2 Samuel 11,12; Psalm 51,32
Peace be with you, listening
friends. We greet you in the name of God, the Lord of peace, who wants everyone
to understand and submit to the way of righteousness that He has established,
and have true peace with Him forever. We are happy to be able to return today
to present your program The Way of Righteousness.
In our last program, we saw how David became the King
of Israel. David was a just and compassionate king who sincerely cherished the
Word of God. Today, however, we are going to read something
about David which is not pleasant to hear. David did
something that was abominable in God's sight; he coveted his neighbor's wife,
committed adultery with her, and then added sin to sin by attempting to cover
it up. Some may ask, "Why is such an awful story found in the Holy
Scriptures?" The Scripture answers this question when it says: "Everything
that was written in the past was written to teach us!" (Rom. 15:4) "These
things…were written down as warnings for us…So, if you think you
are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" (1 Cor. 10:11,12) In the
Holy Scriptures, God does not hide the sins of the prophets because God wants
to teach us valuable lessons.
Now then, let us return to the second book of Samuel
and see how David fell into sin. In chapter eleven, the Scripture says:
(2 Sam. 11) 1In
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. They destroyed the Ammonites
and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2One
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, 3and
David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba…the
wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4Then David
sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her…then she
went back home. 5The woman conceived and sent word to David,
saying, "I am pregnant."
Next, the Scriptures describe how David tried to cover
up his sin. When David heard that Bathsheba was pregnant, he sent word to Joab,
the leader of his army, and ordered him to send to him Uriah, Bathsheba's
husband. Now Uriah was a mighty man in the army of Israel. And so Joab sent
Uriah to David.
(2 Sam. 11) 7When
Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how
the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to
your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from
the king was sent after him. 9But Uriah slept at the entrance
to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house. 10When
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?" 11Uriah
said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my
master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to
my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will
not do such a thing!"
12Then
David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you
back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next… 14In
the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15In
it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest.
Then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die." 16So
while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the
strongest defenders were. 17When the men of the city came out
and fought against Joab, some of the men in David's army fell; moreover, Uriah
the Hittite died. 18Joab sent David a full account of the
battle […with the news:] 21"Your servant Uriah the Hittite
is dead."
26When
Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27After
the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she
became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done
displeased the Lord.
(2 Sam. 12) 1[Thus,
one day] The Lord sent [a prophet by the name of] Nathan to
David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain
town, one rich and the other poor. 2The rich man had a very
large number of sheep and cattle, 3but the poor man had nothing
except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up
with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even
slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4Now a
traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of
his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him.
Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for
the one who had come to him."
5[When
David heard this story, he] burned with anger against the man and said to
Nathan, "As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this
deserves to die! 6He must pay for that lamb four times
over, because he did such a thing and had no pity!" 7Then
Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the Lord,
the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you
from the hand of Saul. 8…I gave you the house of Israel and
Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9Why
did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You
struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.
You killed him with the sword of the Amonites. 10Now,
therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you despised
me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.' 11This
is what the Lord says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity
upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who
is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12You
did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all
Israel!'" 13Then David said to Nathan, "I
have sinned against the Lord!" Nathan replied, "The Lord has
taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14But
because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter
contempt, the son born to you will die."15Nathan went home.
In the following chapters, the Scriptures show us how
David's sin produced great trouble and many tragedies within his family. But
the Word of God also says: "Where sin increased, grace increased
all the more." (Rom. 5:20) Thus, in the remaining time today, we will
see how God showed David His grace, and forgave him all
his sins.
Why did God forgive
David of his sins? Did you hear how David responded when Nathan said to
David, "You are the man!"? God's prophet, Nathan,
had great courage to say such a thing to the great King of Israel. How did
David answer Nathan? Did he lock Nathan in prison or even have him executed, as
many kings might have done? No, he did not do this. Did David try to justify
his sins by saying, "God willed it!" or "God is good, perhaps He
will erase my evil deeds because of my good deeds!"? Did David answer
Nathan like that? No, David did not! Then how did David respond? David said, "I
have sinned!" "I have sinned against the Lord!"
To better understand how David confessed his sin
before God, we need to read what David wrote in the Psalms after the prophet
Nathan rebuked him for his sin with Bathsheba. In Psalm fifty-one, David said:
(Psa. 51) 1Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your
great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2Wash away all my
iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4Against you,
you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are
proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. 5Surely
I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6Surely
you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 7Cleanse
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 10Create
in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 17The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you
will not despise!
This is how David repented. David mourned greatly
because of his sin. He had a broken and crushed heart before God. David
was not like those who have religion, but continue in sin every day. Truly, David had fallen
into the pit of sin, but he could not live in it, because David loved God, and
knew that "God is light; in him there
is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)
So then, after David repented, what did God say to him
through the mouth of the prophet Nathan? Did God tell him, "Go and do some
good works and I will erase your sins!"? No, God did not say that! Nathan
simply said to him, "The Lord has
taken away your sin. You are not going to die!"
After this, David wrote in the Psalms, describing the
blessedness of the man whom God has forgiven, apart from his
own works. He
said: "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the
Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no
deceit!" (Psa.
32:1,2; Rom. 4:7,8) Yes, God forgave David and judged him as righteous! That
does not mean that God removed the tragedies that David's sin produced. What it
means is that, in the Day of Judgment, God would not remember David's sins. He
had erased them all from His book!
How could God do that? How could God forgive
all the sins of David and yet remain a righteous judge? Could God simply
forget, just like that, all the evil which David had done? No! God is a
righteous judge, and He cannot merely close His eyes to the sins of the
children of Adam. Well then, how could God forgive David, and still maintain
His righteousness?
Do you remember what David prayed to God after he recognized
his sin? He prayed, "Wash away all my
iniquity…Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and
I shall be whiter than snow!" (Psa. 51:2,7) God had
commanded the Israelites to use the branch of the hyssop plant for sprinkling
the blood of the sacrifices. The sprinkled blood illustrated the great
sacrifice of the coming Redeemer who would willingly die,
shedding His blood as a payment for sins.
God could forgive David his sins because David had repented (turned from sin to God)
and believed in God's power to
cleanse him by the work of the coming Redeemer. David might have offered to God
a prayer something like this: "Oh God, I am grieved over my sin and ask
you to forgive me! I know that you can forgive me of my sins, because one day
you will send the Redeemer, who has no sin, and He Himself will endure for me
the punishment for my sin once and forever. Therefore Lord, have mercy on me, a
sinner! Wash me in the blood of the holy Redeemer, and I shall be completely
pure!"
Did God, in His grace, forgive David all his sins? Did
God cleanse David's heart and judge him as righteous? Yes, He did! On what
basis did God do this? God forgave David because he confessed his sinful condition
before God, and believed what God had promised
concerning the Redeemer, who would come and bear the punishment for sin. The
faith he had in the promises of God is the reason David could rejoice, and
write in the Psalms: "Blessed is he whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered! Blessed is the man whose
sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit!" (Psa. 32:1,2)
Friends, thank you for listening. In our next two
lessons, in the will of God, we will look into the holy book of Psalms to see
what the prophet David testified concerning the Redeemer, who would bear our
punishment, so that God could forgive us our sins forever.…
God bless you as you think about this verse David
wrote in the Psalms concerning one of God's greatest blessings:
"Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered! Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no
deceit!" (Psa. 32:1,2)
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