DAVID

JUDGES & KINGS

(DON’T COVER UP SIN)

By Rev. Dr. Jerry Schmoyer  jerry@schmoyer.net 

  http://india.christiantrainingonline.org/

 

MAIN IDEA   From the life of David learn about the time of the judges and united kingdom, as well as the importance of not covering up sin. 

 

I. DAVID – BACKGROUND

SAUL: king of Israel – start humble, obedient, sin & not turn to God

YOUNGEST BOY family

        -Shepherd

        -father forgot about when Saul came

        -brothers made fun, mocked

PHILISTINES:  national enemy/threat to Israel

GOLIATH: 9’+ giant

        Saul leader, largest Jew – should have fought

        David:took Saul’s place, willing to fight (16)

        PEOPLE idolized him

        SAUL jealous, insecure

        MICHAL idolizes, marries

        JONATHAN best friend  (“souls knit together”)

 

COVER-UP # 1

HIDING FROM SAUL: age 17 – 29

        Marry ABIGAIL

        Saul threaten to kill David

           David not trust God, took matters into own hands

                Never once prayed about it, went to God

                Fled in night in fear

                Scheme to protect self

                        -ask Jonathan to lie to father

                Fled in fear, panic – cove up sin of fear

 

                Went to Abimelech, priest, lied again

                   Pretent on secret mission for Saul to get help

                Saul found out, killed Abim + 85 priests!

 

 

                Went to Philistines (enemies) for protection

                        pretended insanity so could stay

 

 

VICTORIES

Opportunities to kill Saul while hiding from him – Doesn’t kill Saul 2x

 

DEFEATS

Nabal:     selfish, rich snob

        David helped him, asked for free food but     rejected, angry, tried to kill in revenge

        Abagail stopped it (wise), later married

15 yrs wandering, hiding – discouraged, depressed

        self pity grows, isolation from, forgets God’s protection promises!

 

 

COVER-UP # 2

Fled to land of Philistines again!

        -God forbid His people to live there!

   All went smoothly moving there, ‘doors opened’

        -easy to think God behind, blessing it all

        -really Satan letting up pressure so go there

Deceit, trickery, half-truths got own city, Ziklag  (600 men & families with David, too)

 

 

Soon thousands came, joined (bad example, lead to sin)

No food for so many, what to do?

        Attacked neighboring tribes, killed & stole

 

 

Philistine king asked where got food, etc???

        lie: said attacked Israelites!  –  king grateful, impressed!

 

Philistine attack Israel – King asked loyal David to join attack, kill more Jews!

AWFUL situation! –        knew CAN’T attack God’s people with enemies!

 

GOD bailed David out – MERCY even when covering up sin

Phil generals not trust David, not let him fight!  sent David & men back home to Ziklag

ZIKLAG plundered, destroyed, all taken away! (same as they had done to neighbors!)

        Wives, children of David & all men gone!

                       

That battle of Philistia & Israel …  Saul, Jonathan, etc – killed

KING OF ISRAEL 30 – 70     1st 20 years: success, prosperity, victory

 

SIN SPOILS ALL

Want to tell you about one event in my life changed it completely

David: 50 yrs old, half way through 40 year reign

        -popular, loved by people

        -Jerusalem captured, capital city

        -Ark & Tabernacle set up for worship

        -wrote many Psalms, led in worship

        -rich, prosperous

        -boundaries increased 10 times

        -Israel at height/peak as a nation ever

 

I. CIRCUMSTANCES OF SUSCEPTIBILITY  11:1-5

 

      A.  LAZY  11:1

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.

 

“SPRING” = time for war (good weather, food handy, etc)

David should have been at war, too – Neglecting basic duties

 

      B.  LUST  11:2

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,

 

SIMPLE LOOK Þ SENSUAL DESIRE Þ SINFUL ACTION

not planned, not reason went on roof (ruin family, nation)

        can’t prevent first look/thought of lust/greed/covetousne

DAVID’S PATTERN: Act to meet own need without prayer, seek God’s will

JESUS: Matt 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

 

      C.  LINGERING  11:3-4

 

            1.  “SAW”  11:2

From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,

Can’t help seeing, but should have prayed, erased sight/thot

        What you DO with the enticement is sin or not

        LISTENING TO IT is sin – as Eve listened to Satan!

Don’t put self in place where will see things shouldn’t!

 

            2.  “SENT”  11:3

and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

 

When thought @ it, next step is to act on it

CULMINATION of long process, started 20+ yrs earlier  – Satan working 30 years

        teens’s – lusty, sensual (composed music, etc.)

        20’s – disobeyed, many wives (woman lust)

                Michal: external attraction

                Dozen wives & concubines – why need Bathsheba?

        30’s – didn’t remove all Gentiles (Bathsheba a Gent)

        50’s – open to sin with Bathsheba

DAVID IS WARNED:  The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 

 

DAVID SHOULD HAVE FLED

like JOSEPH from Potiphar’s wife

1 Cor 10:13     No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

NOT:  how close can I get to sin without sinning

BUT:   how far can I keep from sin

 

            3.  “SINNED”  11:4

Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home.

ORDER: see, want, sin (same with Eden)

               

      D.  LUKEWARM  11:5

The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

David not convicted of sin, but rationalized, hardened heart, made excuses

 

COVER-UP # 3

 

II. COMPLICATIONS OF SECRECY  11:6-27a

 

      A.  DECEIT  11:6-7

So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David.  When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going.

 

 

      B.  DIVERSION  11:8

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.

 

 

      C.  DRUNKENNESS  11:9-13

But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.  When David was told, “Uriah did not go home,” he asked him, “Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. 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!”  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.  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.

 

      D.  DEATH  11:14-27a

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”  So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were.  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.

AGAIN (3rd time) David’s coverup ended in MURDER

26    When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.  After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.

 

 

 

 

 

 

III. CONSEQUENCES OF SIN       11:27b – 12:31

 

      A.  CHARACTER OF DAVID  11:27b

 

HIS TESTIMONY LOST TO:

        BATHSHEBA: always remembered this start

        FRIENDS (Joab, servants, etc): respect gone

        FAMILY:  sons did similar things – Absalom: murder, rebellion

        ENEMIES: 12:14by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt

        FOLLOWERS, SUPPORTERS: disillusioned

        GOD: but the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

 

      B.  CONDUCT OF DAVID  12:1-12

DAVID miserable, convicted insidePs 32:3-4  When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah

If you can sin and not be bothered by it you’re IN TROUBLE!

nearly a year David covered up, ran from God – God patient, then acted

 

            1.  CONVICTED, HE HID FROM GOD  12:1

The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.

 

            2. CONFRONTED, HE BECAME HARSH  12:2-6

The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,  but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.  “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”  David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!  He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

LAW:  restore 4-fold

DAVID:  restore 4-fold, kill him – no mercy to others when not experiencing God’s mercy

 

         3. CHARGED, HE WAS BROKENHEARTED  12:7-23

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.  I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.  Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.  Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’  “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.  You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.'”  Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.  But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”  After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.  David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground.  The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.       On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”  David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”  Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.  His servants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”  He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’      But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

 

CHARGE	CONSEQUENCE – EFFECT
1. killed Uriah	sword in David’s house
2. took another’s wife	his wives taken by others
3. done secretly	publicly punished

 

            4. COMFORTED, HE WAS HEARTLESS  12:24-31

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him;  and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.  Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel.  Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply.  Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be named after me.”  So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it.  He took the crown from the head of their king– its weight was a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones– and it was placed on David’s head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. He did this to all the Ammonite towns.Then David & his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

 

 

 

IV.  CONFESSIONS OF A SAINT 12:13

      A.  PRECEDED BY GOD’S GOODNESS 

12:7        Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

 

      B. PREPARED BY GOD’S GREATNESS

12:1The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.

        God went after David, didn’t wait for him to return

 

      C. PROMOTED BY DAVID’S GUILT

12:13a  Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Could have just killed Nathan, too!

        But God working in heart, convicting of sin

 

      D. PARDONED BY GOD’S GRACE          

12:13b Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

God didn’t kill David (more gracious than David)

LAW: stone to death for adultery  –   GRACE:  given David

RESULTS, CONSEQUENCES

1st half of David’s reign: prosperous, victorious, happy

2nd half of David’s reign: shame, defeat, unhappiness

BABY DIED 14       but because by doing this you have made the enemies of the lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”

SIN BRINGS DEATH  James 1:14-15  but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.   Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  

 

DAVID AFTER Forgiven, restord

WITHOUT: 

        Absalom revolted, David left Jerusalem, Ab dead

        Sheba’s revolt

        Family turmoil, sin, failure

WITHIN:

        Deeper spiritually – accept mercy

                pride, self-sufficiency gone

        Learn self-control over lusts, impulsiveness

                very similar to PETER

        Write, sing of God’s forgiveness, mercy

                deeper roots with God

 

CONCLUSION

 

MERCY, FORGIVENESS:

        Solomon, another son of David & Bath, next king

                not as godly as David, nor as sinful as Saul

             -builds Temple to God

             -asked for wisdom over riches (given both)

             -wrote: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon

             -1,000 wives & concubines – led him from God

             -overtaxed people for grand buildings (revolt)