II. Look At David
The Bible tells us that David was a man after God’s own heart (I Sam. 13:14 “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”) As we read how God took David from the fields of being a shepherd boy to being the king of Israel, we wonder in amazement how he could possibly commit adultery and murder and then try to hide it. He did. Why? He was just a human being like you and me. He had a sex drive that he had to contend with every day! What joy it is to read the story of David’s life in the Bible. I Samuel 17 tells of how he killed a 9’6″ giant with only a slingshot. He killed a lion and a bear with his hands. The hand of God on his life was easily detected. David became king of Israel in his early 30’s. God led David from victory to victory as he led the nation of Israel. He had it all: The power of God on his life, money power, and fame. One day he found himself in his 50’s, idle and bored. He walked out on his balcony and saw another man’s wife bathing. Her name was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah was a soldier in David’s army. He was one of David’s “Mighty Men” (2 Sam. 23:39). The desires and needs all of us have for sex suddenly overruled David’s pure heart for God. An uncontrolled sex drive has no conscience, even for people who have an intimate and personal walk with the Lord. David sent for Bathsheba, and she came to him. She became pregnant. This is called adultery. The 7th commandment states: “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). David tried to hide it, and in the process, he had Bathsheba’s husband killed. Proverbs 6:26-27 tells us that ” For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life. Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” As a teen-age boy, God took an ugly plain-looking stone and placed it in David’s hand and a giant fell. As a middle-aged adult, the devil took a beautiful young woman who was someone else’s wife and placed her in David’s hand and destroyed his witness for Christ. Think about the consequences before you make the choice. Proverbs 6:32 tells us that “Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; He who does so destroys his own soul.” It is a dishonor. Your reproach will not be wiped away.” David went for almost a year before he asked God to forgive him. Nathan, the prophet, confronted David with his sin and he told him that God had forgiven him, but that the sword would never depart from his house. (2 Sam. 12:7-15 “Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ and Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.’ Then Nathan departed to his house.”) David used a sword to kill Uriah, therefore, the sword of the Lord would never depart from his house. (The tool that you use to harm another person will be the same tool that God will use on you to avenge what you did to that person). David, a man after God’s heart, hid his sin and God promised that he would reap the consequences in the public eye. God always vindicates His honor when His chosen ones fall. Listen to the consequences of David’s adultery and murder. The child born to David and Bathsheba died. Amnon, David’s son, raped his sister, David’s daughter, Tamar. Absalom, David’s son, avenged the rape by murdering his own brother, Amnon. Absalom then led a conspiracy against his own father, David, and David had to flee for his life. David wrote the 3rd Psalm while fleeing from his own son, Absalom. Absalom was murdered. David grieved and mourned over the trouble in his family. Another revolt took place in his kingdom. God forgives, but we still must live with the consequences of sexual immorality. In Psalm 51:10-14 we read the story of David’s repentance: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.” David prayed and God answered. We must repent of sexual immorality, and God will forgive us (I John 1:9).
Jeff Harvel 