Through the summer we have been looking at the life of David. We have seen how God chose this unlikely boy to be the next king because he had a heart for God. As a teenager David stepped out in faith to kill Goliath against all odds, he faithfully served under a king who tried to kill him. For many years David had to travel from city to city, living in caves and remote regions to avoid king Saul. But eventually King Saul died, and David became king. By the time we get to our passage this morning David had been king over the tribe of Judah for seven years, and then the nation of Israel for six years. He was probably in his late forties early fifties. Everything was going great for David. God blessed David greatly with military victories over their enemies, their territory was expanding to include virtually all the land God had promised Abraham and Moses hundreds of years earlier. Life was going great for David, he was on top of the world. And then with one incident, one temptation, David’s perfect life began to unravel, and he suffered the consequences of his choice the rest of his life.
I. We Are All Vulnerable to Temptation
Here was David, a man with a heart for God, more successful than any Israelite king before or after him (perhaps with the exception of his son Solomon), anointed and filled with God’s Spirit, and yet he fell to temptation. Which I believe demonstrates that no matter how much we think we’ve got it all together, if you are sold out for God, a spirit filled born again Christian, and yet we are still vulnerable to temptation and sin.
Even as Christians each one of us has at least one chink somewhere in our armor, a weakness, a place where Satan will try to poke and prod us, to exploit us and get us to fall, and it only takes one time to ruin the rest of your life.
For David his weakness was a common one among men, lust. David struggled with lust even before this incident with Bathsheba. How do I know? Tucked back in the book of Deuteronomy, written by Moses over four hundred years previously, God spoke of the day the Israelites would become a nation and they would desire a king:
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,"… 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.”
How many wives did David have? I counted at least seven. The reason I believe David struggled with lust long before this incident was because David knew this passage, and yet he had taken advantage of his position as king and continued to accumulate wives for himself. Why? Because David was a passionate person (whether for God, in battle, in music or writing poetry), and with that came a passion or lust for women. David fed his lust by having wives, which was culturally acceptable, but still wrong in God’s eyes.
The lie Satan wants us to believe is that if we feed our desires, our temptation, it will curb our appetite. The way we say it today is, “if it feels good, do it.” When enough people fall for this lie, it becomes the norm in society, and then we begin to think, “everybody else does it, so how could it be wrong.” The problem is that by yielding to our desires it doesn’t satisfy them, it intensifies them, it makes our desires increase, and it opens the door for more temptation and more sin. Even before this situation with David arose, he had already been feeding his temptation and it made his desire stronger. Our first danger is to feed our desires with temptations trying to convince ourselves it is okay because everyone else is doing it. For example, I’ve noticed young people seem to fall into the temptation of sex and living together because our culture now says there is nothing wrong with it, it’s is perfectly normal. It is culturally acceptable but God says it is wrong, it is a sin. In reality our sin continues to open the door wider for more sin.
First, you have to be honest with yourself and ask what is the chink in my armor, what temptations am I most susceptible to: lust, anger, jealousy, greed, power, out of control spending? Have I opened the door wider by feeding my temptation even if it is with something culturally acceptable? Would Jesus be doing this? Would Jesus be watching this?
II. How We Fall into Temptation
A. By Failing to be where God wants us
David had already cracked the door open on his temptation. He had already let Satan’s foot in the door. Then David opened the door even more without even realizing it. He opened it by doing what he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
In verse 1 it says, “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.”
At the time when kings go off to war to fight with their troops, where was King David? The end of verse 1, “But David remained in Jerusalem.” While David’s troops were off fighting, David stayed at home. If David was with his troops he wouldn’t have been in this predicament in the first place.
What was David doing? It says, “One evening, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof.” The Hebrew word for “evening” means the time between the sun going down and it getting dark outside, in other words at dusk. It was dusk and David climbed out of bed, note he was not exactly working hard. He was laying down maxin’ and relaxin’ at the palace while his troops were risking their lives in the battlefield.
Most of our temptations happen when we are not doing what God wants us to do in the first place. We place ourselves in a position where we might be tempted. I doubt David had any clue what he would see that night walking out on the rooftop, but the opportunity presented itself because David ignored his responsibilities as a king.
We have to be careful not to place ourselves in dangers way. If you struggle with lust, and you flick through the television station knowing you haven’t got rid of the inappropriate channels on TV, you have a problem spending money but you walk into your favorite store but I’m just going to look, I’m not going to look, I won’t actually buy anything.
B. By Failing to Flee Temptation Immediately
David didn’t do anything unusual, walking around the roof of the palace. Most homes in Jerusalem had a flat roof to walk around on, but out of the corner of his eye something happened to catch David’s attention. A beautiful woman, actually it says a very beautiful woman (the Scriptures rarely use the word “very” so Bathsheba must have been gorgeous) happened to be taking a bath. It doesn’t say where she was taking a bath, it could have been on her roof or in the back yard, but she was likely taking a bath outside of her home.
David caught a glimpse of this gorgeous women and David made another mistake, he lingered. Rather than diverting his attention, going back to his room, he lingered, and then he coveted. He desired this woman for himself. It didn’t take long to go from just looking, to coveting, wanting for himself. She didn’t even have a name yet, he had to ask someone to go find out who this woman was. It didn’t matter, he wanted her for his own.
When temptation comes, which it will eventually, what should we do? Flee. Get away from the temptation, do whatever it takes to get it out of your mind. The longer we entertain the temptation, the sooner we will fall for it. A great example of the correct response to this situation is earlier in the Bible with the story of Joseph (Gen. 39) when he was faced with a similar situation as David. The difference between Joseph’s and David is that Joseph was directly propositioned. Joseph was the head servant for a man named Potiphar, and one day his boss’ wife came to him scantily clad and invited Joseph to the bedroom. What did Joseph do? He fled, immediately. He literally ran.
NLT 1 Corinthians 10:13 But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.
God promises to make a way so we can get out of our temptation, so we do not give in to it.
C. Sin leads to a tangled web of deception
Unfortunately, David did not take his God given way out. David lingered, he coveted, and he gave in to his temptation, and he had his servants bring Bathsheba to the palace and he slept with her. Is that the end of the story? No. Sin rarely if ever ends right there.
Shortly after this episode Bathsheba discovered she was pregnant with David’s child, and David started to spin the web. Oh what tangled web we weave…when at first we deceive. In order to cover his tracks David spun webs of deception. First, he tried to get Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to return from the war and told him to go to his home to clean up hoping he would go be with his wife so Uriah would think the child was his own. Instead Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace. When David discovered this he decided to take the more direct route and confront Uriah asking him why he didn’t go to his home, but Uriah said, “how could I ever do such as thing with the ark of the covenant and your army camped in open fields.” In other words, how can I enjoy my bed and lay with my wife while my friends and the Lord are out on the battlefield. The next day David tried another tactic by getting Uriah drunk but Uriah spent the night with David’s servants instead of going home. When these ploys didn’t work David became more desperate and sunk even lower to cover his escapade, he sent Uriah back into the battle with a sealed note to the general Joab to send Uriah to the front lines and then to pull back the army so he would get killed, which Joab did. When the letter came back though it wasn’t just Uriah that was killed by several men. Sin has a ripple effect, it doesn’t just effect us, like the ripple in the pond it goes out and damages others too.
III. Sin always has Consequences
There are always consequences to sin. At first it was Bathsheeba, Uriah, and other men who died with him. Although it seemed as though David had gotten away with murder (literally). Uriah was dead, David had married Bathsheba, there was nothing to trace the back David’s sin. It seemed as though David wouldn’t face any consequences for his action, but you can’t hide sin from God. The first consequence David experienced was guilt.
A. Guilt
In Psalm 32, we see what kind of torment David went through during the months.
Ps. 32:3-4
3 When I kept silent [about his sin], my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
While our sin might be a secret, God knows. You can’t hide your sin from God. And God’s hand is heavy upon you, and so you feel the guilt until you repent before God. It burdens your heart and only God can lift the burden.
B. Broken relationships
Once God confronted David through the prophet Nathan, David realized he had been exposed. God informed David through Nathan that there were consequences to his sin.
David’s family would experience strife.
NLT 2 Samuel 12:11 "’Because of what you have done, I, the LORD, will cause your own household to rebel against you.
Because of David’s sin, there would be strife in his family for the rest of his life. In the very next chapter his oldest son, Amnon, raped his daughter, two years later another of his son’s, Absalom, murdered that son. Later, Absalom made a run for the throne over David through deception. David’s giving in to the temptation didn’t just effect a couple people, it affected a whole family. One sin compounded by lies and deceit ruined David’s family forever.
Don’t think for a minute that our sin doesn’t have consequences, even if we do not see them right now. Eventually we will have to face the consequences even if God forgives us. [Randy’s friend who developed AIDS and died because of his previous sinful life].
Fortunately when he was confronted with his sin, David owned up to it, and he confessed his sin before God. And God being more merciful than we deserve, forgave him, just as he promises to forgive us, if we confess our sin.
NLT 1 John 1:9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.
While God does not remove the earthly consequences, God is merciful and forgives us, sets us free from the eternal consequences of our sin, separation from God.
Today we know God will forgive us through Jesus Christ if we truly repent of our sin, not just a perfunctory “I’m sorry God” but truly mean it from our heart and commit to turn away from it.
Conclusion:
Perhaps this morning there is a temptation you have fallen for, you have messed up, sinned against God. Unfortunately not even God can remove the consequences, but God can remove the guilt, he can create a clean heart within you. Pray along with me the Psalm David wrote after this occasion of sin.
Pray Psalm 51
