Sermon Tone Analysis

Re-intro sermon series — intro context for text:

Monarchy + prophets and kings.

Where we find ourselves in 1 and 2 Samuel...

Place: Promised Land

Time: Israel’s first kings (Saul, David, Solomon)

Context, I: the checks-and-balances relationship between Israel’s prophets and its kings that begins in these books and carries over into 1 and 2 Kings.

Other king-prophet duos in 1 and 2 Samuel: Saul and Samuel

Elijah and Ahab.

Elijah and Ahab.

Isaiah and Hezekiah.

The David-Bathsheba-Uriah love triangle.

Point #1: Up to this point, David has been the one doing the sending...

The thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David.

Prior to this point in the story, David has been the one doing the sending...

Joab/army, people to B’s (2x), Uriah (2x), Joab, B.

Sending people to find out about Bathsheba.

Sending people to get her.

Sending for Uriah to sleep with his pregnant wife.

Sending Uriah back to war.

Sending orders that Uriah be put in harm's way.

Sending for Bathsheba after "the mourning was over."

Now God does some sending of God’s own…e.g., Nathan to David.

[slide]

2 Samuel 11:27-

2 Samuel 11:27

Sending the prophet Nathan to confront David.

Sending Joab to war.

sending Joab to war, sending people to find out about Bathsheba, sending people to get her, sending for Uriah, attempting to send Uriah to his now-pregnant wife, sending Uriah back to war, sending orders that Uriah be put in harm's way, sending for Bathsheba after "mourning was over."

Sending people to find out about Bathsheba.

Sending people to get her.

Sending for Uriah to sleep with his pregnant wife.

For Uriah to his pregnant wife.

Sending Uriah back to war.

Sending orders that Uriah be put in harm's way.

Sending for Bathsheba after "mourning was over."

In response, God does some sending of God’s own...

Sending the prophet Nathan to confront David.

Two points:

First, how God communicates with us (according to 1 and 2 Samuel):

Not just silence, but challenging people like this prophet whose name = gift.

More often, however, through challenging people, like this prophet whose name means “gift.”

God's confrontations often occur through the people who call us to account.

Application:

Consquently,

The importance of finding a balance, in our spiritual and moral lives, between peaceful, solitary, inwardly oriented disciplines and an openness to listening to prophet-gifts.

There are a lot of voices talking away out there.

Who are the prophet-gifts in our lives?

God's confrontations often occur through the people who call us to account.

Who are the prophets in our lives?

Do we recognize them as being sent to us by God?

And there is a renewed emphasis on the importance of silence for people’s emotional health.

At the same time,

Do we recognize them as being sent to us by God?

Second, God as the Real Sender in the Hebrew Scriptures, and how this concept of God shapes the text’s understanding of the fundamental attitude of faith.

Faith in OT ≠ sending, but receiving.

Listening.

Waiting.

Watching.

Application:

This as important reminder for our busy times, when people have a tendency to live like kings...

Not in the sense of ordering everyone around, but as if we are or have to be in total control of everything.

How might it change the rhythm/course of our lives if we were to practice a receiving faith?

Point #2: The mistake people often make:

The mistake people often make:

He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.

Truth needs to be told effectively for it to be of any value.

It's not enough to be right.

It's important to be effective.

The mistake people often make: they think they've done their part if they tell the truth.

They care more about their integrity and honesty than the effectiveness of their speech.

The problem with this -- personal integrity is not more important that ensuring that harmful behavior change.

(Or that people be persuaded to treat people differently.)

Could it be that we like being right a little too much to care about doing what it takes to change other people's minds?

They think they've done their part if they “just tell the truth” without regard to whether this truth gets heard.

Why?

Because people often see truth-telling as a matter of their integrity and honesty...

As opposed to an obligation they have to the others.

(Also…it may be that we like being right a little too much to care about doing what it takes to change other people's minds.)

And yet, personal integrity/being right ≠ more important than doing our part to change harmful behavior.

The problem with this -- personal integrity is not more important that ensuring that harmful behavior change.

(Or that people be persuaded to treat people differently.)

In this situation — who knows how many more people David would have hurt if Nathan hadn’t figured out an effective way to communicate?

[slide]

In our situation(s) — the importance of striking a balance between....

Honoring the truth — not sugar-coating things for fear of offending people.

And not allowing the Davids in our lives to tap into their bedrock values.

[Not allowing the David in our life to tap into their bedrock values.]

And the potential for effective communication to start feeling manipulative.

Point 3: David’s sin ≠ just that he was greedy or ungrateful.

I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.

Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.

Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 8 I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.

9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

David’s sin ≠ just that he was greedy or ungrateful.