Sunday School | David - 2 Samuel 11

Good morning, everybody. It's been a little while. It's good to see your faces and to hear your murmuring voices. It would also be lovely to stop hearing your murmuring voices. That would be lovely. Kelly and I were on vacation. We were gone the last couple Sundays, and before that, I think we did something special. I can't remember what it was. So it's been a little while.

Bob, you taught last week or two weeks ago?

Last week. You did it last—wait, wait. What chapter did you do last week?

I did nine and ten.

You're on eleventh.

Yes.

Okay. You did nine and ten. Okay, very good. Alright, I knew that there was that weird kind of moment, so we're hitting into this.

The Turning Point in David's Story

Here's what we're going to do, you guys. We are kind of finally, finally at this study of David's life at this ominous moment that we've been waiting to get to forever. We have been saying for months now that David is the archetype of the Messiah. Right? David's life sets the pattern for Messiah. He was the man after God's own heart, and he has in lots and lots of ways just been crushing it. Right? He gets so very many things really, really right.

But because probably many of you already know the broader story of David, we've been alluding to the fact that there's an ominous day coming when the wheels are gonna come off, and that's basically gonna be right now.

Reviewing David's Excellencies

Want you to think back to the last couple weeks that Bob was teaching. We'll just go there, and then we'll kinda look backward. What are some of the excellencies that you've seen in David's life? What are some of the ways that he foreshadows or anticipates or sets the pace for what the Messiah would be when he would come? You can go back to look if you want to look at chapters nine, look at your Bible. Look at second Samuel nine and ten. We'll do this by way of review of the stuff that you guys looked at while we were gone, and then we'll kinda look past that. So where has David been excellent already, you guys? What's the signs of his really supremacy among the kings of Israel, kings of Judah? What do you got, John?

He's a brilliant, outstanding headbuster.

Yes. And so in terms of battle, right? So you saw in chapter 10, right, last week, you guys would have seen that he just once again has tremendous military victory. He's dominant. He's supreme. Everywhere he goes, he just wins his battles, for sure. Kat?

Kind and ethical.

Okay. Where have you seen his kindness lately?

Well, just in the last chapter when he tried to make friends with the king.

Yes. Rejected him.

Yes. Very good. So in chapter 10, yeah. And it's so interesting. Not only is he constantly moving towards this king—right, he sends the delegation to be friendly and supportive of a neighbor—but he's thought to be evil. He's thought to be manipulative. He's thought to be conniving. And so then they cut off their robes and all that kind of stuff. That's right. And so that's also like Jesus—that David moves towards people with graciousness and kindness, and sometimes ill motives are impugned against him. Right? That's gonna be very much fulfilled in Jesus' life.

You also see where else have you seen kind of lately the high mark of David's kindness?

To Mephibosheth.

Did you get into the word chesed? Did you talk about chesed kindness?

Yeah. I show chesed to him, and then in 10, he wants to show chesed to—

That's right. That's right. And so Mephibosheth has this gray line. If you weren't here two weeks ago, Mephibosheth is the grandson of Saul. Right? He is the son of Jonathan, and he was crippled because of some accident when he was a little kid. And David decides to show kindness to him, to basically invite him to essentially adopt him into the king's family, and he would feast at the king's table, and he would be provided for as opposed to being a beggar in the street. And Mephibosheth's response is, you know, "Who am I that you would regard a—" what does he call himself? "A dead dog?"

Am I remembering that right?

That you would regard a dead dog like me. Right? And so you not only see the military victory, the power, the supremacy of David, but you see his lowliness and his kindness, his tendency to show mercy to the undeserving. Right? Where else have you seen David be Messiah-like?

His loyalty.

Father, yes. Yes. Definitely. In all the examples of Saul saying, "You are the anointed one. I will not kill God's anointed." Yes. Over and over and over again. His respect that he showed Saul—even throwing spears at him, leading armies against him—was really a respect of the father. If the father has placed, if God has placed Saul in his position of authority, then who am I to question it? Right? And I think we saw that over and over again, that David having a heart after—you know, how does that phrase go?

He's a man for God's own heart was manifest in that supreme obedience, that willingness to suffer, that unwillingness to raise his hand against another. Again, very much like Messiah. Jesus, when he comes, he's gonna entrust himself to him who judges justly and not defend himself.

As a lamb before her shearers is silent, so he will be silent.

Right? All of those things anticipate what Jesus would fundamentally be.

Prayer

Yeah. One more? Prayer. He is. We see that. Can you do any events kind of particularly come to mind?

Well, I just think every time something happened, it seemed like he was always going to God. What should I do in this situation? Not relying on his military prowess necessarily, but always seeking God's will, God's blessing.

Yes. We see it oftentimes, seeking God's will, he would routinely inquire of the Lord. Lord, if I do this, will this happen? If you want me to do this, what do you want me to do? There's a great degree of humility. It's always coupled with something interesting because he's seeking the Lord. He's humble before him, but he's always coupling it with strategy and work and labor. He's not using prayer as an excuse to not do the things he's doing, and he's not allowing his work to bolster his arrogance, and he's not relying on the Lord. And so you see both of those things play out in David's life repeatedly.

And of course, when Jesus comes, he stays up all night to choose. It's so insane. Does Jesus' prayer life trouble you at all? Like, because he's God. Right? And he stays up all night long praying before he selects his 12 disciples. And you kinda feel like, Jesus, you probably could have gotten this on the backstroke. Right? But his whole life, he is dependent before the Father. It rebukes me because do you have areas of competence? Do you have areas that you feel like, it's fine, I've got this, and then perhaps in those you are less dependent? Jesus' whole life was that, and yet he was more dependent on the Father. I would be willing to bet money than anyone in this room. It's extraordinary. Right? And you do see the same things in David's life.

Excellent. Lily, were you gonna add something?

Oh, yeah. I was also, we see him kind of presenting part of that prophecy that you see about Christ. He's both prophet and king, which you see throughout the Psalms, David's prophecy.

Yes. And so, yeah, so there's these three great roles: prophet, priest, and king. And David is in a funny place because he's clearly the king, and he's not a priest. We're gonna see you're not allowed to be a priest. That's gonna be a big issue laying down the road with Uzziah. And yet he is functioning in that space in a similar way the Messiah will be of interceding for God to the people and kind of playing in that role. So David does fulfill that space that really only the Messiah can, and he's doing a fantastic job. Right?

David as the Messiah Template

Now we had said months ago, maybe you recall this, that early on in Genesis 49, the promise was made that someone would come from the line of Judah, not Lion, from the line of Judah. He is called the Lion of Judah. Someone will come from Judah who will be king, who will rule over Israel. And throughout the rest of the Old Testament, from that point on, from Genesis 49 on, there's this search, Who is he? Who is he? Who is he? And when David hits the scene, we're like, Oh, I got an idea who it is. I think it's David. And in instance after instance after instance, David gets it right. He does the right thing, and he kind of raises our hope that maybe this is the guy. Maybe this is the one to whom the scepter belongs. Maybe this is the one that will wear the turban. Maybe this is the eternal kingdom.

And then you get this language that comes in. We saw it recently of that David's kingdom will be an eternal kingdom. They will never fail to have someone on the throne. And all the hope is building up that this is the guy. And then what happens in chapter 11 is that, unmistakably, this is not the guy. David is the template for Messiah. He gives us the pattern of Messiah. He reveals to us what the Messiah will be like, and he reveals unmistakably he is not Messiah.

Chapter 10, and I don't know if you guys got into this at all last week, Bob, but chapter 10 is the high watermark of David's kingdom. This is it, man. This is like it is everything he's just crushing it. Everything is going well. He is doing well. He is succeeding. And that was last week, chapter 10. And from this point on, every week until we're done this thing, the wheels are coming off. And we're going watch it is one of the most disappointing pivots in the entire Scripture. We've spent months delighting in the supremacy of David, and from here on out, it's bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

So let's take a look at where things go south for David. Take a look at chapter 11. Chapter 11 let's see. We'll start here. Second Samuel chapter 11 verse one.

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, and they destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. — 2 Samuel 11:1

Now, you might recall one of the things that we're trying to learn to do here is just how do you read narrative? Narrative is different. The author is not always telling you what everything means. He doesn't always say, "This was good. This was bad." Sometimes you'll get that. What's the clue here that something bad is about to happen in those first couple of verses? David stayed home.

This is very subtle, right? But if you read this: "In spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David remained in Jerusalem." What they're saying is he was supposed to do something, but he didn't. And what's the little saying about idle hands or the devil's workshop? You know this idea? David is supposed to go off and defend his kingdom. He's supposed to go off doing things, but instead he just goes up to the roof. And everything that's going to follow is going to be in some regard an outworking of this act of negligence. And that's ominous to me because have you ever neglected something insignificant? Have you ever taken some small thing and thought, "I'm supposed to do this, but I'll just do it later," and later never comes? Sometimes things just spin out of control.

So why does David not go off to war? Why does David essentially abdicate his responsibility? It may be that David is saying, "I'm too important for war." And I think that's what led to the next thing. It may very well be that layered into this is arrogance. We're going to see some things that are unmistakably arrogant in a few minutes. But does it begin at that level of, "You know what? Just have somebody else do it. I'm not going to get my hands dirty"? Which is crazy because David just had his hands dirty for months and months and months. Maybe he's tired. Maybe he's weary of it. But now that he decides, "I'll let Joab do it," what's going to come right on the heels of that is he's just going to be bored. And when you're bored and there's some naked girl hanging over there, it's like one plus one and off we go. But it's going to fall apart. It's going to go crazy bad.

Maybe David's already been on the rooftop, and he's thinking, "You know what? I could go fight a war. I could hang out here. My seven wives have frankly grown boring. Let's go see." I mean, who knows, right?

The Fateful Evening

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" — 2 Samuel 11:2-3

If I were to ask you who is Uriah the Hittite, what would you say? I think most of us would say that Uriah's claim to fame is that he's the husband of Bathsheba. Is that a fair assumption? When you hear Uriah's name, you think, "Oh, Uriah, the dude with Bathsheba." But did you know that Uriah was a big deal before he married Bathsheba? Uriah was a big deal in David's kingdom well before Bathsheba. And that's going to add a little bit of flavor to the story.

It's hard to know how complicit Bathsheba was with this. When the king summons you, I think you go. It's hard to tell. Was he essentially using his authority in an abusive, coercive way, or was she all too happy to get in with the king? We don't know.

The thing is, she wasn't on the roof on display. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing. David has a high altitude. His palace probably has a commanding view, and he might be able to see into all sorts of courtyards. So we have tended to put Bathsheba as if she's on display. Maybe.

But I'm a little more sympathetic to Bathsheba. I think that David is certainly in a position of power that he could use coercively and may have. So I'm a little more sympathetic to Bathsheba. John?

Her father Eliam was also one of David's men. Okay, hang on. I'm going to walk you through that right now. So here's the thing. At the very end of 2 Samuel, there's essentially an appendix—it's like more data that fills back into the earlier story. The end of the book doesn't follow chronologically. It's just like an appendix: here's more news. So go up to that. I want you to see this. Go to 2 Samuel 23. This is this appendix. It fills in the details of some of the things that have already happened, and it basically gives you a list of all of David's super big deal guys—like his inner circle, his most powerful guys. And if you were to read through it, it would grow a little tiresome, I think. But it says things like this.

In second Samuel 23, look at verse nine. It's beginning to list all these people that worked for David that were top soldiers. Next to him was Eleazar, son of Dodi the Ahohite, as one of the three mighty men. He was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim for the battle. When the men of Israel retreated, but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. And the Lord brought about a great victory that day. And the troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead. — 2 Samuel 23:9

If you go down to verse 13:

During the harvest time, three of the 30—note that, the 30 chief men—came down to David at the Cave of Adullam. Remember that? The Cave of Adullam. We read about that some time ago. While the band of the Philistines were encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. — 2 Samuel 23:13

If you continue on down, you go down to verse 39 of 2 Samuel 23. Verse 39 is Uriah the Hittite. So when David asks the question, "Yo, who's the girl in the bathtub?" and the answer comes back, "Oh, that's Uriah's wife." Uriah was not some normal dude. This is—he's saying, David, this is the wife of one of your most loyal soldiers. This is the wife of one of your guys. This is the wife of one of the guys that has risked his life to establish your kingdom. That's who's in the bathtub. Right?

And as if that's not enough, she's not only the wife of Uriah, but she is the daughter of Eliam. And if you look in that same section there, chapter 23, go back up to verse 34, you'll find:

Eliam, son of Ahithophel the Gilonite — 2 Samuel 23:34

So who's the woman in the bathtub? Well, she is the wife of one of your most loyal soldiers and the daughter of another one of your most loyal soldiers. And she's not your wife. Right, Kelly?

Yeah, Ahithophel. What's his story? I didn't look him up. Oh, that's so interesting. I didn't make that connection. His inner circle advisor. Yeah. So like, you probably knew this too close. This is so bad. It's so bad. Right?

Now, if she were none of those things, it would still be really bad. It would be—actually, do you know what's a capital offense? According to Israeli Jewish law, committing adultery is a capital offense. David could be dragged out and stoned to death. Okay? But in addition to that, she is the wife of one of his most loyal, the daughter of one of his most loyal, the granddaughter of this adviser. But she's also beautiful. And David says, "Have her come." And it's all—this is it. It is his king. It's all about to fall apart.

Bob?

The language here is so similar to Genesis 3 with Eve. She saw, it was beautiful. He took. Yep. That's what David's going to do.

He saw it was very beautiful. — Genesis 3

That's right. And that is like all of human nature. It begins there in the garden, but it carries on. Like, I see something, it's desirable to me, and so I take it. How many times does that pattern play out? To ruin, his consequences. I see it. I want it. I take it. Right? And that's what David's going to do.

So David sends messengers to get her in verse 4.

She came to him, he slept with her. She purified herself from her uncleanness, and then she went back home. — 2 Samuel 11:4

I think that line about purifying herself—why do you think the narrator puts that line in there? That she had purified herself from her uncleanness?

Yeah, may be, may very well be. I don't think she went in there doing—these women didn't have that kind of power to say over their lives. Yes. So this is why I'm inclined to be sympathetic. I think that it is a power imbalance here, and she's disadvantaged in that. But the uncleanness—what they're talking about is her menstruation cycle.

Suzanne?

She's not pregnant. That's right. She's not pregnant before she left. Right?

Before her husband went off to war, she wasn't pregnant. But now she happens to be right in her fertile window. They're giving us some intimate details here. She wasn't pregnant, but she's fertile. And verse five, sure enough:

The woman conceived and sent word to David saying, I am pregnant. — 2 Samuel 11:5

So now we have a problem. The problem just got worse because now it's going to be harder to conceal. So if you're David, what's plan A at this point? What's his first reaction to this?

Get the husband home so that he doesn't have time. That's right. So step one is let's get Uriah home. Because if Uriah comes home, they'll be bad at math—eight months, nine months, whatever. So get Uriah home. It was about a 40-mile journey. Look at this:

So David sent word to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And of course, he's the king, so Joab sent him to David, and when Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was and how are the soldiers? How's the war going? And then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." — 2 Samuel 11:6-8

That's a euphemism. He's not concerned about his feet. He's saying, "Go home and relax. Go home, take a bath. I've heard you have a lovely bathtub."

Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house. — 2 Samuel 11:8

What are we to grab from that? Why does Uriah not go home? Why does he not go to bed with his wife? Because he's honorable. This is a twist to the knife. We have one man who has every right to sleep with Bathsheba, but he doesn't. Why does he not? Because all the other guys were out there fighting. Because the men are in the field. He's saying, "I'm still gonna be with my men. You're under my command."

So the narrator is stacking up this contrast. Uriah has the right to sleep with his wife. David does not. Uriah ought to be at war and wishes to be at war. And because he should be at war, he's refusing to take whereas David has no right to this woman, ought to be in the field, and he's advantaging himself in ways that are just completely unreasonable.

You see how they're laying up this contrast? The presence of the Lord is at war. It's not merely that the men are at war and he should be at war, but that the ark of the Lord is in a tent. He's like, "I'm gonna honor the Lord. If the Lord isn't gonna go to bed, I'm not either." It's a weird rationality. But at every level, Uriah gets it right. This is why he's one of the mighty men. This is why he's one of the 30. He's one of these guys because he does it right.

Uriah is a good type of evil. He's in heart and soul with the Israelites. He's not even Israel. He's a foreigner, and he is honoring Yahweh. He is not a descendant of Abraham, and yet he is honoring Abraham's God. The contrast should just stack up and stack up and stack up. So Uriah doesn't go home.

Plan B and Plan C

That's plan A. What's plan B? That's a little bit subtle. Look at verse 10:

When David was told Uriah did not go home, he asked him, "Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?" — 2 Samuel 11:10

Plan B is to pressure him, just to be like, "Dude, aren't you horny? What's going on here?" It's a little bit to insult his virility. Like, "Come on, dude. Let's man up and go home and do your thing." And he's not having that.

So plan A doesn't work. Plan B doesn't work. What's plan C? Get drunk. Get him drunk. This one is really interesting. So he says all these things about the ark and the men are in the fields.

Plan C, verse 12, Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." And by one more day, what he really means is one more night. Right? So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next, and at David's invitation he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening, Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants. He did not go home.

So it looks like plan C is just a replay of plan A. Go home with your wife. But there's a little more going on here. Does anybody know there's a subtle thing here? This would take an unusual degree of Biblical detail to notice this, but I really think there's a twisting of the knife here. Do you know what's going on?

Can you think of another time that somebody in the Bible wanted somebody else in the Bible to have sex, and so they got them drunk to make it happen? Lot's daughters. Yes. Exactly right. Do you guys know the story of Lot's daughters? So check this out. Go back to Genesis 19. I want you to see this because I really think there's more to the text going on here. I think this is on purpose. I think we're supposed to see this detail.

In Genesis 19, Lot had these daughters, and they wanted babies. And apparently, their dad was their only shot or their best shot, so they get their dad drunk so that he, in his oblivion, will sleep with them and get them pregnant.

Genesis 19 verse 30. Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. And one day, the older daughter said to the younger, our father is old, and there's no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. So let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father. That night, they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. He was not aware of it when she laid down or when she got up. The next day, the older daughter said to the younger, last night, I lay with my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and then you can go in and lie with him so that we can preserve our family line through our father. So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and lay with him. And again, he was not aware of it when she laid down and when she got up. So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. — Genesis 19

Now, do you know why I think this is intentional? Do you know, Bob? Well, the irony—he uses Uriah is fighting the Ammonites. The Ammonites are one of the Moabites and the Ammonites come from them. This is it. Okay? The battle that they're raging, the battle that Uriah is fighting, or he's kind of been pulled away from the battle, the battle that David should be in, is specifically against the Ammonites. These are the bad guys. These are the ones that we're fighting. And in the very process of trying to cover up his sin by committing another sin, he imitates the Ammonites.

Because if you stay here in Genesis 19, the next line here, verse 38:

The younger daughter also had a son. She named him Ben Ammi, and he is the father of the Ammonites of today. — Genesis 19:38

So the very people that he's fighting are the result of this incestuous drunken tryst brought about by the daughters, and David is imitating that incestuous drunken tryst by pulling Uriah away from the battle against the same people group. Make sense? Isn't that interesting?

All of that is meant to lay in for us to say, holy moly. Like, he blew it. We all know that David committed adultery with Bathsheba. That's bad. But he committed adultery with the wife of one of his most loyal men—the wife of one of the most loyal men, the daughter of one of the most loyal men, in an imitation of the very people that he's battling, with someone who is incredibly honorable to the Lord, doing everything right while he's doing everything wrong. The comparisons, the contrasts are grave, and David ruins everything. And it is gravely disappointing. He's taken his strategy from his own enemies, and plan C fails. Plan A failed. Plan B failed. Plan C failed.

Plan D: Murder

And so what's plan D? Kill him. Kill him. Alright. Man, I did all that I could, Uriah. I'm sure David is like, listen, I was trying to do you a favor, but if you're not going to cooperate, you've tied my hands. I have to take to the next step.

And so plan D is, verse 14:

In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. And in it, wrote, put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest, and then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die. — 2 Samuel 11:14

That's the nadir of the whole thing.

Another thing about this too is that David made up Uriah killed when he was documenting Uriah's command. Yeah, that's a good observation. We think of it as being Uriah, but more people are implicated in that. When one of your top guys dies in a battle because you put him in a strategically weak spot, it would be very unlikely that that would have some laser precision impact only on Uriah. Right? So this—and that's how sin works. Right? It just has concentric circles of compounding effect. So it's a great point.

Bearing in mind that adultery is a capital offense in Israel, that David could be executed, I want to read you a commentary on this moment. This is from one of my favorite commentaries on David's life. I want you to listen to what he says because this is really important.

All lesser measures having failed, David was now confronted with the horrible choice of either admitting that he committed a capital crime, thereby condemning himself to death, or ordering the death of one of his most valuable soldiers. But either way, someone would have to die. And since David was unwilling to order his own death, that someone was Uriah.

That phenomena—he dies or I die—is a very old story. And in fact, if you will just indulge me for a bit of current event, I want to suggest to you that that is precisely what's at stake in the abortion debate that has recently become such another flashpoint in our country and culture.

Years ago, I read one of the most insightful things that I've ever read about abortion, and it was essentially a letter. It was written by someone who was pro-life, and it was written to the pro-life movement, and essentially saying you don't understand the debate because when a woman is facing an unplanned pregnancy, what she feels like is at stake is her very life. If I have to have this baby, my life is over. If I have to have this baby, then basically I'm going to die. Perhaps not literally, but genuinely.

And as long as we continue this conversation and someone is facing a choice of somebody dies or I die, you always choose the other person dies. And if we're going to win this debate, if we're going to persuade hearts, we need to recognize the way that people experience this: he dies or I die, therefore he dies. Okay?

Now, when we frame it in those terms, it's both, I think, easier to see why, to be effective, to be persuasive, we need to enter into the genuine pain and the difficulty and the trouble and the risk of a situation that someone is in when they're having an unplanned pregnancy or an undesired pregnancy. Maybe we should say that. But we mustn't ever lose sight of the fact that somebody is dying. And in the United States, for the last—what is the number now? Forty years? How long have we been doing this? Fifty years? I forget. Seventy-three? Is that when Roe v. Wade was? So almost fifty years. Right? Forty-nine years. Something like sixty million babies have died. They were human beings. They were alive. They were persons, and they're dead.

Right? And the same impulse—great King David, the glorious King David, the one who was a man after his own heart—when he was confronted with a situation, said, somebody else dies or I die, I pick them. That thing, you guys, that richly resides in the human heart. The love of self above all else just dominates the world. And if we are to be a people here, first of all, as a church, as an individual and as a church, I think we have an obligation to vigorously speak of why we should be like Jesus who says, somebody else dies or I die. When Jesus was faced with that decision, what did he choose? He died. Right?

No one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for a friend. — John 15:13

And the essence of Christianity is if there's a choice between somebody else dying or I die, that we choose—I die. I will die. I will suffer. I will be the one that goes into harm's way for the good of the other. This is absolutely the central core of Christianity: to say that I will suffer so that someone else will be blessed.

And what we are hearing shattered from the rooftops in the culture is, no matter what happens, let somebody else die so that you may live. And we need to talk about this. We need to be gracious. We need to be humble because nobody likes to die. When people are in a difficult situation and feel like their life is ending, we need to move into that with grace and compassion and kindness and mercy.

But I have frankly been distressed in the last week to see the number of Christians, the number of people that I have discipled, the number of people that have come out of ministries that I have led communicating their distress that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. I spent my whole life trying to turn law students into Christ-centered laborers, and it seems like some significant percentage of my work is to turn law students into Christ-centered abortion advocates, and I don't understand it.

You guys, it's antithetical to your faith. The core of Christianity is that if somebody dies or I die, I die. We follow our savior who considered your life to be more important than his own. And the fact that we've gotten to a point in our culture where the essence of womanhood is the right to kill your own children, and forgive me for placing it so starkly, but that is exactly what is being said hundreds of times a day. The central core of womanhood is the right to have an abortion, and absent that, you have no rights. It is insanity. It is demonic. It is evil.

And we, Church of the Holy Spirit, we stay above the fray. We don't get into politics here because we want to keep our focus on this, but this is our focus. The center point of our faith is considering others' needs as more important than our own, others' lives as more important than our own. What David has done here is said, my life is more important than Uriah's life, so off with his head. And that's the moment it all goes to hell. David's kingdom, chapter after chapter, for the rest of his life, the wheels are gonna spin off. Don't lose sight of the fact, you guys, that central to our life in Christ is a valuing and a treasuring of other people, even little people, above ourselves. Makes sense?

I really appreciate you talking about that because the root of abortion—it isn't child sacrifice, is what it is. And Tommy observed a while back that it was, what is abortion but offering the sacrifice of the child on the altar of Molech. Exactly. It is the worship of Molech. Absolutely. Full stop.

Now, I imagine some of you in this room already agree with me, and some of you disagree, some of you are hurt by that, and that's okay. You're allowed to disagree with me. Talk to me about it. But I will seek to persuade you that everything I'm telling you is true, and that if you don't understand it, there's something that you're missing in the world. God is not in favor of the slaughter of the innocents that we have tolerated for centuries. Centuries, not forty years. This didn't start at Roe v. Wade. They were offering children to Molech centuries ago. And on it continues. See it for what it is.

I die or you die. I pick you. That was exactly what was in King David's heart, and it is what is in my heart too. And so we turn from it. We repent, and we ask for his grace to figure out how do I suffer so that someone else might be blessed.

The Consequences of Sin

Take a look at the final thing. Second Samuel eleven twenty-six:

When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. He was dead because David killed him. And after the time of her mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. — 2 Samuel 11:26–27

That's a little bit rare for the narrator. He doesn't often give us the divine judgment on the thing. But that statement right there, "the thing that David had done displeased the Lord"—that's going to explain the rest of the whole book right here. We're going to watch it spin out and spin out and spin out and spin out.

And you guys, it's just the nature of sin. I would love it. How wonderful would it be if I could control not only the extent of my sin, but the consequence of my sin. But I can't. I'm not that wise. I'm not that powerful. And things spin out in ways we don't see, and that's what's about to happen for David. We're gonna watch Nathan next chapter next week come in and rebuke David for this. But then a bunch of stuff that does not seem to be directly related to this, but that is absolutely related to this is gonna just unfold.

So we can be forgiven, and David is going to be forgiven. David is in heaven. David is awaiting the resurrection of his body. He longs to be in the kingdom that Jesus is bringing. He's a full member of that, and yet there's grave consequences for sure. And the same for us.

Every one of us, everyone in this room—I don't even know how many times we have been faced with the decision, you die or I die, and we chose ourselves. We don't like dying little deaths. We don't like dying big deaths. It doesn't trouble us nearly so much when somebody else dies little deaths. This phenomena that you see in David's heart has played out. This plays out in abortion, it plays out in a gajillion areas.

Which is why we praise the name that David, who was not sufficient to be the Messiah, anticipates one who is. Jesus comes into our lives with all of our brokenness and all of the shady stuff that we have pulled and all of the poor decisions and all the times that we've exalted ourselves above others, disadvantaged others for some petty gain—all of it, which is insane, all of it is paid for on the cross.

That we can walk in newness of life to be forgiven and cleansed. We don't need to drag around a giant barrel of shame for all the stuff that we've done, but we can live under his grace because he drank the pain on our behalf. Right? He comes from the father. Jesus came from the father full of grace and truth. The truth means we need to be honest and acknowledge the wickedness of the things that we've done. But the grace is that we live not as a cowering dog because we believe that he really has paid for it and he really does forgive it, and that we therefore would extend that grace to others.

Dan? One of the things that's a little stunning about what David does here is understanding that he's lived a life where he's been willing to give his life. He's a soldier. Over and over he puts himself into situations that absolutely could have resulted in his death. And so it is a part of him to be willing to give his life for God, for his king, before he was king, for his people. So there's something else going on here too.

Yeah, I think it's the issue of shame. You just touched on it that this wasn't a heroic giving of life that he was facing. This was a shameful giving of his life, and it actually kind of raises the question then of arrogance and of who he thinks he is. And to me, that's the real twist.

You're so wise. Like, we've often said—do I need to repeat any of that? Could you hear, Dan? Is that okay? In essence, David was always willing to give his life. He risks his life all the time. But in this instance, it wouldn't be a heroic giving of his life, but a shameful giving of his life, and he doesn't want to do that. And you remind me of something that we've said a thousand times: you have two options in life. You can look worse and get better or look better and get worse. And David does not want to look worse. This is embarrassing.

How many times has a politician gotten in trouble having sex with somebody he's not supposed to have sex with and then covers it up? This is an old, old, old, old, old story. Right? David doesn't want to be exposed. He's got seven wives, for crying out loud. He doesn't want to be exposed for that, and so it's not only that he doesn't want to die, but he doesn't want to be embarrassed. Think about that. If the officers were, "I could be embarrassed or you could die," I'll pick you die. And that's what he did.

Right? We often will trade someone else's life, big or small, and value it much less than all sorts of things in our own life. It's rough.

Prayer

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, will you just acknowledge there's something wrong with us? There's nothing in the world we love half as much as we love ourselves, and we don't love you half as much as you deserve to be loved.

Lord, it is both encouraging and discouraging to see David, the great one, completely fail, miserably fail. It provides some cover for my own embarrassment, my own weakness, my own foolishness and shortcomings, and it gives me hope that if you would love and forgive him, if Psalm 51 can be true for David, then it can be true for me, that you don't treat us as our sins deserve, Lord, that you forgive us.

And I pray for those here right now that are feeling the weight of their own badness and their own brokenness, the times that they have preferenced themselves over others, that they would cling to you for grace, to live in newness of life, forgiveness and grace.

And Lord, I pray that as a church and as a country, as a culture, we would increasingly look like you. We would increasingly value others more than we value ourselves. We acknowledge that we have a long way to go in that. Come soon. Restore all things. Fill us with your spirit.

We love you. Amen.