2 Samuel 11:1-17, 26,27 [Epiphany 6 CWS A]
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ February 16, 2020
A Horrible Story Told to You Out of Love My Friends in Christ, The goal of faithful preachers is to take a portion of God’s Word and proclaim the law of God in that lesson—the part that reveals God’s expectations—and then help people see how they have not lived up to God’s holy standards. This ought to lead the preacher and the people to repent of their sins and look to God for mercy. The faithful preacher also looks for the gospel—the part that reveals God’s love—and then help people see that God is loving and forgiving, and that he wipes away the sins of those who look to him in faith. The basis for this good news is, of course, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose from death to pay for the world’s sin. This gospel truth, or good news, was looked forward to by those who lived before Jesus. It is also a blessing for all who lived after Christ and look back on what he did. That includes you and me. I offer to you this little review of law and gospel and the faithful preacher’s job this morning in order to make a confession: the lesson from 2 Samuel 11 this morning is a little tricky…because it’s bad. It’s all bad. It all seems to fit into the “law” category. I rummaged through these words searching for the gospel part, the good news, the part that reveals God’s love or forgiveness or some looking forward to Jesus as our Savior. But it is really full of awful stuff! You heard the story—and for many of you, it was a review of an account you have heard or read before. If that is true, the ugliness of David’s heart and actions is probably the standout feature. If the details were not as clear to you before hearing the story this morning, I’m guessing that you were appalled by them too. How many problems with sin was David dealing with at this time? Well, in order to realize a couple of them, you would have to read earlier parts of this history and understand the first few sentences of our lesson. Everything was going well for David. He had enjoyed much success, but now he was complacent, even staying back at Jerusalem when he should have been out with his troops as they were in battle. He was neglecting his duty as king. Instead, he hung out at the palace, bored and idle. And at this time, his sinful nature combined with temptation to a sin he was prone to. It sounds weird that a woman was bathing on her rooftop, but you have to understand that rooftops were used for a number of things in Israel. The climate there is much like it is here in southern Arizona, so you can be outside most of the time, and the rooftop became an extension of the home. Since the typical house was windowless for security reasons, they were typically dark, so many things were done outside, even cooking. Rooftops were used for processing foods, relaxing, socializing, even sleeping— particularly during the hottest months.
So there was this beautiful woman, Bathsheba, on her rooftop, and as David was not doing what he should have been doing, he began doing something he should not have been doing! When he surveyed the city and everything going on as the day was coming to a close and evening arrived, he saw this woman…and he decided he wanted to know more about her. Now, David had no business even asking. He was married already. In fact, he had numerous wives, which God was already unhappy about. The report came back that she was married. David didn’t care that they were both married; he wanted her for himself. Bathsheba doesn’t seem entirely innocent either—not being discrete and making no effort to refuse because she was married. As often happens with sin, one transgression led to another. When Bathsheba realized that she was pregnant with David’s baby, she sent word to the king. David’s sinful nature scrambled into damage control mode. He brought others into his wicked plan, telling Joab, the army captain, to get her husband home from war immediately. His plan was that Uriah and Bathsheba would spend some husband-wife time together and that everyone would think that the baby was Uriah’s. Obviously, David was very concerned with what others might find out about his sin and not concerned at all about what God thought of his sinful plans and actions. Well, you heard—it didn’t work. Uriah was a noble man. He couldn’t see how it was fair to the rest of the soldiers that he should get family time while they fought. Even when David then got him drunk, he wouldn’t give in. David’s sinful urges kicked into high gear when his evil plans did not work. He made Joab an accomplice to the murder of Uriah by commanding him to place Bathsheba’s husband in a certain-death position, especially when the rest of the men would be ordered to leave him alone to face the enemy onslaught. It’s really disgusting to read, isn’t it? It started with a bored king who neglected his duties observing a woman on a rooftop and it turned into adultery, deception, manipulation, and murder. I told you, there’s nothing good here. It’s all bad. It’s all sinful and horrible and disgusting for anyone, but particularly for the leader of God’s people. The account is summarized well: But what David had done was evil in the eyes of the LORD. Occasionally, we are left to find the love of God and his forgiveness, not in the account in front of us, but in the backstory. That is the case here. You may remember that the Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart. That seems strange when you read about atrocious sins like this! That expression about David was God’s message to King Saul, who was not following the Lord’s will—that the next king would be like this. It meant that David had faith in God and was committed to him. That was seen after he became king, even after sinned against the Lord and many people—in dramatic and tragic ways. He did repent. He did acknowledge his sin and asked for God’s mercy and forgiveness. God wants us all to look to him that way. David loved the Lord and his Word, as a reading of the many psalms he wrote proves. He was obviously far from perfect. The truth is, no one is perfect—including you and me.
And so, we do see the grace of God extended to David in a few ways. We see it in what he did not do to David. He did not strike David down immediately for his sin, as he could have! He didn’t do it as David took another man’s wife into his home. He didn’t do it as he deceived Bathsheba’s husband. He didn’t do it as he made murderous plans with his army captain. He didn’t do it as Uriah died and David took Bathsheba for his wife. God could have dethroned him, struck him dead, sent him to hell for his sins…but he didn’t! God did not punish the sinner when he could have—that is called mercy. Instead of punishment for his sin, God gave undeserved love—that is called grace. These are the good things in this account, but you have to look at what is behind the story, so to speak, to find them. Another thing that shows the love of God is that the Lord was faithful to his promise to send a Savior through David’s family line. Though David sinned horribly and was unfaithful to God, the Lord was faithful to all people as he fulfilled his promise through David. From the imperfect king would come Jesus, the perfect King of salvation! He would not act like David did. He would be sinless and instead of sending someone else to their death in order to save his own skin, he would willingly die on a cross to save all people. And as surprising as it might be, you find out later that Jesus’ family tree would come not from another wife of David, but from Bathsheba. Talk about undeserved love! And finally, I think we also find God’s grace in this: The Lord tells us A HORRIBLE STORY OUT OF LOVE for us. He lets us see an imperfect king who sinned in awful ways, so that we can see the hand of God, which withheld punishment and offered forgiveness, as he later sent the prophet Nathan to David so that he could repent of these sins. In love, God tells us this bit of history so that we are also warned of the way the sinful nature of every person works. God wants us to read about David and see that even a person very close to the Lord can go horribly astray if not careful. A casual look turned into a sinful desire…which turned into a sinful action…which turned into evil plans…which turned into murder. Taking the life of another person is not what David had in mind as he wandered out onto the roof of his palace one spring night. But it is where he ended up because this is what our sinful nature is capable of. If a man after God’s own heart could do these things, you better believe we are all capable of committing horrible sins before the Lord. We might even be thinking now of some of our very own sins. If your sins trouble you… if you revisit in your mind some of the terrible things you have done, things you know were sinful and atrocious in the eyes of the holy God…if you put your head on the pillow every night and confess your sins to God, knowing you have nothing in your heart and mind and actions that is perfect to offer him, then you know you aren’t a better person than King David.
You may or may not have done the kinds of things he did. Many people have. And for those who haven’t committed actual sins of that type—sins of an intimate nature outside of God’s boundaries of marriage, the taking of a life, abuse of authority, stealing what does not belong to you—you have committed the related sins of the heart that David did: lust, coveting, manipulation, selfishness. There were so many wrong things in David’s heart and mind and actions. But friends, none of us is better than him. A breaking of God’s law is a breaking of God’s law— whether that is contained in your heart and mind and never makes it to your hands, or whether you actually do the things that are rebellious against God. I realize that the fallout from outwardly committed sins makes things even worse because other people are effected, but the fact is, the sin itself—the thing that God despises and punishes—begins already in the heart and mind. We don’t dare point our fingers at David and say, “How could you?!” Because if we are honest, we know exactly how he could. We know exactly, because we are sinners just the same. If the things we have thought and done were written down for everyone to read, our account would end with: But what (Ron, ________, ________) had done was evil in the eyes of the LORD. The good news for us is the same good news that was the backdrop to David’s life. He was a child of God who loved the Lord and his Word and wanted to follow him. He was also a sinful human being who did not always follow through on his faith-filled intentions. And when that happened, God was there to forgive and bless, despite David’s sins. David’s God is our God—the only true God—who is the Savior from our sins too. The final statement in our lesson was not the final statement of God on David’s life. The LORD led him to see the need to repent of his sins and look to the Lord for mercy and grace. The Lord forgave him and saved him. In love, God tells you this story so that you take warning and that you do not let sin get a foothold because it can escalate quickly. In love, he also tells you this story so that you know you can look to him for mercy and grace. May the Holy Spirit cause us to remember the lessons from this HORRIBLE STORY and to see behind them the LOVE of God for us all. Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.