Have you ever heard someone say, “Oh, the Bible is so boring. It’s just a bunch of ‘begets’ and ‘begots’ and a bunch of stuff that happen thousands of years ago”? Our passage today certainly cannot be considered boring. We have a sex scandal at the highest levels of government. There are several attempts at deception. Then we have the murder that seems to cover everything up.
The story of David and Bathsheba is well known. Often we focus on the outcome of what happened. We look at how David responded to the sin. Today, as we look at this passage we are going to see how this could have been avoided.
To focus on the after effects, which we will do the next couple weeks, is kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has run away. There are several things we can learn from David’s actions that can prevent us from winding up in a place like he did. David’s prayer of repentance, as recorded in Psalm 51, is certainly beautiful, but he life would have been much less complicated if he had avoided sin in first place.
One of the great dangers in looking at history is asking those “what if” questions. If this had happened then this wouldn’t have happened. We are not going to do that. I am not sure what David’s life would have been like had he avoided this sin, but we can take some principles and apply them to our life to avoid sin.
Turn with me to 2 Samuel 11.
Read 2 Samuel 11:1-15.
The first problem that David has is that he is idle. After waking up from his nap, he aimlessly wanders around on the roof of the palace. This is instructive if we are going to avoid the road that David took.
I. We must REFRAIN from idleness.
There is an old German proverb that goes, “Mussigkeit ist aller Laster Anfang.” That can be translated several ways. It means, “Idleness is the beginning of all sin.” There is a Russian proverb that states, “Idleness is the mother of vice.” An Irish proverb goes, “Poverty waits at the gates of idleness.” The saying that I remember hearing as a kid is “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” Proverbs 19:15 states, “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.”
Just about every culture in the world agrees that idleness is not a good thing. Idleness leads to all sorts of problems.
A. Idleness opens the door to TEMPTATION.
As stated earlier in reference to the proverbs of various cultures idleness has been called “the mother of vice,” “the beginning of all sin,” and “the devil’s workshop.”
It is clear from these sayings that idleness can lead to all sorts of problems. It is an open door through which the devil hurls temptation our way.
Before we go any farther, we should be clear about what idleness is and what it is not. Rest is not idleness. Our bodies require rest. Rest is something that is vital to our health. Resting for the rejuvenation of the body is not idleness. Rest when we are sick is not idleness.
Idleness is that state of being where we are not occupied by meaningful things. Idleness in the biblical sense is being lax or slack. When I was a teenager, one of the popular things was to call someone a slacker. “Hey, you’re a slacker.” A slacker was someone who would be described as lazy. When we slack off, we open ourselves to temptation. When we have nothing better to do, we wind up in mischief.
That was David’s problem. There was nothing wrong with David taking a nap. It was quite customary for people in that culture, and in many hot climates today, to take an afternoon nap while the temperature was at its peak. The problem occurred when he slacked off after his nap. He lounged around on the roof, and noticed a beautiful woman bathing. This set his mind to running. His idleness opened the door to temptation.
B. Godly pursuits reduce TEMPTATION.
When David woke up from his nap, he should have gotten back to the work of being king. There was business to conduct. After all, the country was at war. There were matters of state that needed to be tended to, but he remained idle.
When we focus on godly pursuits, we reduce the risk of temptation. That doesn’t mean that we read the Bible and pray constantly. Work is a godly pursuit. The Irish proverb I mentioned earlier goes, “Poverty waits at the gates of idleness.” Proverbs 19:15 says, “An idle person will suffer hunger.” Work is a legitimate godly pursuit. Rest is a legitimate godly pursuit. We cannot neglect either of these areas.
One of the driving thoughts behind youth centers is the idea that if kids are kept busy playing basketball or reading or engaged in some healthy activity, they will not be engaged in crime.
The Apostle Paul offers us some wonderful advice in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Paul is telling us that we should occupy our mind with good and godly things.
These are ways to avoid temptation. The problem is that we will all be tempted at some point in some matter. The thing that is important is how we handle temptation.
II. We must RESIST temptation.
When temptation does come our way, and it will, we must resist it. James 4:7 advises us, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Temptation is the devil’s tool that he uses to try to get us to turn our backs on God. When Adam and Eve sinned, the temptation was, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The devil used the ploy that Adam and Eve would “be like God.”
Temptation will come. We cannot avoid all temptation. We can reduce the amount we face, but we cannot completely do away with it. We have the choice of two responses. We can give into temptation or we can resist it.
A. Giving into temptation leads to SIN.
Temptation is not sin. Sin follows temptation. James 1:14-15 says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” You see temptation is not sin. Temptation can lead to sin. Temptation is when we are “lured and enticed by [our] own desire.” If we give into that desire we sin.
David’s desire got him in trouble. He saw that this woman was pleasing to his eyes. She was “jaw-dropping” gorgeous. At this point David has not sinned. He is tempted.
David then inquired about the woman. As a result of the inquiry, David should have recognized several warning signs. The first is that she was married. She was somebody else’s wife. That didn’t stop David. The second warning sign is who she is related to. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite. At the end of 2 Samuel 23, we find a list of David’s mighty men. In verse 39, we find the name of Uriah the Hittite. In verse 34, we find the name of Eliam, Bathsheba’s father. It is important to note that Eliam’s father, Bathsheba’s grandfather, is Ahithophel who is one of David’s closest advisors. So Bathsheba is the wife and daughter of two of David’s mighty men, who were at that moment engaged in warfare. She is also the granddaughter of one of his closest advisors. That doesn’t stop him either.
David ignored the warning signs. He sent a messenger to get her. They went to bed together. The desire of David had led him to sin.
He sinned prior to the moment when he and Bathsheba slept together. He sinned when he said in his heart, “I want her to be mine.” Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” David sinned when his lust for Bathsheba ran wild, and he thought of how he could get to her.
We sin when we plot in our mind how we can get away with something we know is wrong. When we devise a plan in our mind to get even with someone that is sin. When we devise a plan to steal that is sin. We must resist temptation.
B. Resisting temptation leads to God’s APPROVAL.
“How can I resist temptation?” you ask. The answer is that we cannot do it on our own. We have to realize that. Humility is the result when we realize that our own power is insufficient. When we rely on God’s help, he gives us the grace to resist temptation. James 4:6-8 says, “‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded.”
When we rely on God, he helps us out. To draw near to God means that we get our life in line with his will for us. We think on things are pure and noble, as Paul has advised us. Jesus is our example here. When he was tempted, he resisted the devil. He knew the Bible and used it to defend himself from the devil, even when the devil twisted the Bible himself. Jesus is our example, and if he resisted temptation, so can we.
At the first hint of temptation, we should call out to God to help us fight it. We should pray, “God, help me get this out of my mind.” While we cannot help the fact that temptation will come, we can keep it out of mind. John Wesley said, “I cannot keep the birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from making a nest in my hair.” What he was saying is that temptation will come, but we can keep from hanging around.
By resisting temptation, we avoid sinning. What happens if I sin? What can be done about that?
III. We must REPENT sin.
The first thing we must do if we sin is to confess and repent. When we look at our passage, we find that David tried to cover it up. He called Uriah back from the front. The plan was to get Uriah to go home and sleep with Bathsheba, so that everyone, including Uriah, would believe that the baby was his. The problem was that Uriah refused to cooperate with David’s plan. Uriah was more concerned with his fellow soldiers at the front lines than he was about the pleasures of home. After the first attempt, David then tried to get Uriah so drunk that his inhibitions would be lowered, and he would comply with David’s plan. When that failed, David decided to liquidate the problem. He sent Uriah back to the front. Uriah carried his own death sentence to his commander in the field.
David refused to acknowledge his sin at this point. He refused to step up and take the consequences for his sin. He tried to cover it up. He was defiantly unrepentant. David knew that he had sinned. If he wasn’t aware of sin, then he wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths to cover it up.
A. Unrepented sin SNOWBALLS.
I love Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck used to provide a great deal of entertainment for me as a kid. I always like the scenes where two characters were on a snowy mountain. A little pebble would fall to the snowy ground and begin to roll down the hill. As it rolls it picks up steam. Snow attaches to it. More and more snow clings as it rolls faster and faster. The snowball gets bigger and bigger and faster and faster. The character is trying to outrun the snowball, but he can’t and is soon run over by it. That’s how unrepented sin is. It just gets bigger and bigger.
David’s refusal to repent immediately led to lies, cover up and murder. It got out of control. The sins added up. He started by coveting his neighbor’s wife. That snowballed to adultery. Then when that happened, he lied about. He was deceptive. Then it finally snowballed to the point where a man lost his life because David sinned. His idleness led to murder. Now when David was standing on the roof of the palace he wasn’t thinking, “Boy, I’d like to kill someone today,” but his lack of godly activity led to murder.
Uriah was murdered as a result of David’s sin. The child that was ultimately born as a result of this sin die as well. Two lives were lost because David sinned. David’s family was also a mess after this.
B. Repentance leas us back to GOD.
Repentance is when we confess that we have sinned, and we desire to change our ways. Repentance doesn’t mean that we repent until the next time that we think we can get away with it. It means that we change our ways. That’s why the Apostle James gives us the following advice, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded.”
We are to change our ways. We are to turn around and walk the other direction from the direction that led to our sin.
At first, David walked in the same direction. He went on sinning. Later he did repent and change his ways.
We know full well when we sin. We know it. It is up to us at that point to stop and repent.
It’s like when you’re typing. As I type, I can feel if I have made the wrong keystroke. I can do one of two things. I can either let it go and hope everything will work out, or I can go back and make it right.
Conclusion
We must refrain from idleness. We must resist temptation. And, we must repent sin. We are faced with enough temptation in our world today, so we cannot allow ourselves to give the devil an opening by being idle. When temptation does come, and it will, we must resist it with the help of God’s grace. If we do sin, we must immediately repent.
Where are you at today? Is idleness opening the door to temptation? Just because you are busy, doesn’t mean you’re not idle. David was busy, but he allowed idleness to creep into his life.
Are you being tempted? God has the grace to help you resist temptation. We can stand up to the devil and tell him to get lost.
Is there sin that needs repentance? God is waiting for you to make it right.
Let’s agree today to refrain from idleness and think on godly things. Let’s agree to seek God’s help in resisting temptation. Let’s agree to repent sin before it consumes us and more people get hurt.
