David
1 & 2 Samuel
David came from humble beginnings. 1 Samuel 16 & 17
David had a passionate heart for God 1 Samuel 16:7; 2 Samuel 6:14
David was chosen by God to succeed the disobedient King Saul. 1 Samuel 13:8-13
David demonstrated great bravery. 1 Samuel 17:45-47
David lacked self-control and discipline 2 Samuel 11-12
David’s sin brought untold pain and suffering on him and those he loved.
What can we learn from David?
?1. Closeness and passion of the past are not sufficient for today.
2. Despite our efforts to hide our brokenness and sin, God knows all about it--and our circumstance and soul only gets worse.?
3. God welcomes and longs for a broken and repentant heart.?
4. God can still shine in the darkness and brokenness we create.?
Turn to 2 Samuel 12
This morning we continue to take a biographical flyby on the great characters of the Bible. As we said in the beginning, the Bible doesn’t even begin to try to hide the huge moral flaws of the people on its pages. The God of heaven wants us to see that our mistakes and foibles and disobedience does not disqualify us from His promises of hope and redemption. And this morning we’re going to take a quick look at one of the more prominent and colorful characters: David.
The story of David is a story of great strengths and great weaknesses; a story of great moral character and great moral flaws; a story of dancing before the Lord and a story of hiding from the Lord.? David’s story is our story. Most of us in this room are individuals who want to walk with God, want to please God, want to be passionate for God—and we are—sometimes. But our brokenness and selfishness and willful disobedience takes us down a path of great pain and sometimes great distance from God.? If you know the story of David, you know he came from humble beginnings, right??David came from humble beginnings. 1 Samuel 16 & 17
He was a shepherd boy, the youngest of ? sons of Jesse. Like most younger brothers, he was picked on and even disrespected by his older brothers. He spent a lot of time out tending to and protecting the flocks of his family. He would spend many a night in the cold, in the open, feeding and protecting the sheep from wolves, bears and mountain lions.
David had a passionate heart for God
“Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7? You see David’s passionate heart early in his life in so many ways. Later after he became king, he was moving the Ark to Jerusalem “David was dancing with all his might before the Lord wearing a linen ephod.” 2 Samuel 6:14. Some believe the linen ephod to be equivalent to whitey tighties of today. Don’t know. What I want you to see is that whatever Davide wore, he was dancing with what? With ALL HIS MIGHT!! ….
David was chosen by God to succeed the disobedient King Saul?
God sent the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king. The older brothers looked like they would be suitable for the job, but God had other ideas:
8 Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either,” Samuel said. 9 Then Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either.” 10 After Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse, “The Lord hasn’t chosen any of these.” 11 Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” he answered, “but right now he’s tending the sheep.” Samuel told Jesse, “Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here.” 12 So Jesse sent for him. He had beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance.
Then the Lord said, “Anoint him, for he is the one.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David from that day forward.” 1 Samuel 13:8-13
David was probably about 16 years when this took place.
David demonstrated great bravery
There is the well known story that occurred not too long after David was anointed but while Saul was still the reigning king. The Israelites were being snookered and scared of this Philistine giant named Goliath—no one wanted to fight him. When David heard about it he rushed to the front lines and took on the great colossus, Goliath.
“David said to the Philistine: “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel—you have defied him. 46 Today, the Lord will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God, 47 and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s. He will hand you over to us.” 1 Samuel 17:45-47?
But David wasn’t a perfect person. He made mistakes and had regrets just like you and me.
David lacked self-control and discipline 2 Samuel 11-12
So after David defeats Goliath, and then ?? years later he becomes King, he allowed his passion for the Lord to wane and his lack of self-control and discipline began to RUN and RUIN his life. ? “In the spring when kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. 3 So David sent someone to inquire about her, and he said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hethite?”
4 David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her”
2 Samuel 11:1-4
Now this set off a whole avalanche of mistakes and missteps. Ordered Uriah, the husband home in hopes he’d sleep with his wife, but he didn’t. Finally in exasperation, David had him sent to the front lines where he would certainly die in the first wave of assault…which happened. So now David has moved from lust to adultery to lying to murder to trying to cover up all his sin. But you can’t hide your junk from God. So God sends the prophet Nathan to David in 2 Samuel 12:1-10
?“So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him:
There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very large flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. 4 Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.
5 David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”
7 Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. 9 Why then have you despised the Lord’s command by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hethite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. 10 Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hethite to be your own wife.’ 2 Samuel 12:1-10
And that’s one more attribute of David:
David’s sin brought untold pain and suffering on him and those he loved.
The sword will never leave your house. The story of David now takes on the dimensions of an epic tragedy: the baby conceived by David and Bathsheba dies. One of his sons, Amnon rapes his half sister Tamar, and because David has lost his moral authority, he doesn’t discipline Amnon. So her blood brother Absolom takes matters into his own hands and kills his half brother Amnon. David’s household is now out of control and everyone has lost respect for this once revered man David. Absolom ends up leading a rebellion, runs David out of Jerusalem and takes his place as king. But then in a strange turn of events, Absolom is murdered by David’s general Joab and David is left to weep and wailk “Abosolom, Absolom “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”
What can we learn from David??1. Closeness and passion of the past are not sufficient for today.
They help; they give us reference point; they can bolster our faith in God’s faithfulness in the past; but they will not by themselves to keep us close today. Dailyness…
2. Despite our efforts to hide our brokenness and sin, God knows all about it--and our circumstance and soul only gets worse.? David’s initial lack of discipline became a lack of self control which led to lust, adultery, lying and eventually murder. ? This is where we need to realize the first step in healing is to lay our sin out before the Lord; name it what it is: sin, selfishness, unknowingly or willingly choosing your own path instead of choosing God’s path.
3. God welcomes and longs for a broken and repentant heart.? Psalm 51
For the choir director. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.
1 Be gracious to me, God,
according to your faithful love;
according to your abundant compassion,
blot out my rebellion.
2 Completely wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned
and done this evil in your sight.
So you are right when you pass sentence;
you are blameless when you judge.
5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born;
I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire integrity in the inner self,
and you teach me wisdom deep within.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Turn your face away from my sins
and blot out all my guilt.
10 God, create a clean heart for me
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me,
and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach the rebellious your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God—
God of my salvation—
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;
you are not pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.
You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.” Psalm 51:1-17
4. God can still shine in the darkness and brokenness we create.? David and Bathsheba have a singularly unique, son, Solomon. A great king: wiser and wealthier than any other. And most notably, in ?? listing of the relatives of Jesus the Messiah, it is traced back to Solomon, the offspring of the adulterous couple and murdering king.
I don’t know about you, but that causes hope to spring in my heart…If God can work through the failures of this man David, he can work thru mine as well...
