Studies in Profiles in Character: From the Exodus Through the Return from Exile

Transcription

1 BAPTISTWAY PRESS Adult Online Bible Commentary By Dr. Jim Denison President, Center for Informed Faith, and Theologian-in-Residence, Baptist General Convention of Texas, Dallas, Texas Studies in Profiles in Character: From the Exodus Through the Return from Exile Lesson Eight David and Nathan: Accepting Personal Responsibility for Sin Focal Text 2 Samuel 11:2-15; 12:1-13a Background 2 Samuel Main Idea When challenged by Nathan, God s prophet, David the king accepted personal responsibility for his heinous sins, confessing that he had sinned against God. Question to Explore Why are people often reluctant to accept personal responsibility for their sin? Quick Read It will never be easier to reject temptation than it is now. Commentary When the Chernobyl nuclear plant melted down, one helicopter pilot made dozens of flights to dump sand and concrete over the reactor. He helped saved the lives of millions, but died of radiation sickness. 1 When Nazis were murdering Jews in their gas chambers, one distraught mother who was condemned to die refused to part with her baby. A compassionate woman known as Mother Maria pushed the mother aside and took her place. 2 Page 1 of 13 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations in Adult Online Bible Commentary are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (North American Edition), copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

2 Father Maximillian Kolbe was a Polish priest imprisoned at Auschwitz. When a prisoner was sentenced to the starvation bunker, the priest died in his place. 3 Each of these paid a penalty they did not owe. Their vicarious sacrifice calls to mind the atoning love of our Savior. While we should always be grateful for his grace, we must never presume on it. Neither should we see our Savior s forgiveness as license for sin. If I drive a nail into a piece of wood and you pull it out, the hole remains. Where are you being tempted today? Why should you refuse now? Resist sin immediately (2 Samuel 11) The higher they are, the further they fall this maxim has never been more tragically illustrated than in the event we will explore in this lesson. Scripture calls us to submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). King David neither submitted to God nor resisted the devil, and the results marred his life and his kingdom from then to today. In our last study we were introduced to 1 and 2 Samuel and the man for whom the books are named. Samuel anointed Saul as Israel s first king, and David as her second. As our text resumes the narrative, David has been king of Israel for some seventeen years and established in Jerusalem about ten years. He led the nation in defeating her enemies, most recently destroying the Aramean armies (2 Samuel 10), their foes to the north (occupying the regions of the modern states of Lebanon and Syria). They were one of the chief allies of the Ammonites, who lived east of Israel in the area of the modern nation of Jordan. As a result, the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore (2 Sam. 10:19). One by one, the king destroyed or neutralized his external enemies. Beware the gradual nature of sin However, our most difficult opponents are those who attack us from within. It was the spring, at the time when kings go off to war (11:1a). This was the time following the grain harvest of April and May. Armies stayed at home during the winter months, when weather made travel and warfare difficult, and during the spring harvest, when crops had to be gathered. But when the harvest was in, kings go off to war. One of the most significant responsibilities of kings in the ancient world was to lead their armies into battle, serving something like our president s role as commander in chief. Rulers wanted to be with their soldiers so they could take credit for their victories; to stay at home during battle was typically considered a failure of courage. Nonetheless, David sent Joab, his general, into battle with the Israelite army. They were so successful that they destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah (11:1b). Rabbah was the Ammonite capital, located at the site of modern-day Amman. David would Page 2 of 13

3 eventually join the army at the conclusion of the siege and take their king s crown for himself (12:29-31; 1 Chronicles 20:1-3). But for now, David remained in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 11:1c). Most temptation finds us when we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you and I choose to live in God s good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2) all through the day, most of the temptations of our fallen world will have difficulty enticing us. More affairs begin with an inappropriate conversation than with a sudden sexual advance. More theft begins with small sums than with large amounts. When we think we have committed less consequential sins without consequence, we are emboldened to step further into rebellion. Such is the strategy of the enemy. He does not care how far up the spiritual ladder we climb as long as we eventually fall. In fact, the further our fall the more we please him and dishonor our Lord. Solomon understood the gradual nature of temptation: Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways (Proverbs 2:12-15). From perverse words to walking in dark ways, to delighting in... wrong, to being devious in all their ways such is the progression of sin. David s fall began with an evening when he was where he should not have been. Are you living fully in the will of God today? Refuse the second look The precipitating event of this tragedy seemed innocent: One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace (2 Sam. 11:2a). Palaces and homes in Israel then and today are typically built with flat roofs. During the heat of the spring and summer, people often walk or even sleep on their roofs. As the king was safely within his royal palace, he was free to walk on its roof alone. But his solitude was soon broken: From the roof he saw a woman bathing (11:2b). The writer tells us that the woman was very beautiful (11:2c). The Hebrew makes it clear that she was stunning in appearance, even from the distance at which David spotted her. Page 3 of 13

4 Commentators differ regarding the physical circumstances of this event. At one end of the spectrum, some see her actions as completely innocent. She might be bathing in the sense of sponging her body while clothed; or she might be taking a bath in a place she believed to be private and secluded. Since no homes at this time had indoor plumbing or running water, she would have bathed from a pot placed inside the open courtyard of her home. Many interpreters find no fault in these actions. At the other extreme are those who believe that Bathsheba intended to entice the king. Her husband was away at battle; David s presence in the palace would be known to all; the king might habitually take such walks on the roof of his palace; she might have positioned herself where she would expect to be seen. Of course, none of these positions can be proven biblically. The focus of the text is obviously not on Bathsheba, which explains the fact that no clarification is given for her actions or motives. It is best to leave aside all such speculation, as the biblical writer clearly focused on David s sins and their consequences. Here we find the sin of the second look. David s sin was not in noticing a beautiful woman like Bathsheba it was in looking at her again, formulating lustful thoughts in his mind and heart. Such thoughts invariably turn into actions, which is why Jesus warned us: I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Are you being tempted by the second look? Reject sin today It will never be easier to reject temptation than it is today. If David had turned from Bathsheba, remembering his marriage vows and his commitment to his holy God, the story would have ended very differently. Unfortunately, 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? (2 Sam. 11:3). Eliam was one of the thirty members of David s personal bodyguard (2 Sam. 23:34), a kind of Secret Service detail. He was also the son of David s personal counselor Ahithopel. And so Bathsheba was the daughter of a trusted friend and granddaughter of his most important advisor. In addition, she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. She was obviously married, as was he. The Law was very specific in this regard: If a man is found sleeping with another man s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel (Deuteronomy 22:22). Page 4 of 13

5 Her husband was another member of David s personal bodyguard, as was his father-inlaw (2 Sam. 23:39). As a Hittite, he was a Gentile; his people lived in the east-central region of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), at one time extending to the northern borders of Israel. While they worshiped a variety of gods, Uriah could not have risen to his current level of influence unless he had become a follower of Israel s God. Despite these deterrents, David used his power as king and sent messengers to get her (11:4a). The same Hebrew phrase was used when the king would take children and possessions of the people for his personal use (1 Samuel 8:11-19); Nathan later used it to describe the rich man s theft of the poor man s ewe (2 Sam. 12:4) and David s theft of Bathsheba from Uriah (12:9, 10). There is no sin we must commit. To the contrary, our Father promises us that no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (1 Corinthians 10:13). While we can defeat all temptation in God s strength, we can seldom win against the enemy in our own. Satan knows which sins I can refuse in my own ability, and so he never tempts me to commit them. For instance, I have never been approached by someone trying to sell illegal drugs. But Satan also knows which sins I cannot refuse in my own strength, and so he constantly tempts me to commit them. The moment such temptation strikes, I must take it immediately to God, seeking his power and victory. James understood this process well: When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil 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 1:13-15). Are you considering temptation today? Repent immediately Whatever Bathsheba s motives, she came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home (2 Sam. 11:4). The Law prohibited sexual intercourse until the woman had cleansed herself from her monthly period (Leviticus 15:19-28). The writer s purpose in inserting this detail was to show that the pregnancy she would soon report could not have occurred with her husband. Page 5 of 13

6 Now that the law of unintended consequences struck again: The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, I am pregnant (2 Sam. 11:5). In her day, she could not have been sure of her pregnancy for several weeks or even months. The fact that she and David apparently did not continue their affair shows their desire to keep their adultery secret. But their one night of sin was enough to set in motion the deception and death that would follow. David s first response to this devastating news was cunning. As king, he could order any of his soldiers to do his bidding, including Bathsheba s husband. If David sent him home quickly to be with his wife, he and everyone else would assume that her child was his. Thus David sent this word to Joab: Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent him to David (11:6). Joab, the field general of Israel s army, was the son of David s sister Zeruiah (1 Chron. 2:16). He was fiercely loyal to his uncle but so ruthless that he assassinated Abner, Saul s general, when he posed a threat to Joab s position with the new king (2 Sam. 3). David gave orders for Uriah to return to Jerusalem immediately. This was a journey of some forty miles, taken at great haste. To Uriah s surprise, when Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going (11:7). Uriah undoubtedly assumed that his sudden summons entailed a matter of great significance and urgency, not a routine report anyone could have delivered. Even more strangely, then 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 (11:8). Wash your feet was a euphemism for sexual relations. David meant for Uriah to go home and sleep with Bathsheba, so that her child would be considered his. Such action would have rendered Uriah temporarily unfit for service to the king: When a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening (Lev. 15:18). Making the king s orders even more illogical, David apparently insisted on sexual abstinence from his army in the field: women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out (1 Sam. 21:5). Nonetheless, the king encouraged Uriah to spend time with his wife, and even sent a gift to his home. This was probably food and wine from the king s own table, one of the greatest compliments a man in the ancient Near East could receive. David undoubtedly thought he had solved his problem and covered his sin. However, Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master s servants and did not go down to his house (2 Sam. 11:9). This entrance was the place where the other servants of the king slept, in close proximity so as to be available at a moment s notice. Page 6 of 13

7 Uriah clearly saw himself as still on duty; as long as his army was in the field, he would serve the king in any way he could. The next morning, when 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? (11:10). The king s questions were a veiled attack on Uriah s masculinity. If he had been separated from his wife for an extended tour of military duty, surely he would want to be with her when he received his unexpected furlough home. The foreigner then displayed far greater character than his king: Uriah 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! (11:11). The king had no response, for he should have been at battle with his men. David then bought some time: the king 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 (11:12). David tried again to coerce Uriah to sleep with his wife: At David s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk (11:13a). He must have assumed that Uriah in his drunken state would yield to his sexual urges and return to his wife. Once again, however, Uriah proved of greater character than the king: But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master s servants; he did not go home (11:13). David had done all he could to transfer responsibility for Bathsheba s unborn child to her husband. Now he had only one other recourse. If a king s personal soldiers were killed in battle, by custom he would often take the widow into his home and protection. So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah (11:14). This letter would have been written on papyrus or parchment, rolled into a scroll and sealed with the king s personal signet ring. Only its intended recipient was permitted to break the seal and open the scroll (see Revelation 5:1-5). Uriah had no idea he was carrying to Joab his own death sentence: In it he wrote, Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die (2 Sam. 11:15). Joab, loyal to the last, followed David s orders and soon Uriah the Hittite died (11:17). After Bathsheba s time of mourning had ended, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son (11:27a). As far as the nation knew, the king was simply a benevolent ruler. However, the next sentence tells the true story: But the thing David had done displeased the LORD (11:27b). If the greatest king in Jewish history could not conceal his sin, neither can we. Page 7 of 13

8 Claim grace today (2 Samuel 12) If David had confessed and repented of his sin immediately, the results would have been far different. Scripture promises that God forgives every sin we confess to him (1 John 1:9), then forgets all he forgives (Jeremiah 31:34). The sooner we admit our failures and seek God s pardon and healing, the sooner they are ours. Know that God knows your sins In this case, David refused to repent and return to God, and so God came to him through his prophet Nathan. This man was one of the most prominent servants of God in the Old Testament; his three appearances in Scripture each came at critical junctures in the history of Israel. The first occurred when David planned to build a temple for the Lord. God instructed the prophet to tell David that his son would build that temple (2 Samuel 7:4-16) and that his line would rule the nation so long as they were faithful to their God. His second appearance in Scripture took place in the story we ll examine momentarily. The third occurred when Nathan helped secure the throne for Solomon (1 Kings 1:10-27). Of the three, by far the most courageous act of Nathan took place in our text: The LORD sent Nathan to David (2 Sam. 12:1a). Remember that the king has just arranged the murder of one of his most trusted soldiers. What would he do to a prophet in order to conceal his sins? Perhaps a year had passed, as Bathsheba s son with David had already been born (12:14). Nathan wisely avoided an immediate confrontation with David, telling him a story that would illustrate the king s sin graphically: When he came to him, he said, There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor (12:1). This description pictured life in that time people were either wealthy or they worked for the wealthy. There was no middle class. Like David the shepherd king, the rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle (12:2). Livestock were the currency of the day (see Job 1:3); this man s very large number indicated his significant wealth. By contrast, the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb 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 (2 Sam. 12:3). We picture Uriah s love for his beautiful wife who shared his life and slept in his arms. As often happened in that day and region, a traveler came to the rich man (12:4a). Custom required that the man prepare a meal for this guest (Genesis 18:5-8; 19:3; see Luke 11:5-8). However, the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or Page 8 of 13

9 cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him (2 Sam. 12:4b), despite the large size of his herd. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him (12:4b). As we noted earlier, the word translated took is the same term used for David s taking Bathsheba (11:4). The poor man had no ability to defend his possessions and no recourse against the wealthy man. If someone more powerful such as the king did not intervene, the poor man could not expect justice. David assumed that Nathan was telling him a true story. He presided over the justice system of the day, and acted here in accordance with his office: David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! (12:5). Rather than require the death penalty, he determined that he must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity (12:6). This ruling was consistent with Exodus 22:1: If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. By condemning the thief, however, the king s ruling condemned himself. In one of the most powerful moments in Scripture, then Nathan said to David, You are the man! (2 Sam. 12:7a). Imagine the courage such a declaration required of Nathan. But his pronouncement was not made on his own authority: 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 (12:7b). David s sin has been found and judged by the God who gave him his life and throne. Seek God s forgiveness with repentance Not only did God grant David his throne, he also gave your master s house to you, and your master s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more (12:8). All that David had came from God, but this was how he repaid his benefactor and Master. God then revealed truth through Nathan which the prophet could not have acquired by human knowledge: Why 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 Ammonites (12:9). The Lord knew David s every sin, as he does ours. As a result, Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own (12:10). In what ways did the sword not depart from David s house? As he required the rich thief to repay Page 9 of 13

10 fourfold, so his murder of Uriah would be repaid fourfold: His unnamed son died (2 Sam. 12:18); his son Amnon raped Tamar and was then killed by her brother Absalom (2 Sam. 13); Joab then killed Absalom (2 Sam. 18:9-17); and David s son Adonijah was killed by Benaiah (1 Kings 2:24-25). Furthermore, This 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. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel (2 Sam. 12:11-12). As David had sinned sexually against Uriah, so his own son would sin sexually against him, manifesting another example of an eye for an eye (Exodus 21:24). Absalom fulfilled this prophecy when he deposed his father and asked the counselor Ahithophel, Give us your advice. What should we do? (2 Sam. 16:20). Ahithophel answered, Lie with your father s concubines whom he left to take care of the palace. Then all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench in your father s nostrils, and the hands of everyone with you will be strengthened. So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he lay with his father s concubines in the sight of all Israel (16:21-22). Faced with such blunt exposure of his sin and its consequences, then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD (12:13a). In writing later of his devastating sinfulness the king would say to God: Against 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 (Psalm 51:4). Because of his repentance, David did not die (2 Sam. 12:13b-14). But the son conceived in sin with Bathsheba did (12:15-23; see below). While the king s sin was horrific, God s grace was greater. David and Bathsheba had a second son Solomon, who would become the wisest and most powerful king in Jewish history. And David later named a son with Bathsheba after Nathan (1 Chron. 3:5); this son stood in Luke s genealogy for Jesus (Luke 3:31). Seek grace for grief The death of David and Solomon s son is one of the most difficult events to understand in Scripture. We would like to believe that the baby s death was a simple coincidence, that God had nothing to do with it, but the text won t allow such an interpretation. Page 10 of 13

11 The Lord knew that the child would soon die (2 Sam. 12:14). Note that Nathan did not say God would kill the child, but that it would die as a consequence of David s sin. Perhaps the child was born with a terminal condition that the Lord would not heal. Birth defects or illnesses contributed to the high infant mortality rate of that era. Perhaps the Lord s role was more direct and causal. Either way, clearly God could have prevented the death of this innocent baby, but he did not. Why did David s son die? Here is the data supplied by our text. David s sin was larger than he knew: by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt (2 Sam. 12:14). Apparently his seemingly private sin would be private no longer. And the pagan enemies of the Lord and his people would be able to show contempt for the Lord God. If God permitted his king to commit such atrocity, he would be no different from Molech, the god to whom the Canaanites offered child sacrifices, or Baal and Ashtoreth, worshiped with adulterous sexual sin. The Lord could simply punish David with death, and so vindicate his righteousness before the watching world. But David responded to his sin with confession and repentance, and the God of grace promised to forgive every sin we confess to him. So the Lord could not kill David for his sin, but must redeem his righteousness before the world. The death of the child of David s sin would do just that it would show the watching world that Israel s Lord is indeed a God of righteousness, so that sins have consequences with him. And I would imagine that David considered the death of his son a worse consequence than his own death, by far. I would. So would you. If the only text we had in Scripture on our question was the passage before us, we might conclude that children often die for the sins of their parents. But this is the only place in God s word where such a tragic event occurs. And its circumstances are unrepeatable today. There can be no king of the Jews today, the leader of God s only people, a man whose sins could bring disrepute on the kingdom of God across the pagan world. This event cannot happen again. Note that the text nowhere states that God deals with other children as he did with David s son. This text is descriptive, not prescriptive. Here we judge the difficult in light of the clear. The Bible clearly states, The soul who sins is the one who will die (Ezekiel 18:4; see 2 Kings 14:6). For our sins, not those of anyone else. Today children die from diseases that are part of this fallen world. Or they die in tragic accidents that occur in this fallen world. Or as victims of tragically misused free will, a common occurrence in this fallen world. But not because God ends their lives. Page 11 of 13

12 I choose to believe that the child s death was a natural occurrence that God did not prevent so as to protect his holy character and reveal the consequence of sin. But whatever the circumstances behind this tragedy, we can know that our Lord is perfect (Matt. 5:48) and that God is love (1 John 4:8). The rest we will leave with him. Conclusion David, the man after [God s] own heart (1 Sam. 13:14), committed some of the most heinous sins in Scripture. If he could, we can. David coveted another man s wife and stole her from her husband, breaking the eighth and tenth commandments. He committed adultery with her, breaking the seventh commandment. He then lied about his sin, breaking the ninth commandment. To cover up his sin he arranged Uriah s death, breaking the sixth commandment. His sin dishonored his parents, breaking the fifth commandment. He made Bathsheba an idol, breaking the second commandment, and dishonored the Lord his God, breaking the first and third commandments. The only commandment he left untouched was the fourth, requiring that we honor the Sabbath. His initial sin led to tragedy that stains his name and reputation to this day. The good news is that God stands ready to forgive and forget all we confess to him. The bad news is that the consequences of sin remain. It will never be easier or more urgent to reject temptation than it is now. Louis Slotin was working on a uranium experiment at Los Alamos, New Mexico when the uranium came together, filling the room with a dazzling blue light. He tore it apart with his bare hands, saving the lives of seven other people in the room. He died in agony nine days later. 4 What spiritual uranium are you handling today? Page 12 of 13

13 See for additional study materials on Profiles in Character: From the Exodus Through the Return from Exile and more than forty other Bible studies by BaptistWay Press, or call (M-Fri 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. central time). A recent book by Dr. Denison, The Bible You Can Believe It: Biblical Authority in the Twenty-First Century, is also available from BAPTISTWAY PRESS. The price is only $4.95 each plus shipping and any applicable taxes. A Teaching Guide is available for only $1.95 plus shipping and any applicable taxes. To receive Dr. Denison s free daily , GodIssues: Today s news in spiritual perspective, see The brief essay discusses current events and issues in light of God s word and provides practical applications to life. 1 Accessed 6/20/11. 2 See Sergei Hackel, Pearl of Great Price: The Life of Mother Maria Skobtsova, (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1981). Search google.com/books. Accessed 6/20/ Accessed 6/20/ Accessed 6/20/11. Page 13 of 13