Facing Temptation

Facing Temptation 2 Samuel 11 Perhaps, along with his battle with Goliath, David's affair with Bathsheba is the incident that most of us best remember when we're thinking about his life; and indeed it reminds us that here was a man who, during his life, went from the highest of the highs to the lowest of the lows. But of course the truth is that for all of us, along with our successes in life, there'll always be the inevitability of failure. And the fact is that, though our failure might not be so dramatic as David's, nonetheless that doesn't lessen its seriousness as far as God is concerned, nor as far as we should be concerned. Well, in an age when promiscuity is so rife, the nature of David's failure is one that's very familiar to us. However it isn't so much what he did that concerns us here, as why he did what he did, and also how things got so quickly out of control, along with the extent of the impact of his actions upon himself and upon others. It would be very easy to condemn David, seeing him as someone who had it all and yet who was greedy for more, someone who we of course could never be. After all we surely would never do anything so bad. However if it could happen to such as David, might it not also to us? Because after all, David was God's chosen man, specially anointed at God's command by Samuel when he received the Holy Spirit in power. He was a man who, as we've seen, had great faith in the Lord, being obedient to him, spending years before he was crowned King showing great restraint by fleeing from Saul rather than taking the opportunities he had to kill him. He was the one so loved by God that the Lord chose to make a covenant with him as he'd done with Abraham before, telling him that the whole world would be blessed through him and his offspring. In other words through Christ himself, one of who's oft repeated titles in the New Testament is "Son of David". Yes David was very much a great man ... and yet he still fell. So how did someone such as he come to fail so dramatically? Well it's interesting that it all began with a seemingly very innocent, on the face of it, perfectly acceptable decision on David's part. That is his decision to stay at home for a change rather than go out to fight with his army. David had for years been leading Israel's army into battle against their enemies, taking up the gauntlet from King Saul. And in fact he'd been very successful at it, so much so that most of the opposition had by this time been crushed and subdued. Indeed by now the outcome of any battle he was involved in would have been almost a foregone conclusion. Was that that then why, when spring time came round and thoughts once again were turned to war, David decided to let Joab, who was by then his commander-in-chief and who'd led the army on many occasions before, go out on his own for a change to finish off the task of destroying the Ammonites? It was all becoming a bit old hat, same old, same old, and anyway there were more pressing matters to attend to on the home front, matters of state. But then the point is that in those days the main task of a king was very much of a military nature; and when we look at verse 2 of our passage it seems that whatever there was to do at home wasn't taking up that much of his time. Because we're told that: "One evening David got up from his bed". One evening, not one night, the time when you'd have expected him to be sleeping, but earlier when there should still have been things for him to be up and doing. David was becoming lazy it seems, wasting away the extra time that was on his hands now he was at home. He should have been busy with the army, doing what the Lord had made him king to do, but instead it seems that he'd taken his focus from the Lord's will and instead was thinking about his own. What could he do to make life his more interesting, more exciting? An ideal time for the tempter to launch an attack. In this frame of mind then, searching for something to do that would relieve his boredom, David took a walk on the roof of the palace. Something that would have been quite common because of the flatness of the roofs in those days. And there, as he idly glanced around, he saw a beautiful woman having a bath and his eye was turned and he began to lust after her ... here was definitely something to brighten up his day! Well of course David should have stopped there and that would have been the end of things, just like when in the past he'd resisted the temptation to disobey God's law by killing King Saul in cold blood. He should also have remembered that the seventh commandment says do not commit adultery. But then it seems that for a while he'd forgotten God and so David sent someone to find out about this beautiful woman, and discovered, we're told, that she was: "Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite." Now this was probably the Eliam who was a member of David's personal bodyguard. And Uriah her husband, according to 2 Samuel 23, verse 39, was also part of that illustrious, trusted and faithfully body of men. So surely, this being the case, David should definitely have stopped now and left it at that, should have gone back to his bed, alone. But the tempter was still there ... 'He was the king wasn't he? He could do what he liked'. And so David sent for Bathsheba and slept with her ... no doubt reasoning with himself that it was a harmless one night stand, that no one would find out. So what was the problem? Well, of course there was a problem, Bathsheba became pregnant as a result of David's sin. So what to do now? The obvious answer would have been damage limitation, admit what he'd done and ask for Uriah's forgiveness, look for ways that he could atone, even though the actual laid down penalty for adultery was death. But things were getting out of hand for David and it appears that he felt that his primary concern was to protect himself. And so he sent word to Joab that Uriah should be sent back to Jerusalem. And, once he arrived, on the pretext of discovering how things were going with his forces, David spoke to him and tried to persuade him to go home and spend time with his wife. Surely that would solve the problem. However Uriah was a man of great integrity. His comrades in arms were still in tents out on the battlefield so how could he enjoy the comforts of his own bed and wife? What's more the Ark of the Covenant had been taken out to battle, making it very much a Holy war so that the need for purity until the men returned would have been seen as vital if they were to benefit from the Lord's blessings. No, perhaps other men would have made an exception because the king had given them permission to do so and gone home to their wives, but not Uriah. How different he was at this point to David, that same David who went on to get him drunk so that his willpower might be diminished. Still though Uriah refused to abandon his principles. What a difference indeed between this man, who was a Hittite who'd converted to the religion of Israel, maybe, who knows, as a result of David's example, and David himself ... someone whose principles had suddenly gone out of the window. And things were to get much worse when Uriah returned to the front with a letter from David to Joab that unbeknown to him was basically his death warrant, the king having realised that the only chance of covering up his sin would be to marry a widowed Bathsheba as quickly as possible and claim the child as his own, conceived after their marriage. Here was David, a man who'd become renowned for his compassion, for his care and concern for the people and for his love of God, finding himself going against all that he stood for. And all because he'd chosen to remain behind in Jerusalem. David told Joab in his letter that during the battle to overthrow the last of the Ammonite cities, Uriah should be placed in the most dangerous part near to the wall of the city where the defenders were the strongest and that at a given signal the rest of the men should be ordered to retreat leaving him to the mercy of the enemy. It seems as though he was concerned, if we can use that word, that only Uriah should be killed as a result of his order. But Joab had other ideas; leaving Uriah on his own might be a bit obvious, so he placed him near to the wall with other soldiers so that they were all killed. Joab had proven himself in the past to be a ruthless man, and David would appear to have been a steadying influence on him. Joab realised then, when sending his messenger to give David an account of the battle, that the King might well be angry at this wasteful loss of life apparently caused by a basic error of the men getting too close to the wall. So that he told the messenger to also tell David that Uriah the Hittite had died as well, in effect reminding him of his responsibility. The result being that David didn't have a leg to stand on and so instead of condemning Joab, as he ought to have, he sent him a message of encouragement telling him basically, "these things happen, don't worry about it". One wonders what the messenger would have thought... And so we find that a period of great success created a sense of ease and security for David, which then led to feelings of restlessness and dissatisfaction that caused him to take his eyes off what was important ... obedience to the Lord. Leading to adultery, deceit and finally murder. To both spiritual and moral failure. So that we see clearly how the seemingly smallest of sins, once committed, can multiply and get out of control. And what an impact David's initial weakness, his giving in to temptation, had ... not only on himself, but on so many others. There was of course Uriah, the righteous man, who lost his life. But there was also a woman who lost her devoted husband and whose name was ruined. There may have been parents of Uriah too who were grieving and there were certainly other parents who lost sons and women who lost husbands because of Joab's decision to place so many near the wall. What's more, as a result of David's actions Joab himself had the brake taken off his excesses because he would no longer be able to rein him in, which would lead Joab in the future to carry out acts of violence that David wouldn't be able to do anything about. And all because that seemingly minor failure in his refusing to go out with his troops and follow the Lord's will for him. David had badly compromised himself and although he'd continue to be God's chosen man, his kingship was to be severely affected with his children eventually turning against him and with murder and deceit becoming a feature of the Davidic line. David himself having set the pattern. However the ultimate result of David's sin, of his giving in to temptation, is to be found in the final verse of chapter 11 where we read: "But the thing David has done displeased the Lord." He'd completely forgotten about God over this period, it seems, all his thoughts were about himself, about his needs, about his reputation, nothing else mattered to him. But the fact was that he'd failed his Lord, the one who had chosen him and blessed him mightily, the one who hadn't forgotten about him. And the Lord wasn't pleased with David, which we'll hear more about next week. But for now there are two final thoughts to consider ... Firstly David was wholly and solely responsible for his sin, he couldn't blame his failure on anyone else. Yes of course Bathsheba was also part of the adulterous relationship but the passage says nothing about her, other than that she was beautiful, that she was seduced and that she eventually married David. Nothing is said about her guilt, it seems, so that we don't begin to apportion blame away from David himself who could, as we've seen, have called a halt at any time to his downward slide, but he chose not to. Reminding us that the same applies to us when it comes to temptation and sin. That we also have a choice, and where we fail then we alone are responsible and can't blame others for our own short comings. And then secondly, from David's example, we see how easy it is to fool ourselves regarding the seriousness of sin. He appears to have been blinded to the effects of his sin, he treated his sin far too lightly, it almost became a game to him as he tried to persuade Uriah to go home and sleep with his wife. A game that got out of hand. Indeed there was something almost inevitable about the story, as one thing quickly led to another. As there is always an inevitability when it comes to sin. Because sin leads to confusion, to even greater sin, and then ultimately to spiritual death. Don't we see this being demonstrated all around us all the time as people try to live without God? As so many lives take a downward spiral? The person who for the first time takes drugs, the one who steals something for the first time, they who experiment with sex, the person who decides to go all out to satisfy their need for fame or for fortune at the expense of everything else. And it's a very real danger for us too, who like David know the Lord, where we take our eyes from Him and yield to temptations power, where temporary, seemingly innocent pleasures, appear to us to be more important than any long-term considerations. And yet we have the example in God's Word of such men as David to highlight the effects of sin. And what's more, much more, we have the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we consider what our sin cost him as he hung, suffered and died on the cross. David throughout the terrible time between staying at home and eventually marrying Bathsheba didn't seek the Lord, seemingly thinking that he could hide everything from him and we'll see next week how he was soon made to realise that that wasn't the case. As for us, who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, who now know God's gracious forgiveness, and know the seriousness of sin, let's consider the cost to ourselves and others of our continued sin, and let us strive, as the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 1 & 2, to arm ourselves with the same attitude as Christ ... being prepared to suffer in the body rather than sin, so that we do not live the rest of our lives "for evil human desires but rather for the will of God". Because, as Peter goes onto say in verse 6 of chapter 4: "this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit." So may we all strive to know and appreciate God's blessings upon us, being determined to live our lives looking only towards Him. Amen