We Fall Down And We Get Up

f I had to give this sermon a title- It would be: WE FALL DOWN AND WE GET UP

Today’s Scriptures 2 Sam 11 & 12, ps 51, 1 Jn 1: 8-9

Before I preach this message today-I want you to know I am NOT sinless NOR are you-But as we mature “in Christ”- We will sin less and less

2 Sam 11

In this chapter we read the account of King David and Bathsheba. Now King David is a man after God’s own heart.

After we go through about 27 chapters of Scripture most of you ( if you are still awake) will probably ask why is David a man after God’s own heart and how in this world can that be true?

1 It was the spring, the time when Kings went off to war. David stayed at the palace while Joab and the Israelite army-destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. (Rob-Ah)

What did our parents and grand parents used to tell us? Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.

When we are not using our time productively, and become bored we can get into all kinds of trouble, can’t we?

When did I get in the most trouble ? Always when school was out. It did not take very long either. It usually happened on the first or second day of Summer vacation-but after that- My Mom, loaded me down with so many chores to do and she did not allow me to go outside and play until those chores were done.

My Mama would worn me if I got in trouble again the chores would double and they had better have been done with excellence or I would do them all over again. One speck of food on a piece of silverware or a dish-meant that I would re-wash everything in all the cabinets and drawers.

In retrospect, I know that discipline did not hurt me-it shaped me!

So David cannot sleep, he has done nothing to tire himself out so he gets up and walks around the palace roof. I hunt from an elevated tree stand because I can see much more the higher I climb. David can see from the roof-what he cannot see from inside the palace. Well, he sees a woman bathing. Her name is Bathsheba and she is someone else's wife.

This is the point where David should have taken custody of his eyes and gone back inside. But he doesn’t!

Next comes a thought that David should have taken captive to the obedience of Christ and ended the temptation, but he doesn’t. He sends someone to find out about her.

The text tells us she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah is off with Joab fighting the king’s battles- he is in the king’s service, a member of David’s Royal Guard ,and not even an Israelite-but a Hittite, a Caananite. One could assume he had probably adopted the Israelite’s faith.

That information alone should have caused David to put the brakes on his fleshly desires. I mean afterall he had wives and concubines in the palace (those are included when you inherit the palace). But he doesn’t put the brakes on. He steps on the gas pedal!

So now he sends for her, lays with her and she is pregnant. Can it get any worse?

Yes, and it does-upon that news he sends for Uriah to come home from the fighting, hoping he can trick Uriah to spending the night with Bathsheba deceiving him into thinking that he is the Father of the baby in her womb.

When Uriah came to him, David makes “small talk” and asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” (or go on home to your house and chill with your wife)

So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. (Probably a new wine skin full of strong wine and some delicious food) 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” David should have been convicted by Uriah’s righteousness. Because it is such a sharp contrast to David’s staying at home dallying. To Dally is-To consider or occupy oneself with something in a careless or unsurious fashion; toy with. or flirt. But guess what?- He is NOT convicted!