Riverside Jul 8, 2018
The last few weeks we have been studying the life of David.
We discovered that: a no body became a somebody, a somebody became a fugitive, a fugitive became king and now the king falls into sin. A Fallen King.
The Bible never flatters its heroes. All the men and women of Scripture have feet made of clay, and when the Holy Spirit paints a portrait of their lives, He’s a very realistic artist. He doesn’t ignore, deny, or overlook the dark side.
Personally, when I step into this chapter in David’s life, I am forever grateful that God has finished writing Scripture. There is not a person I know who would want to have his failures and vices recorded for all generations to read and discuss and make movies about and write books on and preach sermons on down through the centuries.
We can be thankful that Scripture deals openly with failure. The defects of the saints are not edited out. The dark sides of people who made a difference in their generations are there for all to see.
King David’s adultery and murderous scheming, Elijah’s loss of nerve,
Jonah’s vindictive spirit.”
The Bible is about real life. It shows us the good the bad and the ugly. This is God’s intention when He had it penned for us. We need to use it to grow in life. It will give us insight and direction in what to do and what not to do. If we learn its’ lessons well we will save ourselves a lot of heartache.
Do you know the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty? Have you ever asked yourself this question about Humpy Dumpty. Why was an egg sitting on the edge of the wall? Eggs belong in a safe container so they will not get broke. It sounds to me that this Humpty was in the wrong place. He should have been where he was supposed to be. Get ready because Humpty Dumpty King Davis is sitting on a wall.
A lesson from a fallen king, David’s life is set in Scripture to teach us what to do and what not to do in life (II Samuel 11).
2 Samuel 11 (NIV)
11 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth[b]? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”
22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord
Reality sets in II Samuel as we discover David is acting like Humpty Dumpty he is sitting on the top of his palace leaning over peeping at a woman taking a bath and he is about to fall over the edge and go splat and the result will be scrambled David on the verge of being fried. It displeased the Lord.
Here are the main learning points we can learn from this episode in David’s life.
But before I go into that let me say again that I’m glad God is through writing Scripture because I wouldn’t want my life on display, exposed for everyone to see and discuss. And you know what, I think you are the same. If God were to write the story line of your life for the past 3 months, what would He write? I dare say some of you would be praised for your life, for some of you there would be disappointment and for others still; you would be like David, sinning and trying to cover it up. Here are the main points:
1) David was not doing what he was supposed to do
He should have been leading his army but he decided to take it easy.
“In the spring of the year when kings go to war” David sent Joab to war while he stayed home. It would have been safer for David on the battlefield. He was not doing what he was supposed to be doing and that is a problem not only with David but with us. We can get distracted from the things we should be doing to side attractions.
Examples.
Not taking care of our family obligations, our spouses, our children.
Not working as we should for our employers, surfing the net, being lazy
Not attending to our spiritual selves, not reading the Bible, not praying, not serving in the church
We can be distracted by sports, activities we like, by TV and the WEB, by money by habits, by many and various things and they can lead us lead us away from what we should be doing. That was David and that was a problem that started his downfall
2) David was idle
We read that David got off his couch and went up to the roof, Now I know what a couch is for and I consider myself an expert at times. But my work has to get done first. My Grandmother would say things like: anything past midnight isn’t good and idle hands lead to mischief and idleness is the Devil’s playground
People are meant to be productive not idle. Some people here are retired and retirement doesn’t mean idleness, we can keep ourselves occupied with good things like prayer, study, service, helping others but not idleness.
But David in his idleness ended up on the roof. And there’s only one thing to say to David and to us when we get onto a roof in our lives GET OFF THE ROOF.
1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NIV)
And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle
3) David didn’t heed advice
David asked “who is that woman…” and his attendants knew what he was thinking, they’d seen the harem, they’d seen how David operated. Here’s how they replied:
“Isn’t this Bethsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the husband of Uriah?? In other words: David she’s married! By this time lust had gripped his heart and David wasn’t listening or heeding advise from anyone.
Have you ever seen this in someone else, so determined to have it their way, they rationalize anything to get their way, to do something that isn’t right and they just aren’t listening, they wouldn’t heed. Yes, I’ve watched myself do that, how about you. Blinders on for sure, heading for a humpty Dumpty moment, like David.
It’s been my observation that the devil never tips his hand in temptation. He shows only the beauty, the ecstasy, the fun, the excitement. He never tells you you’re going to have a hangover, you’ll ruin your family or having dope for tonight may lead you to a long sorrowful road. He never says you’re going to get caught or you may get a life threatening disease or she’ll get pregnant. When sin is done and the consequences are kicking in, the devil is no where to be found, he laughs in the distance as you fall.
You may be in a situation right now, you’re on the roof or you’re in the bed. If that’s where you find yourself, STOP today, get off the roof, get out of the bed, get off the couch and run, flee to Jesus, seek forgiveness and go and sin no more. What else can I do, what else can we all do?
- Get busy doing the work you should be doing, physical, spiritual, relational
- Do not be idle,
- Heed advise from others
Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin. If you want prayer, want help with your situation or support please me via email. Amen
g.macdonald@nexicom.net