to live. I've had it really highly recommended to me by several other pastors. And so I want to start a group working through that. The fourth and final thing that we see here is hold firm to Christ. Verse 14. For we have come to share in Christ. If indeed we hold our original confidence, and the confidence that he's speaking about is that Christ is the Messiah, that Christ is the Savior, that Christ is the one who has paid for our sins. The next chapter, chapter 4, he's going to talk about him as a high priest, the one who intercedes and prays for us on the basis of his own sacrifice, the sacrifice of his own blood. Jesus is the one who takes your condemnation. Who takes the suffering for your sin that you deserve.
So when you are tempted, don't cradle the temptation. That's what we want to do. We want to see that temptation. We want to just entertain it for a little bit. Don't treasure the idea of sin. Remember what Christ paid on your behalf, that you might be forgiven of sin and freed from sin. 1 Peter 2.24 says that he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. Don't treasure sin, treasure Jesus. Don't run around trying to hide your failures, some Like David's sin compounds when he thinks he can hide or prevent other people from seeing what he's done wrong. But the book of 1 John tells us to openly confess our sins to he who is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. To walk in the light, that is, allowing our sins and our failures and our shortcomings to be exposed. And if we walk in the light as he is in the light... We have fellowship with one another and we have fellowship with him. What 1 John 1 says. So openly confess your sins. Be honest with others. Be honest with yourself. And walk in the light as he is in the light. That you may enjoy true fellowship with him.
Father God, we need your help in this. I'm so... Convicted, as I read 2 Samuel 11, Lord, how often do I just let the idea of sin sit in my mind too long? And desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to, naturally follows into sin. Father, we have sinful hearts that naturally rebel against you. And we can't say no. We can't turn our thoughts. We can't take our thoughts captive apart from the power of your Holy Spirit. So we're dependent upon him. And we thank you that if we are in Christ, if we have trusted in Jesus to be our Savior, you have given us the gift of the Holy Spirit. He has been poured out, shed abroad into our hearts so that we can say no to sin. We have a huge advantage over David, Lord. You've given us the spirit. You've taken out our heart of stone. You've given us a heart of flesh. You've made us new. Help us to live as those who have been made new. We ask for our sake and for your glory. In the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
