ABC - David Disobeys God - Lesson 3

Lord, we thank you for your kindness and goodness to us this day. Thank you for your many mercies, your grace on us who do not deserve anything. We've done nothing to deserve your grace, and yet you pour it out upon us. That's a great definition of grace.

We ask God that you'd fill us with your Spirit as we contemplate these chapters that deal with sin. And repentance and forgiveness open up our eyes to understand. Help us to see the lessons that you have for us. In Christ's name we pray.

Amen. All righty. Thank you. You're a gentlewoman and a scholar.

I appreciate it. Oh, let me see. Yes, it meets my approval. That was, that's great.

All right. So, so, yeah, great job last week. We're actually kinda going backwards now. We're going back to lesson three.

anything stand out to you guys last week? I've shared a little bit, what stood out to me, but Anything stand out to you about Psalms? Yeah, Dave. Yeah.

Yeah. Yes, Yeah. Yeah, so Dave's saying that we can, the Psalms are so real and show us how that we can come to the Lord, express our emotions, the full range of our emotions and doubts, and, and to stay before the Lord as we're expressing that. Excellent.

Anything else stand out to you guys? Yeah, Allison. I Oh wow. Right.

is And Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah, so, so David's expressing these emotions publicly, not just privately going into the closet, being bitter, but expressing his, these range of emotions in song, and they're out there for everybody to see. And so God, so it's out there for God to get glory, right?

So yeah, excellent. Anything else? All right, Let's go ahead and let's turn to 2 Samuel 11. Actually, what?

Let me see if I got this. OK, I don't. Let's open up to James first. James chapter one, in your guys' Handouts, there's a.

And exercise. On, on your page 27 and 28. There's a section called Sin's Progression, and we're gonna look at James 1. 12 and 15 to 151st.

Let me just say as, as just to set up these chapters that we're looking at. In some ways, these are some of the most offensive chapters in the Bible, this whole section of David and Bathsheba. In fact, I wanna, I wanna argue that. Christianity really hinges upon how we view.

These types of chapters in the scripture. There are many today, and I've, I've have felt this at times that would look at what we see with David and Bathsheba, the way God responds and so on. And say This is just not right. Here is a guy who is powerful.

He has power over people under him. He expresses that power over Uriah, that power over Bathsheba. This is a man that takes somebody else's wife, gets her pregnant. tries to get her husband drunk or does get her husband drunk, tries to hide his sin.

When that doesn't work, he orders his, the commander of his army to leave this faithful soldier hanging. So that he dies. And then. In his hypocrisy, wants to have a man executed who takes a sheep from somebody.

And then in the Hebrew, he says two words. And God says, OK, your sins are forgiven. What? What about Uriah?

He's dead. What about Bathsheba, who has lost her husband, and now she's been taking in, taken into David's harem. and the Bible is gonna call this guy. A man after God's own heart.

How in the world can we call this the one true religion? That exalts the evil behavior of a king who takes advantage of people underneath him. And with just two words says, oh. Yeah, the Lord, you will not die.

You are forgiven. You see the problem? this just seems on one level. This just seems like a big black eye.

On the face of Christianity or the face of Yahweh worship. and so how do we, how do we understand these chapters? How do we answer the critic or maybe even yourself, you've read through these chapters and you're like, this just isn't right. How does God let David get off the hook for all of these evil deeds?

Well, if we picked up the paper and read about somebody in power, let's say one of our political officers who had slept with somebody else, else's wife and then had the husband snuffed out. And yet he got away with it. We would not be happy, right? There would be investigations, people would be calling for his head.

This would be bad news. And if all of a sudden we saw on the news that he says, I've asked the Lord for forgiveness and the Lord has told me that he's forgiven me, I think most of us would be like, Yeah, right. And yet that's, that's what we're dealing with here. Let's start here in James one.

As we just consider how sin does develop, we'll read this section and then go back to chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, use, and use this as a grid to read it. James says, blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin.

And it, and sin, and when it is full grown, it brings forth death. So what do we see, particularly in verses 15? or 14 and 15, what's the progression of sin here? That James is laying out for us.

Yeah, so your begins with your own desires, right? So these desires are inside, and then what's the next step? Yeah, there's a conception. So we're using this imagery, right, of a, a child be conceived.

So it brings forth sin, there's conception, brings forth sin. So the actual act of sin here. And then you have this idea of full grown and bringing forth what? Death.

So you've got the desires, you've got the conception, you've got the birth, you've got the life, and you've got death. So, the whole life cycle is the image that's being used here to describe sin. So, according to James, can God be blamed for our sin? Why not?

Good. So God's not tempting. He's not the one that's making you sin. Where do those sins, where does that desire, or where do those sins emanate from?

Yeah, the devil, yeah, Flip, what's his name? Flip Wilson. Anybody old enough to remember Flip Wilson? OK, a few of us.

All right, yeah. See it. I'm sorry, Justice, where does it come from? Yeah, so it comes from our own hearts, right?

So, we've got these desires. Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. constantly having to remind our children of this concept. Remind ourselves of this concept.

I always get in trouble when I use illustrations for my kids, so I'll pretend like it's somebody else's kid. There was once a parent. Who was talking to their child about why they would not allow for unrestricted access to their cell phone data plan. And they're like, don't you trust me?

And I was like, to this particular, oh no, this parent was saying to this particular child, I don't trust me. OK, the problem is not you, the problem is desires come from within all of us. And so we need accountability, we need, there's just, this, this weakness that's in everybody. So let's, let's flip back.

To 2 Samuel 11, and let's read this section together in light of James. And let's just remember, yeah, wait. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Right, Right. Right. No, that's good. So Wade is talking about the constancy of the temptation, both from without and within.

One of the reasons why Hebrews 10 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, right? Because there's just this ongoing battle. I forget, I think it's Hebrews 3 that talks about while it is today, right? We have to always be the deceitfulness of sin can move us away and harden our hearts just in a day.

And so we always have to be vigilant about the weakness in our heart, using the resources that are available to us, God's word, fellowship, and so on. So here's David, and when we, by the time we get to chapter 11, we've got David who defeated Goliath, David who followed the Lord in the wilderness, behaved in a very upstanding way in his interactions with Saul. He's eventually given the throne, he's subjecting his enemies by God's will. This guy, in a lot of ways, is, is really a hero.

And if his story would have ended before chapter 11, we would look back and just be talking about all of the gallant things that David had done and the ways that the Lord had placed him on the throne. But then we get to chapter 11 and we see some things right out the gate. That are troubling to us. And so let's start in verse one.

It happened in the spring of the year at the time when kings go to battle, that David sent Joab, his servants, and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Reba, but David remained at Jerusalem. So they go to battle in spring. Why? Why do kings like to battle in spring?

Yeah, it's tough. Ask Napoleon how he liked going into battle with, the Russians in the winter, right? Or Hitler trying to move up into Russia in the middle of winter. Springtime is the time when you can move troops and so on and so forth.

And so, if you go back and look at some of the previous chapters, this is like battle with Ammon Part 2, right? It's like Rambo 2. They'd already been in this battle, but they weren't able to finish everything. so springtime comes, they go to Ammon.

Reba, why does Rebo come up? Does anybody know? You probably just stare at your notes and figure out what's Reba is what? Yeah, so it's a stronghold and it's the capital of Amon, yeah, so that's why that's thrown in here.

And so there's this stronghold. And but here David remained at Jerusalem. And it seems like our our writer front loads all this information, puts this little bit on the end, David remained at Jerusalem. The writer's telling us right out the gate, this is not good.

Everybody went to work, but David chose not to go to work that day. then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So second problem, David should be at war, he's not. He goes out onto his roof, he sees a woman.

Bathing, beautiful to behold. Now, when Joseph was in a situation with Potiphar's, was it Potiphar's wife? What was Joseph's reaction? He took off, left his garment in her hands, right?

He's just, I am out of here. David, you do not get that impression at all. He's on his roof, he's looking, he sees that she's beautiful. Verse 3, you don't get the Joseph reaction.

So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite? Eliam and Uriaah are noted as being mighty men. So these are people who are, are within David's mighty men army, like Navy SEALs, right?

Something like that. the fact that Uriah is a Hittite doesn't mean that he's still worshiping the Hittite gods. He's obviously come within, Israel's camp and so he would no doubt be a a convert, a Yahweh worshiper. Verse 4.

Then David sent messengers and took her. And she came to him and he lay with her, and she, for she was cleansed from her impurity. And she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, so she sent and told David and said, I am with child.

Notice that throughout this whole part of the narrative, the name Bathsheba is not being used anymore, it's just the woman. David sins for the woman, brings the woman, the woman responded. And. We'll come back Actually, what is, let me ask you guys right now, what, what's the significance, it says in verse 4, for she was cleansed from her impurity.

What does that mean? Got to know a little bit of Leviticus here. Yeah, so she's done with her monthly cycle and she'd also passed through the requirements in the Book of Leviticus, and so she'd become ceremonally pure. And so, the implication seems to be here if you, I'm reading from the New King James, but I think all the grammar in the various versions brings this out.

So David sent messengers, the messengers bring her, he took her, she came to him and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity. There seems to be By implication, both on David's part, perhaps even on Bathsheba's part, there's information that's been exchanged. The implication seems to be that he would have had her earlier, but she was impure. So they waited until her impurity had passed, both her time of the month and then the, the requirements that are laid out on Leviticus.

And so David doesn't want to break Levitical law here before he lays with her. We'll come back to that here in a second. then he returns to her house, she conceives, she sent and told David and said, I'm with child. What's the other significance about the fact that this is after her quote unquote time of impurity?

As far as identify, yeah, go ahead, Barbara. Yeah, so there's no doubt that David is the father of the child. Uriah is off to battle. Let's look at verse 6, then David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite, and Joab sent Uriah to David.

When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing. How the people were doing and how the war prospered. That must have been a very interesting conversation, David's. Hey, how's it going?

How's the war going and so on and so forth. So David's just making conversation. And Uriah's got to be thinking. Why did he bring me to, to get this information?

David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. So Uriah departed from the king's house, and a gift of food from the king was followed or followed him, 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. So when they told David saying Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, did 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 are dwelling in tents. And my lord Joab, and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields. 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. So right now, who's the hero of the story? Uriah is this faithful guy, and the author wants us, wants us to know that he's just reporting the facts. David has tried, he's trying to control the situation.

He's trying to hide his sin. But because Uriah is such a faithful soldier, it's just not working out. verse 12, then David said to Uriah, wait here today also and tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk. And that evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his Lord, but he did not go down to his house. So here we have David who doesn't go to work when he should be at work. He goes out on the roof and sees Bathsheba.

I don't know, there's nothing in the text that would indicate that this was, that there were more times that this had happened. I kinda wonder, given the position of David's roof and household, him being alone, is this something Had he been tempted like this before and had never acted upon it? Did he know that he went, when he went out on the roof of his house, that there was a chance that his lust would be enticed? The text doesn't really tell us.

but at the very least, he does go out that one time, he's enticed. He actually sins for Bathsheba. Bathsheba came to his place. He could have at that point stopped it.

But instead, he commits adultery, sends her back, she gets pregnant, and now he's getting his faithful soldier, Uriah, getting him drunk, to try to convince him or get him to go be with his wife to cover up his sin. in these days, there were, historically, he could have, they could have had an abortion. It would be, really, really messy. Lots of death happened.

It wasn't like abortion was not an option in ancient times. but David decides, let's just try to cover it up with, Uriah spending time with his, his wife. Verse 14, in the morning, it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. This sounds like Shakespeare.

who is it? Is it, Henry? Henry the 5th. There's Henry the Fifth where there's a note that's sent in the hand of the messengers for their execution.

I, I, I forget. And he wrote in the letter saying, set Uriah in the front of the hottest battle and retreat from him. That he may be struck down and die. So it was while Joab besieged the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men.

Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the people, the servants of David fell. And Uriah the Hittite died also. Some people argue that Joab actually improves upon the plan. He doesn't just allow Uriah to die, he actually allows a few people to die so that it doesn't look like Uriah was the was the intended target.

And what do you guys know about Joab? Why, why would Joab not necessarily have objected to this? Joy was Right. Yeah, so Joab is, he's, he's loyal to a fault, perhaps a manipulator.

He's also a bloodthirsty man, right? If you remember some of the, is it Ahithophel, that he gets in a pretty bloody battle with. Joab's not shy to, to be involved in escapades and so on and so forth. Right.

Yeah, he could use this to his advantage. whatever the case, Uriah now has died. the author is just telling us the story at this point. Has God shown up on the scene anywhere in the narrative yet?

And we see no mention of Yahweh. So far, things are going according to plan. Verse 18, then Joab sent. Actually, yeah, let's read a little bit.

Then Joab sent to David all the things concerning the war and charged the messenger saying, when you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, if it happens that the king's wrath rises and he says to you, why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall, so on and so forth, down to, towards the bottom of that paragraph. then you shall say your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Joab knows, and this is one of the ironies of the chapter, is David, it seems like he was opposed to unnecessary bloodshed.

He didn't want to put his men in harm's way unnecessarily. And so when David would have found out the report that several of his soldiers died near the wall, he would have been angry. And so Joab says, well, just let him know that the Hittite is also dead and then David will be OK with it. And so you see the sense of irony, throughout the chapter.

I look down to verse 26. verse 26, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. When he mourned, when her mourning was over, David sent, brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. Up to this point, it seems like everything has worked out.

There's been no mention of Yahweh. David has successfully been able to eliminate. the problem. But then the last sentence in the chapter, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, literally was, I think it's, it's, was displeasing in the eyes of the Lord.

Does anybody have a note on that? Am I correct? OK, it was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And so while every, the Lord seems to be absent and silent from this chapter.

God's eyes were all over it. There are many times when evil occurs and it just seems like, man, why is, why are people getting away with this? maybe even in, in your life or my life, there's times where we have gone through periods of sin and it just seems like. The Lord's absent or maybe he's not really responding.

We're getting away with it. but one of the things that we see at the end of this chapter is God's eyes have been all over this deception. he thought he was doing this in secret, but he was not. Yeah, yeah.

So at this point in the chapter, there's no mourning, there's no remorse. He's taken Bathsheba into his house. She's borne him a child. And no doubt, there would have been a funeral, even though it's not reported, there was probably a funeral for Uriah and the other men.

David was probably there, pronouncing a benediction and a blessing upon Uriah. Perhaps he was considered a hero. this would have also probably fueled anti-Ammonite sentiment. Those Ammonites killed Uriah and some of our mighty men were ticked off.

We're really gonna go to battle now. And so, all's well, at this point, from David's perspective, he's been able to cover up his sin. In fact, it was probably an honorable thing that he would marry Uriah's, widow and take her. Into his court.

But just ask yourself at this point before we turn to To chapter 12. What types of sins, are you dealing with or have you dealt with, have you ever found yourself where you should be somewhere active? You should be in a particular location, but you've chosen not to go to that location. have you ever been in a situation where now you found yourself enticed because you were not where you were supposed to be or you're alone?

One of the things that. Moses Tate tells me, and, and this is a pretty common thing for missionaries and people that travel. is, it is just not a good thing to travel as a missionary around the world or short-term missionary by yourself. It can be, troublesome.

And I don't know if you guys have ever heard the story of, of Not Franklin Graham, Billy Graham. Billy Graham would always travel with at least one or two people, if not his little entourage. not just for, for temptation's sake, but also he knew there were people that were out to get him. And and he would actually send people into a hotel room before he would walk into the hotel room, lest somebody had put some gal in his hotel room ready to take pictures of him walking into the room.

You think that stuff doesn't happen, but it does. and so he was very careful about his travels. And I think there's a couple of reasons for that. One, did Billy Graham think that God was not powerful enough to help him overcome sin?

No, he knew the power of the gospel, but he also knew the weakness of an individual left to themselves. I remember probably about 6 months, I think this was about 6 months before I became a Christian. I was 14 years old. I was part of our marching band.

We had 7 o'clock rehearsals every morning and, my dad came into my room and asked me if I wanted a ride to school. I said, no, I was gonna walk to school. And I had already purposed in my mind that I was gonna walk to school, go to Alpha Beta, and shoplift at Alpha Beta. I was gonna, and it was just nonsense stuff.

It was like potato chips, and pins. I forget what else. And It was really early in the morning, it was still dark. And so, like when you're looking out of like, say, store windows from the inside and it's dark outside, there's this reflection and you can't really see out.

So I'm down the hall, stuffing my jacket with potato chips. Meanwhile, somebody from Alpha Beta is looking right down the same aisle, and they can see me doing this. I start to walk out of the store. Suddenly, somebody's hand grabs my shoulder and says, Where are you going, son?

All of a sudden my knee started to knock. I thought that was just in cartoons, but my knees were literally knocking. And they had me in some room and I'm crying. I'm saying, please don't tell my dad, he's gonna kill me, which he would, he, he, I think he almost did, but But all this to say is, I had determined in my mind already what I wanted to do.

I was going to Alpha Beta to do this sin. And I don't think it's outrageous to think, in fact, we see this, right, in the church all the time, you've probably seen it in your own heart, where we already at times know what we want to do in our sin and we'll set the situation up so that we can engage in the sin or maybe fall into the sin and then, and then be able to blame some other situation. Here David is in a situation he should have never been in. He should have been out with his men.

And so, just allow the Lord to, to convict you. Are there times where you should be with other people and you just choose not to be. Are there times where you should be in a particular location or not in a particular location and you choose to go to that location. if you guys remember Proverbs, I think it's Proverbs 5, talks about, is it Proverbs 5 or 7, talks about the guy who actually takes the path on the way to the harlot.

It's like he's already purposed in his mind, he's gonna go by her street and then she comes out and says, hey, come on in. And so he can be, he can almost like convince himself that he got lured in by her, but he had already purposed to go down that direction. And, and so we see right here in King David, something that all of us need to be warned of and, and be very careful of, and that is to not think that we're so strong that we don't need accountability and that we don't need community.

I'll just be honest with you, even to this day.

Like I've got, we've got this filtration software that's all over our computers and, and sometimes at home, we'll try to go click on something and then it's something totally innocent, but it'll block me, and I'll just be like, man, this is so frustrating. Why are they blocking this? Now I gotta go in and, and do all this stuff to get to this particular thing. And, and there's a part of me that just feels like, why do we need this stuff?

Why am I being inconvenienced? by this software to just go look at some Disney video, right?. but what do we really care about? What are the things we, who is it, Robert Murray McCain, it's a very interesting quote, it's incredibly challenging to me.

He said that what his people and his church need more than anything else is his personal holiness. That's an amazing statement. Think about that. As, as a pastor, as a dad, as a leader, what the people under you need more than anything else, according to Robert Murray McCain is Your Holiness.

And what are we willing to do to fight for that? I think for me, there, there's a part of my heart that's so proud where I just feel like, I don't need these restrictions. I don't need this accountability. I don't need you asking me questions, right?

But in reality, we do, we do need people asking us questions. We do need one another. And the story of, of David demonstrate that. David was not, it's not like David was some, we're not talking about David's not Saul, right?

David is not a demon. David's not Absalom. This is King David, a man after God's own heart. And he made choices that put himself in a situation that had lifelong impact, as we're gonna see.

Let's turn over to chapter 12. We'll read through chapter 12. pretty, pretty quickly. So you guys know the, the story, many of you.

Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. That's actually one of the most amazing verses in the Bible. It, the previous chapter ends with David, the Lord was displeased. There's a lot of things the Lord could have done.

The Lord could have just struck him dead like he did Uza. Right? The Lord could have like struck him dead like he did Ananias and Sapphira. There's a lot of things the Lord could have done, but he sends Nathan, a prophet.

That's an amazing verse, just dripping with grace. And he came to him and said to him, There were 2 men in one city, one rich and the other poor. There's nothing really that tells us that this is a parable. A lot of people think it's a parable.

It could be. This could be a real occurrence, we don't really know. But verse 2, the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb. I used to call that Olam.

Which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children. And it ate of his own food and drink from his own cup and lay in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. So this is really a pet, right? And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock, and from his own herd to prepare one from a wayfaring, prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, This is an oath By the breath of Yahweh. The man who has done this shall surely die. And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity. The reaction seems to indicate that David thinks this is a real happening, not a parable.

that, that Nathan is telling a real story that is going on in his kingdom. And so David's wrath is aroused. He utters a religious oath. And makes a pronouncement that this man Shall die, I don't know if you've ever noticed, but.

A lot of times when we're the ones that have sunken into sin or when somebody else has sunken into sin, there's this temptation for them to be the most pronounced in their judgment., to, to want to see God's judgment and wrath come down upon another person, that seems to be one of the insidious aspects of our sin is that we can get very judgmental of other people when we are stuck in sin ourselves. Verse 7, then Nathan said to David, you are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel.

And so, now we're gonna see some pronouncements of the consequences that are coming upon David.

pretty amazing stuff that Nathan. we know that, that he's a prophet that he was sent to deliver a message from the Lord. As far as the way he went about telling the, delivering the message, we don't know how much of it was actually dictated by the Lord, how much of it was Nathan saying, OK, how can I approach the king on this? I'm gonna tell him the story.

but the way that he goes about it is, is pretty ingenious, whether it's direct divine, dictation or whether it's just Holy Spirit wisdom. so he says, from the Lord, I anointed you king over Israel. So this is dictation here. I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your master's house, your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. the idea here of him giving his master's wives is any king would inherit the harem of the previous king. This is not necessarily David. having multiple sexual relationships with the harem, but in ancient days, when you took over the kingship, the harem was passed down to you.

we can talk about that ethically if you want later. And that had, and if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in sight? You've killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Amen.

Now, in all likelihood, it seems that Nathan would have received this information by direct divine revelation. It could be that the gossip mill and the scuttlebutt was moving. my, my inclination to think that the Lord just told Nathan, and here's Nathan just revealing this to him. Verse 10, now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and you have taken the wife of Uriah, the Hittite to be your wife.

Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. And you shall lie with, and, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun, for you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun. These are part of the pronouncements of the cursings of Deuteronomy 28.

If you go back and look at Deuteronomy 28 or Leviticus 26, Israel was told that if you do these things, you'll be blessed. If you do these things, you'll be cursed. Part of the cursing is foreigners coming into your land and basically taking your families from you, right before you and, and now your families are no longer yours to, to enjoy and to oversee. It was not uncommon at all.

In fact, it's still a practice today when a, a nation would come in like Nebuchadnezzar came in and attacked Judah. One of the methods that they would use to try to obliterate a society is they would force intermarriage, so they could try to remove that, that, that race from the planet. And, and so as we're gonna see later in the book, Absalom takes over and we have this. These terrible things that began to happen.

Verse 13. So this is all the pronouncement of the consequences of the sin. Verse 13, so David said to Nathan, two words in the Hebrew, I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord.

And Nathan said to David, the Lord is all has put away your sin, and you shall not die. Let's just stop right there. David says two words. And Nathan, by direct divine revelation from the Lord says, the Lord has put away your sin, and you shall not die.

Did David deserve to die? No doubt, according to the law, he deserved to die. And yet God says through Nathan, your sin has been set aside. And you shall not die.

Now this particular verse causes a lot of people some angst. David commits all this sin. Uriah is dead. Bathsheba has now been taken into David's fold.

David has blasphemed the name of the Lord with his actions. He says two words. And God says, Your sin has been set aside, and you shall not die. Isn't David getting off pretty easy here?

How can God basically say, your sin is set aside? there doesn't even seem, there's nothing in the text that would indicate that David fell on his face and dragged himself across the room. He didn't tie up some cords and start beating his back. He didn't walk for 5 miles on his knees on glass.

There's no indication of penance doing here. David says, I have sinned, and the Lord says, your sins are put away. How in the world can God do that? Yeah, Barbara.

OK. So Barbara says, so God knew what was in David's heart, so that didn't call for a lot of activity. OK. Yeah, Alvin?

God has a plan. Yes. OK, so God has a plan of redemption and David's part of that plan. Yeah, good.

OK, yeah, David will die, not now. Justice? That's true. OK, God is sovereign.

Good. Yeah, Allison. OK, So David's perhaps gonna wish that he would have died because of the consequences of everything that's gonna happen in the future. So does that, does that make us OK with the forgiveness that David's gonna suffer penance in the future.

He's gonna go through all these terrible things with Absalom and warfare is never gonna leave his house. And so now we're OK with God saying you're forgiven, because we know David's gonna pay for it in the future. Huh? OK.

OK, so Judy is saying that God's the one that saw all the sin, and God is the one that has already seen Christ as dying on the cross. And if I'm putting words in your mouth, but applying that to David at this point, that God is pronouncing forgiveness, not because David's gonna pay for it in the future. Not because, David's just a nice guy and he's really, really, really, really sorry. But God is pronouncing something that is truly miraculous.

Yeah, Joe had something and then Dan. Yeah, so there's, this promise that's been made to David already back in chapter 7 that all of the nations will be blessed through David. Was this a bilateral promise or a unilateral? Is this a promise that was based upon whether David kept his end of the bargain, or is it something that God says, I swear this by myself?

Unilateral, so the Davidic covenant is unilateral, Dan. We read chapter 11 Right. that. at least for myself.

I tend to take Yet when I to God I Yeah. Yeah Yeah. Yeah, so Dan makes the point that all of us have the, the, this type of sin that we see in the story, and while this is a difficult story to read, it really is a mirror for all of us. And, and Dan also said that it's easy for us to take our own sin too lightly.

This is a chapter that really calls us to take our sins seriously, but also to take the grace of the Lord very seriously. I got, I got 2 minutes here. Nathan tells the story of the rich man and the poor man, and David is ready to say kill him. God tells us the story of David and Bathsheba, and there's something within us that wants to rise up like David and say, execute him.

He does not deserve to get off. There is no way that David should get off this easily, that he just says, Lord, I have sinned, and the Lord says, you're forgiven. That's a travesty of justice. And so then the same finger, the Holy Spirit comes back to us, through Nathan and says, you are the man, you are the woman.

I think God uses one of the reasons why this is on the pages of Scripture, one to help us see that the only real hero is Jesus Christ, is that even though the kingdom is in the hands of David at this point, this story reminds us that the kingdom is never safe in the hands of any human, it's only gonna be safe in the hands of the Son of David. But those of us that are standing and pointing our fingers at David, the Lord looks at us and says, you are the man, you are the woman.

And it should be a reminder for us to look inward at our own sin, that someone like David who has a heart is a man after God's own heart could fall into this type of sin. Every one of us in this room can.

And every one of us in this room on one level or another has committed such sins. And so it's a reminder of us to humble ourselves and understand really the miracle of forgiveness. One of the, I, I've talked about this commentary in the past, but Dale Ray, Ralph Davies in his commentary in 2 Samuel, he says, so many of us still have this idea of vending machine forgiveness. That we pop in our coin of penance and out comes forgiveness.

We prostrate ourselves enough and go through enough gyrations, say enough prayers, beat ourselves up enough, we drop in our coin, and then God is somewhat obligated to give us forgiveness, rather than the Bible's view that forgiveness is a miracle that comes from a sovereign God. And it doesn't come because of our sincerity. It doesn't come because we've done enough penance. It comes because God has, has, has reached out to us in sovereign grace.

Let me read 2 quotes to you guys, and then we'll be done. Davies has, he defines grace. I love his definition. Of grace here.

He basically says that David. David seems to understand. Something. Or he comes to understand something about God's grace.

Let me see where it is. Yeah, I've got it written down. Where did I go? Oh, here we go.

Check, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll email this to you guys. grace, God, something for nothing when we don't deserve anything. Grace can be defined as God's something for nothing when we don't deserve anything. God gives us something.

For nothing from us when we don't deserve anything, that's grace. And part of what offends us about this chapter is that David is getting something for nothing when he doesn't deserve anything. In fact, he deserves death, and yet God is giving him grace. Does God care about Uriah?

Surely, I believe fully that Riah died and went to heaven. Does God care about Bathsheba in the story, surely. if any heroes in the story, it's Uriah. But the ultimate hero in the story is God who comes down and gives something for nothing when we don't deserve anything.

And that's, if we really understand the gospel, that's grace. And that's what drives us to Romans 6, that says, if this is really the gospel, why don't we just all sin that grace may abound? If that question never comes up in your mind, we don't understand grace. But truly understanding the gospel moves us, it compels us towards that question.

Let me read One other thing here where Davey says, For David, grace is not a doctrinal concept, but the peculiar bent of God's nature. It's not just doctrine, it's the peculiar bent of God's nature. Think about that, that there's something in God, it is peculiar to us, that God is bent towards grace. Where something inside of us is screaming out for justice and, and we want just like David, we're like, you should die.

God comes along and says, he's, he's bent towards grace, he's bent towards forgiveness. And for me, I don't know, that's like overwhelming because there is a part of me that just feels like I am in constant, I am constantly deserving of God's judgment. And when I see God, how kind God has been, I was thinking about this just last night, how that God has given me a wife and children and a house, and he's put me in this church, and he allows me to serve here and all the many kind things that God does for me.

God didn't have to do any of that.

I don't deserve any of that, and yet God just gives me all these things. And so many times in my life, I make decisions where, as it were, I'm spitting in God's face, and God comes along, and he convicts me and reminds me of my sin. There are, there is the fear of the Lord that drives us to grace. But then there's this, this peculiar bent of God to have grace on me.

And I'll tell you where my heart was going last night, is, is just towards my relationships with other people, that just look at the way the Lord is so peculiar in a peculiar way bent towards grace on me. And how am I bent towards my children? How am I bent towards my wife? How am I bent towards people in my life?

Am I, am I giving them. am I willing to give the people in my life something for nothing? Though they deserve. beyond what they really deserve, or am I trying to exact my pound of flesh?

Am I demanding that people Behave towards me in a certain way before I'll be kind towards them or before I'll be forgiving towards them. it also just is giving me hope. yes, there are consequences that are gonna follow David the rest of his life, and yes, there are warnings in the Bible to protect us from those consequences. But this was not the end for David.

This was not the end of the road. And if your children fall into sin, it's not the end of the road. If you fall into sin, yes, we're praying that God will protect you from sin, but God is peculiarly bent towards forgiveness, and there is the rest of the story. God is, I don't know if that makes sense.

It's just, there may be things that you've done, even in your recent past that where you feel like it's over for me. My life has no future whatsoever. Maybe there's something that's happened to you in, in your distant past where you, you've just, for years, you've just been saying, God cannot accept me, God cannot use me anymore. There's no, I, I sense no hope for the future.

Just know that we have a God who is bent towards grace. He's bent towards forgiveness. And if, if this story teaches us anything, I think that's it. I'll be up here for questions.

we've gone over time. Let's go ahead and pray, and then, next week, we'll move on into, lesson 5. Lord, we just thank you so much. You are really the hero of these chapters.

And so we just thank you for the reminder of your grace, also your justice, your We know that there are consequences that you've laid out in life that are unavoidable. And so we pray, Lord, that we would heed those warnings. We would also just see how that forgiveness is not something that's earned, it's a miracle that has been accomplished for us through Christ. we pray, Father, that you'd help us to just constantly grow in our understanding.

Help us understand our weakness. Well, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us that without you, we can do nothing. Every one of us in this room is prone towards deception. We are We have areas in our lives that can really trap us and so thus we need your word, we need community, we need the conviction of your spirit.

We pray that you protect us from the devil. And And Lord, that you, give us this day our daily bread, give us our, your, the word that we need. And we just thank you for your, your kindness to us this day in Christ's name, we pray. Amen.