Lust And The Healing Judgment Of God Series

I. The Paths of Disaster 2 Sam.11:1-27

A. The Seduction of Career Dissatisfaction 2 Sam. 11:1

The TIME Kings go to War. Remember in Afganistan when the war was being contemplated. Did not want to go during the winter lest the army get bogged down.

The time KINGS go to war. As God’s representative it was the kings job to lead his army in battle. Let’s go over David’s resume. Fighting was what he was called and anointed to do.

1 Sam. 17 David fought Goliath and the Philistines

1Sam. 18:5 David given high rank in the army

1 Sam. 18:13-16 David given charge over 1000

18: 30 Increasing success

1 Sam. 19-21 Fleeing Saul

1 Sam. 22:1-2 Gathers a ragtag army of malcontents

1 Sam. 23: 1-5 Attacks the Philistines and saves Keilah

1 Sam. 25 Posts guards to protect a rich landowners posessions (army grown to 600 men)

1 Sam. 27 David and his men flee to Gath. Given Ziklag to settle in. Conducted raids against the Geshurites, Girzites, Amalekites, leaving none alive.

1 Sam. 30 David defeats the Amalekites after they capture all the women and posessions at Ziklag

1 Sam. 31 Saul and Jonathan dies

Civil war between the houses of David and Saul 2 Sam. 2-5

David becomes King of Israel and conquers Jerusalem 2 Sam. 5

Wars against the Philistines, Moabites, Arameans, the Kingdom of Hamath, and Edom 2 SAM. 8

BUT THEN SOMETHING CHANGED 2 SAM. 10:6-8; 17-19 READ IT

APPLICATION: CALLED AND ANOINTED TO FIGHT, YET BATTLE AFTER BATTLE DAVID BEGAN TO WANT A BREAK FROM THE PRESSURE. BE CAREFUL OF THE RESTLESS TIMES, THE TIMES YOU WANT RELIEF FROM THE STRESS OF YOUR VOCATION. IN UNGUARDED MOMENTS, SIN CAN STRIKE

B. The Seduction of Unbridled Lust 11:2

* David was in bed, but got up and wandered. What was he thinking about? The army, the kingdom? Bible doesn’t say. But before he encounters Bathsheba, notice something...

a. David wandered away from his seven wives

2 Sam. 3:2-5 Six wives listed

2 Sam. 3: 13-16 David demands Michal returned

b. David wandered from his concubines 2 Sam. 5:13;15:16

Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary: “ A woman, or one of a group of women, usually of lower social rank, who lives and has sex with a man she is not married to”

Maybe some of the marriages were for political convenience, but the only reason for a concubine is for sex.

7 wives and 10 concubines. Over the years David persisted in a pattern of giving in to sexual urges.

This was against the warning of scripture:

Deut. 17:14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

Deut. 17:15 be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite.

Deut. 17:16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”

Deut. 17:17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.

APPLICATION: A STEADY DIET OF SEXUAL TOLERANCE IS DANGEROUS. DAVID DID NOT FALL IN A WEAK MOMENT...HE CULTIVATED THIS WEAK MOMENT BY ALLOWING LUST TO HAVE FREE REIGN.

THE MOVIES ETC. WE WATCH

THE RELATIONSHIPS WE TOLERATE THAT ARE CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ENERGY. THESE ARE THE PRECURSORS FOR DIASTER.

C. The Seduction of Power and Influence 11:3

The text describes all kinds of power to David

The power to send the army and stay in Jerusalem

The power to send a man to ask about Bathsheba

The power to send messengers to get her.

These were inherent in his power as King. He had these powers over all in his kingdom.

But there are other, more personal kinds of power that David had over Bathsheba

Bathsheba was

a. wife of Uriah the Hittite one of the 30 top officers in David’s army 2 Samuel 23: 39

b. daughter of Eliam, part of David’s personal bodyguard

2 Samuel 23:34

c. granddaughter of Ahithophel, the most respected man in David’s cabinet 2 Samuel 23:34

What kind of power did David have?

-The power to cry wolf-to say she seduced him even if she didn’t.

-The power of life and death over her, her husband, her father, and grandfather.

-The power to ruin the careers of her husband and her family.

Did her father have other kids, dependent on them? Or her grandfather? Can you feel the pressure on her to keep quiet, to not say anything, to maybe let the king have his way and get it over with as quietly and quickly as possible. We don’t know what was said, but the fact that David had this relationship with Bathsheba gave him all this leverage when he made the proposition.