Time for the word! We’re gonna take a look at a man who committed adultery and learn from his mistakes, as we watch his life crumble (sounds harsh but I’m sure you’d rather him than you). Spoilers! Just like many of us, he makes excuses, attempts to cover it up and then runs back to God, and by God’s grace he’s put back together.
Let’s set the scene of 2 Samuel 11:1. King David was about 50 years old here, an age where many men would look in the mirror, see some grays and wrinkles and start thinking “I wonder if I still have it?”. I mean there’s guys my age, who are already questioning whether they still have it. Going without a haircut for while will do that to you I guess.
Back to David. We have a middle-aged man, hanging around his palace, while Joab and the Israelite army have gone off to war. It’s spring. The flowers are blossoming, and it’s the season for love. And don’t forget, this isn’t the David of young, he’s the King now, he’s a David turned Goliath and he can typically have anything he wants. A bad combo, but we’ll get to that shortly.
2 Samuel 11:2 King James Version (KJV)
2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
This wasn’t your typical Israelite babe. The Bible made sure to emphasise that “the woman was very beautiful to look upon”. So what did David do. He continued to look until he couldn’t stop looking. And as verse 3 says, he inquired about her and found out her name was Bathsheba.
Don’t forget. David wasn’t just an ordinary man, and I’m not talking about him being a King. David was coming off a run of around 20 years of spiritual success with God. Yes he had prior failures, but this is the David who killed Goliath, the poet who wrote the majority of Psalms. This is the same David who said “ I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1). But on this night, other things were on his mind and came forth from his mouth.
Personally, I don’t think David was trying to be lustful, nor was he planning to fall that night. But he’s human.
1 Corinthians 10:12 New International Version (NIV)
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Some of you are already thinking, “I wouldn’t take it as far as David did. I wouldn’t go as far as trying to get her name.” But really, anything is possible when we lose sight of God. And David didn’t stop at her name. He also found out that she was “the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
She was married! Surely he wouldn’t go for a married woman.
Nah of course it wasn’t that simple. This wasn’t just a married woman. This was the wife of one of David’s most loyal soldiers. Yeah, it really be your own peoples.
This didn’t stop David from carrying out his sinful desires and in that moment, he was already creating a plan to sin. A plan to sin. What kind of person makes a plan to sin?
“Okay my Mum is going to work at 9 and I’m gonna have a free yard til 3, so come over around 10”
I mean it’s not that crazy when you really think about it.
The Bible says David saw Bathsheba but what he didn’t see was how this one night would change the rest of his life. Just like the young couple who have sex, cause they think they’re gonna get married anyways, and then end up splitting 5 months later, David was spiritually blinded. He didn’t see the whole picture, the real story. In Part 3 we’ll begin to uncover David’s actions and how he slowly but surely sets himself up for failure.
WANT MORE? PART 3
My Sunday Skl 