II Samuel 11: 1-27
Theme: Men
BE STRONG IN THE LORD
The story of David is a cautionary story that should warn us all. How does a man, who has it all, lose so much? But an even more important question, can we avoid making the same mistake as David? David’s problem was a woman, or maybe I should say uncontrolled lust. But, the problem is a much larger one. There are many things that can make a man stumble.
In some ways, David was a man’s man. He was a great warrior. From his youth he was a daring fighter who took on bears and lions and giants. He was ruthless and cunning in war. When He fought Israel’s enemies, the women sung songs about his greatness, to the humiliation of King Saul. The soldiers saw him as a great leader in battle and they never failed to follow him. And he was known for conspicuous loyalty to his friends who had supported him.
When David became king, he expanded the borders of the nation, defeated the enemies, and secured the peace. David became the consummate diplomat and was able to make treaties with other nations. As a shepherd boy, David was among the least in society, but David became rich. His riches could buy him anything he wanted and his wealth established his nation as a great nation among nations. He lived the life of a rich man. In the custom of his day, he had many wives. With his wealth, he became a builder and built Jerusalem as the capital city and built his palace. He developed the plans and secured the materials to build the temple.
David was a man after God’s own heart. He pleased God and God blessed him with many blessings. Very few people in the bible can claim such divine blessings and such holy renown as David. But in the end, David was still just a man with feet of clay. And he stumbled.
The sin side of David is laid open before us. When David sinned, there was no deliberation, he just did it. When the temptation arose, it consumed him. And isn’t that amazing? You would have thought that he was better prepared.
It was the spring time and it was time to go to war. He did not go. Instead, he sent Joab, his general, out in his place. But David was restless, he could not sleep. Maybe he missed the battle. Or maybe he is like a lot of men. He knew nothing else but what he had been doing for the last twenty years. War had been his job. Now, what was he to do? He had no family life skills. He had no real interests. He did not know what to do with himself. So, he spent many sleepless nights thinking of war and what to do with the second half of his life.
In the cool of the evening, David would find himself on his roof enjoying the night sky. As he looked around, he saw a very beautiful woman bathing. I guess she had forgotten to pull down her shade. David inquired about the woman, I don't really think that he was interested in her name, not really, he wanted to know if she was available. "She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite." That was all David needed to know.
There is no elaboration, just an economy of words; He sent for her, he took her and he lay with her. There was no concern for Uriah's rights or Bathsheba's feeling, for who would refuse the king?
Maybe he thought "ok, I've sinned, just one small sin but no one knows about it, it's over." But it wasn't. The word came to him, "I am with child." David has entered the spiral staircase of sin and proceeds down its long descent. "What can I do? I will call Uriah from the front on the pretense of asking about the war and will send him home and he will think that it is his child" As he walks down the staircase of sin he stops on the steps of deceit.
Uriah, even though he is a Hittite, is much more loyal to the covenant than David. David thought that Uriah must be a man like himself, instead he proved to be a man of singular integrity. "How can I go to the comforts of my home and my wife while the Ark of the Lord and Israel and Judah are staying in tents and in the open field?" And he stayed in the barracks and slept at the door of the King's house.
David continued to conspire and brought him to his table and feed him sumptuously and got him drunk and he still was a man of integrity, he would not go home.
David spiraled his way to the desperate pit of sin and he conspired to have Uriah killed. He wrote the instructions on royal paper and sealed them with a royal seal, a death warrant for Uriah, and sent the instructions back to Joab by Uriah's own hand. Now David's sin has affected another man. Joab must now participate in it with David or disobey his king. So he sent Uriah and other men on a suicide raid against a walled city and they died.
Bathsheba mourned the death of her husband. We are never told if she ever knew of David's conspiracy. I believed she loved her husband and she mourned his death. David probably did not care that either Uriah was dead or that Bathsheba mourned him, there was a royal child and he took her and married her. But we are told, "But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord."
David’s heart belonged to God. He was God’s man. But something happened to David. He neglected something basic in his life. He played loose with some of God’s commands and as time went by, he became more bold. Now he was in the big time of sin. He had allowed lust to become adultery. Adultery leads to deceit. He tried to get another man to give up his principles. He then conspired against an innocent man. And he committed murder.
The life of David calls for us to protect our heart. We must be men always. We cannot become boys again. We cannot let the culture redefine manhood. We have to stand strong as Godly men called to live godly lives.
As men go through the various cycles of life, we must be careful to guard our hearts from temptation. There are all kinds of temptation. It may be women for some. One may be tempted by a female coworker. You may feel your wife neglects you and suddenly there is a pretty and needy smile. Or, maybe you spend time in hiding with pornography, sort of an artificial sexuality, where you fantasize and dream.
Other men are tempted by alcohol. What is it about drinking that men think it makes them a real man or that it is cool? I have never understood that, especially in light of what damage it can do. When I see Christians drinking, I don’t usually think cool, I usually think rebellion. And I think, that is a dangerous path they are running down.
If it is not women or alcohol, it can be things and toys or a particular lifestyle. Men have a problem with self image. We want others to see us and think, success, cool, someone who has it made. Our culture tells us that we are just boys at heart, go be boys. Boys in men’s bodies are a dangerous thing. Boys have no discipline or understanding. All they do is want. They want whatever catches their eye at the time. They want whatever they think makes them the hit on the block or causes others to ooh and ah over them.
We, who have come to Christ are men who have put away childish things. We make being what God wants us to be as our highest priority. We know what God wants and we know what God wants is best for us. But we are still tempted. What is worse, the world questions our manhood and calls for us to prove our manhood by yielding to several kinds of temptation.
What is our recourse? How do we overcome temptation? I have a simple answer. We read our Bibles. We pray. We worship regularly. We spend time with our wives and our families. We don’t put ourselves in the tempter’s path. And we hang around with other Christian men who are our support group, our encouragement and to whom we are accountable as brothers in Christ.
When Christian men walk together we can "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." So as Paul said, we "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm." Ephesians 6: 10-13.