David, “Bearing the brand of Christ”
2 Samuel 12:1-14
Vs. 1-6 A parable of no pity
Vs. 7-14 The stranger in the mirror
Intro
The first thought of a person who is convicted of their sin is always to run from God and hide in excuses and blame shifting. Oh but once we realize that we have run from the goodness of God we will return to the wounded side of Jesus where the guilt and punishment of our sin has been paid for. When we have truly confessed and turned from sin we will place the blame for our failure squarely upon our own shoulders and not on others, it is then that we will truly know of what Nathan told David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” (verse 13)
Our sin always leaves a scar Christian, and none more severe than the realization that “by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme”. (verse 14) Of all the words spoken to our hearts this is the bitterest pill to swallow and the one which will leave us the most broken. Those words of Nathan to David ought to be engraved upon our hearts so that our wounded hearts will recall that we can only walk in His grace and love! David wrote in Psalm 34:19, 22, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all…The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.”
A parable of no pity
Vs. 1-4 This is about a year later as the child is born and Nathan comes to David with a parable. We all have a problem with “double entry bookkeeping” don’t we? You know, that is where we have one set of books for ourselves and another for all other people. Hey saints, David’s sin “displeased the Lord” but it didn’t keep the Lord from trying to reach David. So when he wouldn’t listen to the Word, God tried the circumstances, and when he wouldn’t listen to the circumstances, God tried the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon his conscience. Finally the Lord sent someone else to speak to David and in all of this we see the lengths God’s mercy will go to reach a rebellious heart. I am convinced by personal experience that God always uses the least means possible to get our attention, furthermore I believe that the more drastic the measures used to get our attention the more hard our heart!
In light of this truth hear the words of God in Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.” Listen carefully if we continue to harden our hearts we will exhaust God’s patience that is why we need to heed the words of Hebrews 4:7 that says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” Sometimes you will hear folks boast saying, “I don’t feel a thing, man what I’m doing doesn’t bother me”. Now physically, if part of our body becomes impervious to pain or to the sense of touch it would not be something we would boast about but something that would concern us as we would have a serious medical condition that could signify the end of our life.
- Messenger: Did you notice that God didn’t send an enemy or a critic to correct David he sent a friend? Why? Well because the Lord wanted David to get his heart right. You recall in chapter 7 that Nathan had presumed to know the heart of God concerning David’s desire to build a temple and had to go back and tell David that what he had said to him was not from God, a risky proposition for a prophet. In Deut. 18:20 there were laws concerning what a prophet said and if “the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” That situation had uniquely equipped Nathan to confront David now concerning his sin. How so?
Well three factors are essential if we are going to be used to deal with another person’s sin:
- We must have a great concern and love for the person we are to address
- We must be honest with our own failure and need to get our heart right
- We must have a heart that honors God’s word above everything else, even if it would cost us our life, (twice Nathan demonstrated that he honored God’s word above his own life).
Hey saints unless our hearts are broken towards the person who has fallen we are most likely not the one to be correcting them. Nathan was the kind of friend who was willing to do more than just point out the dirt in another man’s life he was willing to bend down and help clean him up.
- Message: Second, God led Nathan to use a familiar story of a pet lamb and the injustice of a wealthy man taking that which did not belong to him. The case was one that shepherds would have been interested in hearing, a case of sheep stealing. This lamb Nathan told David, “ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him.” Apparently David never made the connection of him being the “rich man” in the story having “refused to take from his own flock” instead took “the poor man’s lamb”. Who is the traveler that the rich man had taken and killed the lamb for? Well the “traveler” would be the temptation of lust that visited David while he was on the roof, and the problem was that David made the unwanted guest the master over his own heart!
There is a truth you and I all need to pay attention to as David was blind to his own depravity. Someone has well said, “Too many people have made strangers of their own character”, oh how easy it is to become convicted about other people’s sins and not our own. Stealing another man’s sheep was not a capital offense, so David exaggerated both the crime and punishment yet when he looked at his own sin he minimized both. Hey Christian that is the nature of our flesh. We will always tend to exaggerate others’ sins and minimize our own do we not? The words of Jesus in Matt. 7:2 are coming into play, “what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Nathan describes the sin of the wealthy man as theft, not many view adultery and sexual immorality as theft but they are when we consider it is taking something away from someone else that does not belong to us. “Hey, wait a minute I didn’t take it from him or her, they gave it to me.” Maybe so but ultimately our bodies do not belong to ourselves they belong to our spouses or our future spouses according to 1 Corinth 7:4 we are told “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” According to Leviticus 18 this principle would include pornography and lust as it would be wrong to “steal a look” at their nakedness as it does not belong to us.
Vs. 5-6 David is so offended by the story that he assumed was true, that he not only pronounces the man guilty but gives him the death sentence as well, even though this was not a capital crime. Our conscience is often more severe on others who are engaged in far less sin than we are, as an attempt to lessen our own guilt. David’s reasoning for such harsh consequences for Nathan’s fictitious rich man was that “he had no pity”. He despised the rich man for his disregard to the heartache of the poor man while David had himself shown complete disregard to the hurt of others. Notice David’s words “As the Lord lives,” showing how passionate he was as he calls God to witness the righteous judgment upon the hypothetical rich man but it was not enough to punish the rich man for what he stole, it needed to be restored fourfold.
Here is what we gain from David’s words; repentance needs to include restitution as clearly David understood what Exodus 22 taught concerning restitution. Biblical knowledge of right and wrong, even extreme passion of this are not indicators for spiritual health as David had both of these. I’m always amazed at how I can know God’s word and still be distant from its author, like David. Hey saint, what David is being brought to by the Lord is the condemning of his own sin instead of seeking to defend, deflect or excuse away. Why is this important? Well, we will never seek forgiveness until we have first condemned our own sin!
The stranger in the mirror
Vs. 7-9 As soon as Nathan heard David’s reasoning for such severe judgment he wasted no time in revealing David’s own sin. Suddenly David realized through his finger pointing, that he had three pointing right back at him. And the harshness of his judgment was staring him in the eye and what he now wanted was grace. Hey saints, until you and I abhor our sin with the same hatred we have for others sin we will never see the need to abandon ours and return to God’s abounding goodness.
Nathan minced no words saying, “You are the man”, but then moved immediately into the reason for David’s disregard to God’s word and that was to be found in his forgetting God’s goodness towards him, this led to David despising God’s Word, which led to him to believe that he had earned the right to take that which was not his. David had broken four of the Ten Commandments, (coveting, adultery, bearing false witness and murder). David not only took Uriah’s life he used the sword of those who were against God to do so.
God said through Nathan, “David, I gave you everything; even with all your flaws and failures I loved you, when you were out on your own I stood by you and not for one day did I ever leave you. And if that wasn’t enough I would have given you more!” Christian, littered on the roadways of our lives will be not only the consequences of our despising God’s word for our lives but also all that He wanted to give us but could not because we were to busy complaining and striving to obtain His promises in our own strength. Rom 2:4 tells us “that the goodness of God leads you to repentance”. When a person is brought under the reality of their sin it is easy for them to have remorse and fear of the consequences of their actions but that is not necessarily repentance.
True repentance comes about when our sin is laid next to God’s goodness which we have disregarded. The conviction of the sinful heart must have the brokenness of having grieved such a gracious God as the sole reason to get our heart right and not to try to minimize the loss of consequences. Far too often the thought is, “Oh, I’ve been found out. how can I minimize the damage” and we go into the “damage control mode” instead of a heart that is broken that says, “Oh, how could I have done this against God who has done nothing but love me?”
How do we know if someone is convicted of their sin and truly repentant or just seeking to minimize the consequences? Well what is it they are seeking after once they have been found out? If their desire is to restore their relationship with the Lord without a mention of seeking to restore what they lost then it is safe to assume that there is true brokenness. Ah, but if David would have said, “What about my kingdom, do I still get to be king”. If there are excuses, and the attempt to make oneself the victim and others the villain, then what you have is a person who is only trying to manipulate the situation.
In 1 Chron. 21:24 after David had sinned by numbering the people he was told to build an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan. But when he went to purchase the threshing floor of Ornan (the future sight of the temple) Ornan said he could just have it. But David wisely said, “I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.”
David had told Joab by way of messenger, “Do not let this thing displease you”, but we were told that though David thought his action was no big deal, it “displeased the Lord”. Here the Lord tells David, “When you despised the Word of God you despised Me! Oftentimes people say, “I love God, I believe in Him and all!” But they don’t follow His word; well here we see that, if we despise God’s Word for our lives we are despising Him. Jesus said in 6:46 “why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?”
The apostle John said in 1 John 1:6, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” There are folks in Church every week who have hidden lives where they aren’t living in obedience to God’s Word and they think, “This isn’t affecting me, my life is going well”. But here me out, the issue isn’t whether or not a Christian can go to the bar and get drunk, tell lies or even commit adultery and murder as David did because clearly people have. No, the issue is, can a professing believer do things contrary to God’s Word and still have fellowship with God and the answer is NO! If we are living apart from the word of God then we are living apart from the God of the Word!
“To do this evil in His sight”, David thought that no one knew but God knew. You can’t despise the word of God for your life without despising the author of the Word. David’s sin was based upon ingratitude, a feeling that he deserved better. So the correction that God gives is to recall to David how much He had given to him and how much more He would have given if that were not enough. God’s question to David is “Why did you take when I have given?” Brother and sisters, behind every sin that every human being has ever committed is an ungrateful heart, a heart of pride that has failed to appropriate the riches of His love towards us!
Vs. 10 God promised that from this day forward David would know violence and bloodshed among his own family members. This is not God causing this to come upon David’s family but rather the consequences of David’s disregard of God’s word. David had demanded a fourfold restitution from Nathan’s parable and the fourfold restitution for Uriah would come from four of David’s sons: Bathsheba’s child, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. David’s oldest son, Amnon, will be killed by his brother, Absalom for committing incest with his half sister. David’s second son, Absalom, will be killed in battle after rebelling against David. David’s third son, Adonijah, will be killed by Solomon, when Solomon takes the throne. Oh the sword did not depart from David’s house.
David’s sin of adultery was a sin of uncontrolled passion but his sin of murder was premeditated. In 1 Kings we are told that “David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” saying nothing of Bathsheba as that sin was without thought while Uriah was well planned.
Vs. 11-12 What David did in the dark will come back to him in the light, what he sought to hide will be seen, what his pride caused will be open to humiliation. Because God likes to rub it in our faces? No, because God wants us to lose our appetite for what our flesh craves, so when it is exposed we will think twice before we travel down that path again.
David was fully forgiven, but there were still going to be repercussions for the rebellion. Remember sin can never pay off the debts it has accumulated, it may say to your heart, “Yeah, I’ll pay for it no problem”, but in the end the price was way more than we had been convinced it would be. Consider Absalom when he rebelled against David, David left Jerusalem as he couldn’t bring himself to fight against his own son. But Ahithophel Bathsheba’s grandfather counseled Absalom, “You want to show everyone you’re the king? Go up on the roof and bring in your father’s concubines and have sex with each of them.” So, it was Bathsheba’s grandfather who, to embarrass David, told Absalom to do this right where years earlier David had lusted after his granddaughter and embarrassed his family.
Vs. 13-14 David’s confession is an example of what true repentance is as he places the blame entirely upon himself and did not minimize his sin. In the Hebrew the phrase “I have sinned against the LORD” is only two words. Confession doesn’t need to be long to be sincere and proof of it is not to be found in words but actions. David made no excuses, shifted no blame, looked for no loophole and pleaded for no position; he didn’t say “We have a disease” no he said “I have sinned”. He simply with a broken and contrite heart takes personal responsibility and agrees with God concerning his sin and his only aim is to renew his relationship with the Lord not to gain back his kingdom.
With David’s repentance God’s forgiveness was immediate, there was no probation or penance and mercy and grace were extended as David was not to get the sentence he would have prescribed for far less. So along with the sentence came pardon but it was not based upon the verdict not being true or the sentence being unjust, all of which David simply stated “I have sinned against the LORD.” In psalm 130:3-4, we read “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared….”
Then in Psalm 103:3-4, & 12-13 David would write, “Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies…..As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him.” Dear saint, do you not know that God longs to forgive you far more than you desire to get your heart right, He stands at the door of our hearts even now knocking waiting for you to open the door of your heart to Him.
There is a “however”, (verse 14) in God’s words to David but this is not punishment but rather discipline by a loving Father who wishes His son to develop a godly character. God forgave David for his sin, but He would still face judgment by his sin in the consequence from his sin. And the judgment BY his sin would be used by God to purify David as he never again commits adultery, perhaps when in the future he would look at a woman lustfully he would recall holding his son’s lifeless body in his arms and recall that such rebellion brings about death and separation. In psalm 51:11 David wrote “Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” which reveals that while living in unconfessed sin David was not experiencing the presence of the Lord in his life and that he longed for that back more than to divert the consequences of his actions.
Some have wondered if a fallen servant can ever be restored to their position, Spurgeon once said that “A servant of God can be restored to a position only when their brokenness and repentance has become more memorable than their offense!” It is interesting to note that after this sin David would never again be the king he once was but he would become a better psalmist, more open and broken about his failure and God’s faithfulness. The restoration was not to the position but was very much to a sweeter communion with the Lord as he would plumb the depths of God’s greatness.
In Psalm 51 some time has passed and David is more articulate about his sin and he writes out what was in his heart at the time of repentance. The inscription above the psalm says, “To The Chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba”. David would write in verses 1-4, 16-17, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against You, and You only have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. . . . For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, and broken and contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.” It appears to me that as time goes on you ought to see a greater awareness of our depravity and a greater confession of our personal failure and not more excuses and a lessening of responsibility.
David, “Companionship for Compromise”
2 Samuel 12:15-31
Vs. 15-25 The sweetness of heartache
Vs. 26-31 Loved of the Lord
Intro
In verses 10-14 God spoke through Nathan declaring four safeguards that He would put in place to the forgiven sinner.
- Vs. 10 “the sword shall never depart from your house”: And we are told why this was in place “because you have despised Me” which we were told in verse 9 was the same as “despising the commandment of the LORD”. So the first safeguard has to do with David never again rejecting the Word of God and the God of the Word. The sword never departing from his own house was to drive David back to God’s Word instead of upon idleness and self reliance, doing that which seemed right in his own eyes.
- Vs. 11 “I will raise up adversity against you from your own house”. Again we are told what this would safeguard as it says, “I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor”. David had indicted himself in verse 6 as having “no pity” so God is going to bring upon his own heart a heart of pity by having to experience the pain he had caused others.
- Vs. 12 “For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.” Because of David’s cover up and attempt to conceal things God was going to make David’s life an open book so that he would not be able to hide his heart from his head!
- Vs. 14 “the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” Here again we have the reason given this time before the safeguard, “because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme”. David was forever going to be made aware of the responsibility of those in leadership to live broken humble lives as when we don’t we aid the enemy and the sinners flesh in rejection of God’s truths and grace. So God says, just like the son that you loved and wanted to know was taken from you, you will know that such rebellion in you will cause others to be separate from My love. So these safeguards have to do with dependence upon God’s word, a heart of compassions for others, a broken contrite heart before all and an eternal perspective that we are not our own.
The sweetness of heartache
Vs. 15 In accordance with Nathan’s words the child would die, there is Divine healing and now we see that there is Divine sickness. The sad truth is often the innocent are those that suffer for the sins of the guilty. Take for instance abortion, in which the parents were not married and choose to abort because they simply don’t want the responsibility of caring for a child. It was their choice to commit sexual immorality, their choice to disregard the word of God, their choice to terminate their child’s life but it is the child who dies not them!
There are times when no human can comfort our heartbreaks and this is by design as the Lord is the only one that can comfort such pains. David spent seven days grieving over his own sin and the realization that this has come upon his son because of his own doing. But David has owned his own sin and has accepted God’s judgments and worshipped the Lord. So often we have mourned our loss because of the consequences of our action and when we have failed to bend the mind of God we curse Him for what our sin has brought!
Now, though the child died, God no doubt extended His comfort to the child during his illness and furthermore welcomed him home into His loving arms. So the judgment was truly upon David and Bathsheba as they would never get to enjoy the pleasures of watching their child grow into who God intended him to be. Hey saint let me encourage you a moment if you have ever lost a child and your heartaches from the separation and the loss of what might have been. One day you will be reunited with your child, then you will see what they are in Christ and you will realize that you will have an eternity full of time and memories!
Why does God allow the child to die and the sinning parents to live? I suggest to you that David and Bathsheba’s living was far worse than their child dying. What? This ought to change our perspective, concerning death and life for a believer. Jesus corrected that same error in mark 12:27 saying, “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living” as the oft repeated phrase of God being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all of who were dead, so Jesus says, “Hey folks these people aren’t dead but alive”. You see heaven is not a place where dead people go but rather a place where those who were in the land of the dying have gone to live forever.
Rev. 21:4 tells us that in heaven “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” So God granted the child to be united to Him and that the child’s death would be a continual reminder to the parents to keep their hearts pure as sin always causes death and separation. God never approves of our sin. God does not think sin is cute, or unimportant and even when our sins are forgiven there is always a price that has been paid. Their only son paid the price for sin, death! Hey that seems familiar does it not? An only begotten son who is innocent dying for the sins of others!
Vs. 16-23 Do not assume that David is acting as if he deserves better as he says in verse 22 “Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?” Instead he is seeking the mercy of God crying out in repentance realizing he deserves nothing but our God has always rewarded us based upon who He is not whether or not David deserved it.
Now notice here that David’s fasting had no power to change God’s mind instead the death of his son changed his heart. God is not a genie who is bound by our formulas to do our bidding as that would make us god and Him our servant. Our actions and formulas have no power to change His mind, so why fast and pray when we are uncertain of the outcome?
- Well first we fast and pray because though we are uncertain the outcome we are not uncertain who holds the outcome.
- Second we do so that we may better surrender our hearts and love to His will, not to manipulate Him to our wills!
Apparently David’s prayer was answered as we are told in verse 23 “now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” How was this prayer and fasting answered? Well David had a sense of peace when the child died and saw that this would have a work in his heart that would draw him closer to God and one day be reunited with the Lord and his son. The ability to worship and praise God in a time of great uncertainty and heartache demonstrates the confidence and presence of God that David had. It also supports the fact that clearly David had repented and there was a renewed fellowship with the Lord, as the outcome not meeting his expectations did not alter his commitment towards fellowship with the Lord.
Here in verse 23 the phrase of David, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me”, is an indication that babies and perhaps children who die from believing parents go to live forever with the Lord at least until they are at an age where they can make a decision on their own which will vary from child to child.
The events of this section is but a foretaste of the future of David’s life as it will be filled with heartbreak. “Hey I thought God had forgiven him so why all the trouble?” Hey Saints, these troubles and heartaches were signs of God’s forgiveness not signs of the lack of it! Remember God disciplines those He loves and so the man who has drunk deep from the well of sin and has spent time trapped in its caverns needs to have a constant reminder of the dangers of taking a sip from its intoxicating fountain. Oh to be sure you and I would not want to be reminded of our ever present need and dependence upon our Lord but that would not be merciful but would cause us harm.
Everywhere you drive in Montana you see signs warning of Meth use and what will happen if one tries it. This is what God does for David! Far too often the kind of forgiveness we want from the Lord is the kind that simply overlooks our sins but allows us to continue in them without any consequences from our actions. “Oh, God please don’t let me get caught, but don’t make me stop either.” “Just love me and forgive me but don’t tell me I need to stop this destructive behavior just don’t let it destroy me!” I’m a parent and I watched many times when my children were young and were doing something that was endangering their wellbeing and I intervened on their behalf and then listened as they screamed their disapproval at me for interfering with their fun. “Let me play in the street with oncoming traffic, just stop the trucks!”
As well, I have witnessed my children not wanting to remain close to me as we were out and fighting every moment of holding my hand, Oh to be certain I was restricting their freedom but not out of being a spoil sport but out of love and devotion! Do you see now what the Lord has blessed David with? He has given David companionship for compromise, dependence for deception and relationship for rebellion! And through it all David will learn to hate any and all sin that would rob him of companionship, dependence and relationship. There are far too many times that we want God’s pardon so we can go back to our sin. Thus any superficial forgiveness that only leads us back to what caused the separation to begin with is not what God has in mind. Far to often people would be content with a rope in the well not so that they can climb out of the pit of mire but so that they can grab a hold of it to keep them in the pit so that they would not slip further lest it the mire cover their head and suffocate them.
So the question we need to ask is “Am I content with a rope in my well or do I want deliverance from my well?” In my planner for me to read is this phrase, “Keep me from all things that keep me from You!” That is what God wants to produce in our hearts. If our tears are only because we have been turned away from our Jerusalem, only because we can no longer enjoy the comfortable seat of our throne then we mourn not the loss of relationship but only of what that relationship brought! Oh thank God that He has not removed the pain of our sin, only the penalty and power as the pain of our failures drives continually back to the throne of His grace and the dependence of His presence.
Vs. 24-25 Nine months are pressed into these two verses and during those months God wooed David back into a right relationship with Him. Now remember it was God who allowed Bathsheba to conceive this 2nd time and deliver a healthy child. So David called Nathan to see his new boy and told him his name was Solomon “peaceful”, but Nathan said that’s fine David but God’s calling him Jedidiah, “Loved of the Lord”. How interesting, David is on the right side of fellowship with the Lord and God grants him and Bathsheba a child and David says, “Nate, I’m at peace man, I’m back on track with the Lord”. And Nathan corrects David and says, “You’re only at peace my friend because you are Loved by the Lord”! The old things have passed away and behold God has made everything new.
This is the first time in this whole story that we are told the woman’s name, other than the report that came from the servants. But now that David’s heart has been dealt with she is no longer “the wife of Uriah”. It is interesting to note that God had David honor his commitment to Bathsheba, even though it originated in sin and was apart from His Word; the point is three wrongs won’t make a right! The Lord has called us to walk forward not backward, we can not undo our past we can simply repent from them and move forward. God does not hold grudges as he forgave and furthermore blesses as it is this son born from a marriage that began in adultery that will produce a son for the throne and from him the Messiah would come. God always produces the most and best fruit in our lives through our brokenness and humility not pride and success.
God had a purpose for this child, a child that was born after the brokenness of his parents. Do you hear me Christian? God always has a “peaceable” work after we have sinned and have come back to His loving arms, a work in our heart that will cause us to realize that we are “loved in the Lord”. Saint, the only one surprised by your failure is you, the Lord knows you inside and out. Now go back with me to 2 Sam 7 12-13 where the Lord had told David that He would “set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
My point? Namely this, we tend to think it is our perfection that ushers in God’s promises, if we do real well, practice real hard, read our bible through, and pray all night then God can fulfill His promises in our lives. But that’s not the case my friend as it would make God dependent upon man and He would never be able to bless us with what He so long desires to give us. Now David’s greatest failure will be the avenue to His promise. How so? Well David had come to complete surrender and brokenness and it is only in our surrender and brokenness where we no longer have any confidence in ourselves that we will be at peace and loved of the Lord. Every time David and Bathsheba would look at their boy they would be reminded that they were loved by the Lord and that only He can fulfill His promises we can never earn them by our goodness!
Loved of the Lord
Vs. 26-28 These verses continue the war that chapter 11:1 spoke of that was going on simultaneously with David’s double sin. Apparently Joab had to give David a hard time to get him to do what he was supposed to do as he says, “Hey, king if you don’t come off that roof I’m going to take the city myself and they will name it after me!” Joab was fighting against the chief city of the Ammonites called Rabbah or “Great city” and he defeated the city by taking the water supply and seeing that the city was about to fall he sent for David.
Little by little the army began to conquer the Ammonites. They took the royal city then they took over the power and water company. They were ready for the final push and Joab wanted the king to bring home the victory, amazing for all that David had done Joab still wanted his king to receive honor. This crown weighed some 50 to 75 pounds so David’s coronation was just a ceremony declaring Ammon as territory for Israel. So David added the crown and the rest of the spoil to the funds set aside to the building of the temple.
It is interesting that Joab was unable to take the city for over a year until David got his heart right and went out and did what he was supposed to do a year earlier. Perhaps the Lord’s church’s ineffectiveness at taking the cites in which they are at is because those in leadership are not out front but rather behind hanging out on roof tops. There was a lack of power because the heart of the servant was not right. Oh but when David got his heart right with the Lord then victory was gained.
That is what God exhorts us in 2 Chron 7:14 “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” So God gave David the victory even though he had been rebellious during the campaign as God does not reward upon our goodness but His. I love that about the Lord he just takes us and we are all beat up and broken and says, “Hey, now that you have gotten your heart right with Me I can use you.”
Josephus says that David put them to death by saws, iron picks and axes. Others say that David forced the Ammonites to drop their swords and picks and become slave laborers. So then the final phase of David’s restoration was that he went back to doing what he should have done all along, leading Israel out to battle, instead of remaining in Jerusalem.
Notice that David’s failure did not condemn him to a life of defeat and uselessness, yes he was disciplined and his life was forever changed by his failure but it was not “ruined”, neither did his sin take away his crown as he had confessed and truly repented. Had he not heeded the word of the Lord through Nathan it might have been a further stripping away in his life. Hey, saints, (those of us who have at times hardened our heart towards the Lord) the way up is down (to our knees), and not upon insisting on self protection!