King David’s Story of Sin and Redemption
2 Samuel 11:1-5
In this series, we’re looking at five OT characters who experienced the wilderness in their lives, both physically and spiritually. The Judean wilderness was rugged and barren and it was a place of hopelessness and despair. It came to represent the adverse and difficult times we often experience in our lives. Every one of us is going to experience the wilderness, times of despair, hopelessness, pain, suffering and difficulty. As painful as it can be, it can often be a rich time of personal and spiritual growth. From the stories of these Biblical characters and their wilderness experiences we see what we can learn from them which will serve us as we go through our own wilderness experience.
Last week, we looked at the story of Ruth and Naomi and today we are going to look at the wilderness experience of Naomi’s great grandson, David. David had an incredible upbringing. As a boy he fought the great giant Goliath and killed him in battle. His musical ability soothed King Saul in his struggles with his sanity. He rose to become a great military leader. But as his victories on the battlefield grew, so did his popularity amongst the people. And King Saul became jealous and eventually tried to kill David to preserve his own throne. This was just one of David’s wilderness experience. He had many more in his life. Thus far in this series we have looked at wilderness experiences that have been thrust on us by others or tragedies in our lives. Today, we’re going to look at another type of wilderness experience of his own making. David’s sinful choice and his subsequent wilderness experience teaches us is that sometimes we make choices which lead to our own wilderness experience. These are the consequences of our choices we make and they can be very painful. These are times when we feel separated from God and from others and we feel great shame and guilt. Today, we will learn what God does when we sin and experience great shame and guilt and what happens when we return to Him.
David lived 1000 years before Christ and is one of the towering figures of faith in the OT and the faith of the Israelites. Sixty-four chapters are devoted to telling the story of David. More than even Jesus himself and half of the Psalms were either written by David or about David or in honor of David. The Scriptures tell us that David was a man after God’s own heart. He followed th Law, built the Temple for God, gave all of himself to God and did what was right in God’s sight. David becomes the example for all other Kings to follow and the measure by which all other Kings are judged. He even becomes the example of what what the Messiah would be as Jesus is called the son of David. So David was revered in Biblical times and even today, the flag of Israel today has the star of David on it. Every Israelits was told the stories of David as they were growing up and so everyone knew them and loved Him. David’s stories were used to teach the Israelites about faith and life and morality.
The story of David and Bathsheba was probably not told to children but to adults with lessons about how we are to lives and what happens when we make selfish and sinful decisions. David’s sin teaches that success can lead us to a skewed perspective of ourselves and our perception of what is right and wrong. Sometimes when we reach the peak of success, we forget that the rules still apply to us. This is the affect of power which can bring a sense of entitlement. David rose from a servant boy to a successful warrior to a great General and finally to become the King of Israel and led that nation to become the largest it would ever be and the wealthiest it would ever be. But something along the way changed inside David. He used to lead his soldiers into battle and but our Scripture today says that now he sends them off to battle and remains in the comfort of his palace One afternoon as David is walking on the balcony of his palace, he sees a woman bathing. Now this man who was a man after God’s own heart, what should have been his honorable response? He should have turned away and gone in to read his copy of Sports Illustrated and come back to balcony later on. But that is not what David does. David inquires about the woman and finds out that she is married to one of his soldiers who has gone off to battle. He should have stopped right there but he didn’t. He has that desire rise within him and rather than let it go, he pursues it. This is the struggle with temptation. So what does David do? He has her brought to him and then they sleep together. Not only is this a pursuit of lust, it is also an abuse of power. Bathsheba, a woman with no rights and no voice in Israelite society, has no choice but to sleep with David because he is the King, the most powerful man in the nation who can put someone to death at the blink of an eye. And so she is forced to sleep with the King maybe not physically forced but certainly politically and socially. There is a word for this: rape. So David gives in to temptation and this leads him into a wilderness experience of his own creation. Have you ever been there, where you made a decision which you knew was wrong but you did it anyway? And then you find yourself immersed in guilt, shame and embarrassment. That’s where David is headed. He just doesn’t know it yet.
What happens as we enter the wilderness of our own creation is that we turn from God rather than turning to God. We all struggle with temptation and it is a part of our human condition. “Isaiah says, “We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us turned to our own way.” Paul notes in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” I John 3:18 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We don’t like the word sin. So we use others in its place like little white lies or mistake. And yet, no matter what you call it, it’s still a sin in God’s eyes. We all struggle with it. We know the right thing to do and yet we have the tendency, like a moth drawn to the fire, to be lured to the wrong thing to do. And as enticing or exciting as it might appear, it inevitably takes us to a place of pain and our own wilderness. We see this in the stories in our news like the mayor of Toronto and his use of crack. Here is the thing: if you fall to temptation, you are not a terrible person, you are human. This is the story of the human condition in the Scriptures and David is just one example of it.
Well David sleeps with Bathsheba and goes back to her house and then a couple of months later, she finds out that she is pregnant. She tells David and he scrambles to cover up his sin. So he hatches a plan to bring Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, back for a weekend furlough with the hope that they will sleep together and he will be off the hook. But being the faithful soldier that he is and knowing that his unit is still on the battlefield, he sleeps on the steps of the palace denying himself the pleasure of his wife. David then realizes that he is trapped by his misdeeds and he will be found out. And so he sends Uriah back to the battle and instructs General Joab to lead a charge against the enemy and as they do, everyone fighting alongside Uriah is to pull back leading him to be killed in battle. And this is what happens.
When you’ re in the wilderness and your sins are about to be found out, you don’t think straight. You try to fix your problem and end up only making it worse. Upon hearing the news of the death of her husband, Bathsheba begins to grieve and then, David offers to take Bathsheba into his herim and take care of her. What a wonderful King, huh? Now David knows the tenth commandment is not to covet your neighbor’s wife. He knows the 7th commandment forbids committing adultery and the 6th commandment forbids committing murder and he has violated all of these. Everyone else thinks David is a great man, except Nathan the prophet who confronts David with his misdeeds. He speaks for God who says, “I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little, I would have added much more! Why have you despised the Word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight?” He who was chosen to be God’s anointed King has sinned against God, against Uriah, Bathsheba and the people of Israel. In response to Nathan’s confrontation, David becomes broken and cries out: “I have sinned against the Lord!” David now finds himself in the wilderness, one of his own making by the horrible choices he has made. As David stands before Nathan and God, he appears hopeless.
There are consequences to our sin. David received God’s forgiveness but there were consequences to his actions as well. In the end, one of his daughters was raped by her brother, one son kills another and a third son tried to overthrow David and ends up dying, bring David’s heart as he cries out, ““O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!” 2 Samuel 18:13 Then in his old age, his last son tries to take the throne from David. But through it all, because he repented, God’s blessing never left David. Even though God stood by David, the seeds of evil cannot be so easily wiped out.
Finally, God is a god of the second chance. The Scriptures say there is always hope. Even in the darkest of situations and the deepest of holes we’ve dug for ourselves, God is a god of the second chance. David responds to Nathans words of judgment by falling on his knees and humbling himself before God. And it is there that he repents of his sins. Repenting means recognizing the sin and the pain you have caused and to fully own that then asking God to forgive you and choosing to walk a different path in life, God’s path. The words of David are recorded for us in Psalm 51 and I’d like for us to have a time of personal confession of sin and then hear the words of David’s prayer of confession to God
(Not used in this service: Put on screen) “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight… Cleanse me…Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.” David’s story teaches us that when you have fallen to temptation and stepped away from God and you find yourself in a wilderness of your own creation, there is still hope. David’s prayer in Psalm 51 can become our prayer as we cry out to God in repentance.)
After Communion But by the time David gets to the end of his life, you read these words in 1 Chronicles 29:26-28. “ David son of Jesse was king over all Israel. He ruled over Israel forty years—seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. He died at a good old age, having enjoyed long life, wealth and honor.” God was for David, the god of the second chance.
David was remembered as a courageous figure who stood for right and followed the ways of God but it wasn’t always that way. And yet God showed him mercy and gave him a second chance. David’s story reminds us that there is always hope. God is a god of the second chance. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” It is in Christ that you can become a new person. No matter what you have done or how bad it’s been, no matter how bad you have felt, God is a God of the second chance. He wants to forgive you. He can forgive you. He showed his love for us that his only son died on the cross for your sins and mine and because of that, there is forgiveness offered to all. You don’t have to be what you once were and your life doesn’t have to be defined by your worst moment. There is always hope because God is gracious and merciful. He will never leave you and his blessing will never be removed from you. All you have to do is repent and ask for His forgiveness. It is possible to have a new beginning in life through Jesus Christ. Amen.
