“How did this happen?” Have you ever read or heard a news story that just left you with that thought? “How did this happen?” I think that there were quite a few people that felt that way last Sunday afternoon as the heard the news of the 41 yar-old basketball superstar, Kobe Bryant’s death. Many people were shocked by the news, left wondering, “How did this happen?” Or maybe it’s the latest scandal. You hear about what was actually going on “behind the scenes” of someone you thought you knew so well, someone that you had grown to admire. There you are left wondering, “How did this happen?” When you read through 2 Samuel 11 and hear the account of David and Bathsheba, that truly gragic scandal, you may be left wondering, “How did this happen?” You might even wonder if this is the same David that you thought you knew so well. The David who courageously killed the giant Goliath, the man who wrote the book of Psalms? How did this happen?
The answer begins in the opening verse of 2 Samuel 11 where we’re told, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army… But David remained in Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1). Spring was the time when kings normally led their militaries into battle to secure and expand the boundaries of their kingdoms. But where do we find KING David? The man who had slain giants and brought Israel some of its greatest victories about which songs were written, decided to sit this one out. Instead of being the king that God had called him to be, David decided to stay at home, sitting safely in his palace in Jerusalem – or at least he thought.
One evening, David couldn’t sleep. He got up to get some fresh air. While walking around the palace roof overlooking the kingdom that God had given him, he saw a woman bathing. Instead of looking away, he called one of his servants to find out who this bathing beauty was. The man told him, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite” (2 Samuel 11:3). Did you catch the multiple warnings that this man’s answer includes? First, she is the WIFE of someone. Second, she is not just the wife of some unknown person, she is the wife of URIAH. The Bible tells us that Uriah was one of David’s bodyguards. Therefore, David likely knew or at the very least had heard of Uriah. This was not impersonal. But none of those warnings stopped David from acting on the lust in his heart. He tells the man to get Bathsheba and bring her back to the palace. He sleeps with her and sends her home in the morning.
I wonder how often David thought about that night? Did he give it a second thought or just chalk it up to the “perks” of being the king, just another one of his conquests? It’s hard to know. But that single night would soon become the sole focus of David’s attention when Bathsheba told the king that she was pregnant. Now what? How was he going to explain this to Bathsheba’s husband Uriah? Maybe, “So Uriah, the funniest thing happened while you were gone fighting the enemies of my kingdom. I slept with your wife and now she’s pregnant. Welcome home!” How embarrassing that would be! No one could ever know what had happened! So David quickly collected his thoughts and formulated his plan. We might call David’s plan the “Get ‘em” plan. This plan had three phases.
Phase 1 – “Get ‘em home” If David could just get Uriah home, hopefully Uriah would sleep with Bathsheba and everyone would think that Bathsheba’s baby was his. Simple! But Uriah comes home and what does he do? Or maybe more accurately, what does he NOT do? He does NOT go home! To David’s frustration, Uriah explains that it just wouldn’t be right for him to sleep at home while his fellow soldiers were away from their families and fighting.
Phase 2 – “Get ‘em drunk” If Uriah was drunk, maybe he would lower his inhibitions and go home to sleep with his wife. But the next morning, where does David find Uriah? Sleeping at the palace. There was only one thing for David to do now. David was going to have to swallow his pride and tell Uriah the truth, right? Wrong! You can almost picture David rationalizing his next move by thinking, “Well, Uriah, I tried to avoid this, but you’ve given me no other choice. You have to go.”
Phase 3 – “Get ‘em killed” David sends Uriah back to battle with a message for Joab, the military commander of Israel’s army. The message was simple and to the point. Put Uriah on the front lines and then retreat, leaving Uriah to die. This phase went exactly as David had hoped. David and Bathsheba received the news that Uriah was killed in battle. In fact, this part of the plan almost went better than David could have hoped. Not only was he spared the embarrassment of people discovering his affair with Bathsheba, but he also looked really good in the eyes of the people who heard what he did next. He took the pregnant widow Bathsheba into his home and married her. That King David, what a great guy!
How did this happen? How did this happen to the man that the Bible describes as “A man after the Lord’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) As I read through this account there are three things that I see.
#1 Sinful Pride – Sinful pride convinced the king that he knew better than the King of kings, and Lord of lords. It began with David taking some time “off” from being the king and led to adultery and finally murder. Sinful pride convinced David that he knew better than God, that he could ignore what God called him to do and be. The next is closely connected to this.
#2 Not Taking Sin Seriously – You can almost hear David convincing himself, “It’s just one look. It’s just one night. It’s just one life. It’s just…” Sin is NEVER, “It’s just…” And if you ever have any doubts about sin’s severity, take a look at Jesus at the cross and hear what David’s, Bathsheba’s, your and my sin did to Jesus. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” For each sin and for every sin, Jesus suffered an eternity of hell, a complete absence of hope and blessing. And when sins in not taken seriously it leads to this final thing…
#3 Covering Up Sin instead of Confessing Sin – When sin is not taken seriously, it leads people to do what David did – try to ignore it, justify it and explain it away. Instead of confessing his sin to the Lord and receiving the Lord’s forgiveness, David tried to cover up his sin. And by trying to cover it up, he refused to repent of his sin, and sadly pushed away God’s forgiveness, placing his eternal life in jeopardy.
I hope that not a single one of us ever finds ourselves in that situation. But like most things in our life, without preparation and prevention, we usually find ourselves in the very situations we never thought we’d ever be in. So how do we prevent this same thing from happening to us?
It begins by knowing what God’s will is for you and humbly following it. The Lord called David to be a king, but when David decided that he knew better how to be a king, he began to drift away from the Lord. What has the Lord called you to be? A Christian husband, wife, parent, friend, student, child, employee, employer, retiree? Learn from God’s Word how God wants you to carry out those various callings that God has given to you for your blessing and the blessing of others. Fight that sinful pride that daily tries to convince us that we don’t need his guidance, that we know better than him how to be what he has called us to be.
Next, when we realize that we have failed to follow God’s will, take sin seriously. Can you imagine going to the doctor who says to you, “Well, the biopsy came back and it’s just a little cancer. If we don’t treat it right away it will eventually kill you. I wouldn’t worry about it. Come back next year.” I think that you’d be looking for a new doctor, right? You’d want to address that cancer as soon as possible so that it doesn’t result in something worse. The Lord says the same thing about sin, “But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14,15). James reinforces what Jesus said in our gospel lesson from Mathew 5. Take sin seriously no matter what stage you find it at. Repent of it and cut it out so that it does not advance to the spiritual death of hell that is described by James. Yes, there is always the temptation to belittle sin, shrug it off and justify it. Dear friends, sin is not something to be ignored. It is something to be confessed and repented of that we may hear what David would eventually hear when he repented of his sin.
Sadly, King David lived in this state of denial and impenitence for at least nine months, until Bathsheba gave birth to their son. And when David finally did come to his senses and admitted, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13), the Lord said through the prophet Nathan the same thing we hear from the Lord, “The Lord has taken away your sin” (2 Samuel 12:13). How did that happen? It was because of David’s greatest descendant, Jesus, who took David’s, Bathsheba’s, your, mine, all people’s sins upon himself. He carried them away forever and brought us peace with God. That message of God’s love and forgiveness strengthens us in our daily battles against sin, empowers us to humbly trust God’s will and to make changes that reflect that trust, confident of God’s blessing, as we live as the holy people that God has called us to be. Amen.
