The Other side of King David

The Other side of King David

Introduction:

King David was the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse and used to tend sheep for his father. As “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7b) David was God’s choice to succeed King Saul. At an appropriate time God revealed His choice to Prophet Samuel. It so happened that Israel’s first king Saul was rejected by God due to his rebellious attitude. The story is found in 1 Samuel 13. Samuel confronting Saul told him, “You acted foolishly”, Samuel said. “You have not kept the command God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.” (1Samuel 13: 13-14) Latter on David was anointed by the prophet Samuel, served Saul as his armor- bearer and played harp to relieve Saul of evil spirits.

David is also known for writing the psalms and his passion for the Lord. The psalms reveal his deep hunger and thirst for the Lord, his yarning, the deeper cry for fellowship, simply to be with the Lord. (Psalm 27:4, 42:1, 23) His love and passion for the Lord was unparalleled, an upright person at heart. Later on the apostle Paul testified about him, “After removing Saul, he (God) made David their king. He (God) testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” During his childhood David had done many exploits, and became very popular after killing Goliath, a Philistine giant, an enemy of God’s people. David’s friendship with Jonathan, his loyalty to King Saul, despite Saul’s enmity, the victories in war, extending the borders and bringing increase to Israel make him very special king. In spite of all the virtues that he had, there is one incident in his life that expose the other side of King David’s person, the weaker side, the flesh, the lust, the cravings for sin.

A time to war:

It is said, “In the Old Testament New Testament is concealed, in the New Testament Old Testament is revealed.” New Testament helps us better understand the incidents that took place in the OT. “These things happened to them as examples and written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” (1Cor. 10: 11) The ‘Church’ as body of Christ and every individual Christian as part of the body is very important in God’s overall plan and purpose for the future. We are called to be disciples, learners which put more responsibility on individual shoulders to learn from the past and be the person we are called to be. May we learn from the life of David, especially from his mistakes. Our text is from 2 Samuel 11 and 12.

“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. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem”. (2 Samuel 11:1)

Spring time is the most suitable time for kings to go to war. This season is very different from monsoon when one cannot move around easily due to continuous rain fall, muddy roads and difficult transportation of army and arms. It was not like modern time roads and electronically controlled armor carriers in those days. The army had either to walk or use horses and horse drawn carts for carriage. Winter posed the same situation. Cold weather would make it impossible to come in the open and engage in dog fight, face to face, one to one, as was the practice in those days. So the spring time was the war time.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity in heaven”

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot, ….

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.” (Eccl. 3:1-8)

It needs to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and take advantage of God’s appointed time in every situation. But we find King David indifferent and insensitive and missing the opportunity. At a time that he should have been in the war front leading his men, bringing them encouragement by his presence, he sent Joab with the army but he himself remained back in Jerusalem. What was going on in his mind? He might have been feeling too tired to lead yet another war and felt like relaxing; his leaders might be capable to win the war; the enemy might be very weak making the King’s presence unnecessary. Whatever might have been the reason King David stayed back in Jerusalem.

There are two ways one may commit a sin; sins of omission and sins of commission. One may commit a sin by not doing what he should have done- sins of omission. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and does not do it, sins.” (James 4:17) At this point King David should have been in the war front but he wasn’t there, just taking rest at his comfortable palace in Jerusalem! What about the ‘church’ here and now? We are put in warfare too! Jesus commands ‘Go!’ leave the comfort zone, leave Jerusalem! Make disciples, baptize them, and teach them! Where are we? What are we doing? We cannot be indifferent; the world is suffering and ding without Jesus. The church is commanded to bind (the powers of darkness) and lose (the Power of God) so that the world may enter the kingdom. If we believe, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) then it is urgent that we act and get people saved by Jesus. King David might have been satisfied by the victory his men were making in the war but we need to please our Master and not sit back. ‘Sins of Omission’ and ‘Sins of Commission’ go hand in hand. When we do not do what we should be doing, we usually start doing something which we shouldn’t be doing!!

Flesh gives birth to flesh:

David’s story continues in Jerusalem. “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,” (2 Sam 11:2). Another translation says, “The woman was very beautiful to behold” or to look at. It was very natural for a king to enjoy the evening breeze on the roof top. It was also very natural for the woman living in a tropical city like Jerusalem to take bath in the evening. She was taking this bath also for her purification. David was not there intently, he did not know there lived a beautiful woman and that she would be bathing exactly the same time he walked on the roof top. But it so happened that while he was there on the roof, the woman was taking bath, she was beautiful to look at and David could not control himself.

Physically women are made different from men. This started long back in creation. The first woman Eve was made of one of the ribs of Adam and the moment Adam saw her, he burst out with a song, the first song ever sung for a lady in creation:

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called woman,

for she was taken out of man.” (Gen 2:23)

Women are granted (by God) a very different appearance, they are meant for attraction. Men are strong, robust, masculine, rough, blunt, hard, course; on the contrary women are delicate, feminine, lovely, tender, beautiful etc. At Tung Ling Bible School many years back we played ‘Angels’ and ‘Mortals’. It was just to teach about practical giving and esteeming each other. Every student had his ‘angel’ and every angel had his ‘mortal’. The angels would communicate with their individual mortals and share gifts and the mortals would respond the same way, but without revealing their identity. So no angel knew about their mortal and no mortal knew about their angel. It was a very interesting game which continued for about two weeks and at the end there was a big ceremony where the angels and mortals would bring gifts for each other and identify each other. Something everybody enjoyed greatly. My angel had gifted me a card which contained description of my physical appearance; I brought the card home with me and had treasured it for long time. The card read like this, “How handsome you are my darling, my dear mortal, your hairs are like broom sticks, your eyes are like two holes with burning coal in them, your nose is like openings of two drains flowing together, your cheeks are like lawns of dried grass on it, both of your hand like skeletons, your hips are like two boulders set on a cliff”. There might have been some more about my stunning personality but this is sufficient to describe me.

The women are made different, beautiful to behold. Every feature is special, from head to toe they are described in poetry, every part of the body have enormous power to attract the opposite sex. As a man I know and have felt it. The ‘Lover’ of the Song of Songs has provided a description of his ‘Beloved’ very well expressing his feelings for her. He says, “How beautiful you are my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves, Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead”…the ‘lover’ continues…Your two breasts are like two fawns, like the twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies….All beautiful you are my darling; there is no flaw in you”. (Songs 4:1-7) Again the ‘beloved’ is described in Songs 7: 1-9. The lover finds no flaw in his beloved.

The woman taking bath was also beautiful to behold. And King David saw her. He is described as a man after God’s own heart. But as a human being he was at the same time made of flesh and blood, he also had the same inherent ‘sinful nature’ and was prone to temptation. Women attract men and the attraction is very strong. We all as men have felt the power of that ‘pull’ and it is difficult to take our eyes away (from a beautiful woman). The sharp features, the eyes, the curves, the hair, the whole of the body, from head to toe every bit of the woman are there to attract. Every man knows and feels it deep in the heart. It is there but we keep the feelings within. Man is helpless at this point. And King David found himself very helpless too. The apostle Paul expresses how helpless man is before the inherent nature,

“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7: 18 – 24)

The body that we have is made of flesh and blood. Members of the body are ruled by the law of sin, making them its prisoner. This makes man helpless, doing what he does not really want to do. Paul evaluates himself as a wretched man, crying for rescue. With Paul we find Jesus who is able to deliver us from the situation. We are not sinners because we have committed sins in our lives, but we commit sins because we are (born) sinners. And God knows this as we are his handiwork. But for David he had no control over his flesh. He gave in. Jesus had told the disciples to “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing (to obey God), but the body (of flesh and blood) is weak (and prone to sin).”(Mat. 26:41) Sin is also pleasurable and the flesh enjoys it. We are body, soul and spirit, triune person – three in one. The inherent sinful nature provokes the flesh and keeps on provoking. Man is given natural appetite, we hunger and thirst for food and drink. We are given the same appetite for sex as well. Lust is appetite out of control. Man can lust after food and man can lust after sex. For that reason every man is granted a wife and every woman is granted a husband. Paul says, “But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty (provide sexual satisfaction) to his wife, and likewise the wife (provide sexual satisfaction) to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive (reject or deny a request for sex) each other except by mutual consent and for a time (not to have sex), so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again (to have sex) so that Satan will not tempt you (to indulge in adultery) because of your lack of self control (as sinful nature is always active to provoke you to lust).” (1Cor. 7: 2-5, brackets added for ease to understand.) Therefore it is wise to understand ourselves and use wisdom to overcome the sinful nature. “Therefore, brothers we have an obligation – but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God,” (Rom 8: 12, 13)

The Adultery:

King David saw Bathsheba taking bath, she was very beautiful to behold. He did not stop there; he was not content by simply ‘seeing’ the woman. Lust of the eyes leads to yet another step, lust of the flesh. After ‘seeing’ what happens next? Seeing is enjoyed and it provokes the thought which ends in action. Man reaps what he sows: a principle applicable in every life situation. ‘Sow a thought – reap an action; sow an action – reap a character; sow a character – reap a destiny.’ “but each one is tempted when, by his own desire, he is dragged away 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) So David ruled by his own desire now takes the next step. “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?” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant”. (2 Sam. 11: 3 – 5)

Bathsheba was very beautiful to behold. Her father Eliam and her husband Uriah wre among the 30 personal guards of David. (2 Sam. 23: 34, 39) She had just purified herself from her monthly uncleanness. And David had seen her irresistible beauty. Man is always at risk and may be tempted in three areas of weaknesses; lust of eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life. “For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.” (1John 2: 16) After the serpent told the lie to Eve provoking her to eat the forbidden fruit, she was convinced and “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh) and pleasing to the eye (lust of the eyes), and also desirable for gaining wisdom (pride of life), she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Gen. 3: 6). Jesus faced the same situation while he was tempted in the wilderness. The three questions put forward by Satan represent the three areas the world represents: Ask the stones to become bread – lust of the flesh, throw yourself from the temple – pride of life, and lastly showing Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor – lust of the eyes. Jesus came out victorious by using God’s word as sword of the Spirit.

With David it was the same story. He had given in already by lusting through his eyes. It had to result in adultery – lust of his flesh. The seventh of the ‘Ten Commandments’ says, “You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14) And violation of the commandment resulted in death by stoning – very severe punishment. Of all the sins a man may commit, adultery is very different. All other sins are committed outside the body, but adultery involves the body. A believer’s body adopts a different role after new birth. The body becomes a temple of God where God lives with His Holy Spirit. “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Cor. 6: 18 – 20). But there was nothing that could stop him. For a moment he had lost the fear of the Lord, being overcome by the lust. So he brought the beautiful woman in. She was daughter of his body guard, she was wife of his yet another body guard and both were fighting in the war front. So King David slept with Bathsheba and she became pregnant. Bathsheba informed the king of her pregnancy. As one sin leads to another, David planned a conspiracy and tried to cover up the incident by showing actually Uriah had fathered the child. He called Uriah from the war front and asked him to go home and sleep with his wife, but he didn’t. David tried to persuade Uriah the following day even by sending special gifts for him, but Uriah showed his loyalty by spending the night at the palace gate. Then David got him killed in the war front with the help of Joab, the army chief. Uriah’s death opened the way for David to bring Bathsheba into the palace as his wife. “When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After 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 11: 26, 27)

David was a man after God’s own heart. How he could fall so deep down in sin, doing one evil after another? The sinful nature, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, all are there to tempt man. What is the purpose of temptation? God permits circumstances in our lives that the deep hidden person in us might surface with its ugliness. We very wrongly evaluate ourselves in terms of purity, holiness and righteousness. Real life situations reveal the real person in our being. David saw the woman and fell. To save his face he got her husband killed! We all are the same, very prone to fall. Nothing good lives in us. We only discover it gradually. Whatever we think of ourselves, we do not know our own heart yet. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to what his deeds deserve.” (Jer. 17:9) Only the Lord knows and understands our hearts and minds. The heart is deceitful and beyond cure. We cannot understand its dealings and it is beyond human capacity to cure. Discover the self step by step in our Christian walk and overcome the weaknesses with the help of the Holy Spirit. This is God’s intention for every believer.

God’s Mercy:

“The LORD sent Nathan to David.” Nathan was God’s messenger and he explained to David everything that he had done through a parable and pronounced God’s judgment. “Then 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. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” (2 Sam 12: 1, 13-14) David’s sin deserved death but God granted forgiveness as soon as he made the confession. God’s grace is available all the time. “…But where sin increased, grace increased all the more..” (Rom. 5:20 b) ‘Man gets and forgets but God gives and forgives’. Forgiveness is of God, he is there to forgive, and forgiveness is intertwined with God’s love for man. In fact the whole creation is there for God to express His love. God’s grace is abundant for any and every sinner all the time.

But there is a difference. Committing adultery and being an adulterer are two different things. Anybody may be tempted and fall. The situation takes him unawares, it is not a thought of and planned incident. The person simply is caught up in the situation and gives in. After coming to the senses, convicted by the Holy Spirit such a person makes genuine confession and repentance and receives forgiveness. God’s grace is available to such a sinner. But an adulterer is not like that. He usually thinks before hand and plans a situation, willingly going for the action and gets habituated. It is now not only the appetite out of control, but the lustful desires ruling and using the members of the body for sensual pleasure. The person loses all the control over his will and becomes a slave of sinful nature. The continuous immoral act affects the person’s character itself. He finds himself helpless before the flesh, craving for more and more. His mind being perverted is ruled by and yields to the lust and sinful nature. He is beyond repentance and cannot bring in change of mind by confessing his sins, like Esau. Such a person is barred from entering the ‘City’. (Rev. 22:15) Sexual immorality is one of the first acts of sinful nature and a regular practitioner is warned of losing the inheritance of the ‘Kingdom of God’. (Gal. 5: 19 -21)

David was forgiven, he did not die; God granted him mercy. He was delivered of the sin’s penalty. There is a penalty for sin, of which David was forgiven. There is also fruit of sin or consequences of sin, which abides with the sinner. Consequence of a sin is different from its wages or punishment. (Wages of sin is death). Supposing a man is caught while braking into a house. In the process he jumped from a wall and broke his leg. The man is caught and is taken to court. The court finds out he was caught before he committed any crime and the judge lets the man go free. The man is acquitted. But he’ll be limping all the days of his life due to the broken leg. This is the consequence of his sinful act. David was forgiven for his act, he did not die, but as the consequences the illegitimate son died and David had to war with his adversaries all the days of his life. King David brought increase and prosperity into the kingdom, which is another matter. Israel was never as big as during King David’s reign. God is there to bless His people even in the very adverse situation. At the end King David testified of the Lord. ‘He said:

“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield and the horn of my salvation.

He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior –

From violent men you save me. (2 Sam. 22: 2 – 3)

May the Lord bless every reader with insight and help learn the lesson from mistakes King David made during his life and may our relationship with the Lord continue to deepen as we strive to walk with Him.