So many of us who grew up in the church as kids were very early on in our lives taught to memorize the summary verses from Proverbs 3:5,6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. And 50+ years after memorizing it, that passage strikes me anew again today for the totality of wisdom that is packed in a mere 28 words.

As I shared at the beginning of the sermon yesterday, this reading through the story of David in all of these chapters (and more) that we’ve been preaching on and writing about for this series has really also struck me with what a mixed bag of life experiences characterize David. There are the incredibly great moments, yet also there is more than a brief list of failures that cost David dearly in terms of his own comfort and the pain from the total dysfunction of so much of his family.

David is truly an “Exhibit A” of success when trusting God (killing Goliath, inheriting the kingdom) and disaster when functioning in his own flesh (Bathsheba, not discipling and leading his family). And today’s passage is the account of another failure of David – his census of the people to determine the number of those able to fight.

24:1 Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

The wording in the first verse is a bit odd. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 21 attributes this situation to Satan’s intervention.

That passage also more strongly states that Joab found the order to count the people to be repulsive … but why? What’s the big deal about a census?

We can get the answer to this from Deuteronomy 17:16,17 where Moses wrote 500 years earlier in anticipation of the time when Israel would inevitably have a king …

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

God wanted his people to trust him completely. He wanted them to trust him for their protection against evil nations surrounding them. If they would be faithful, no harm would befall them. The nation was not to invest in the collection of horses and the implements of war, for this would cause the people to trust in their own strength rather than in God to give them victory.

So David’s census was a direct violation of this principle and exhibited a pride in his own strength and resources. So Joab was overruled, so off he went around the country (“from Dan to Beersheba” is like saying “from Minnesota to Florida”).

4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

5 After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6 They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 7 Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.

8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

9 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.

10 David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

As bad as David is on varied occasions, we may rightly note that it is the root character of his personality to be quick to admit his wrongdoing and to humbly seek God’s forgiveness and restoration. He is given three choices of outcomes, and David chooses the one that most puts him into God’s hands, rather than any hands of men.

11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

15 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. 20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.  23 Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. 25 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

This apparently very good and gracious man Araunah offers to just give to David everything that was needed for the sacrifice before the Lord. But David refuses to receive it and insists that it be paid for by he himself. He understood that if it cost him nothing personally, it was not much of a sacrifice.

What we see is David taking a different attitude at the end of this chapter from that at the beginning. Here he is displaying what God wants to see – a totally dependent attitude of trust and yieldedness.

As good Americans, we like to be very independent and take care of ourselves. In terms of prudent responsibility, that is a good thing. But ultimately we cannot be in control of everything. We need God; we need to trust him fully in all things.

Though I have read the story of David in these Old Testament narratives on many occasions in my life, this time through it I have been struck as never before about the pain and sadness that must have been terribly pervasive in David’s life. Perhaps as a younger man I saw more of David’s passions, energies and greatness, but now in my own more reflective years and with a mostly-grown family, I am struck more by the amount of trials and sorrows that befell him year after year.

The Scriptures are clear that David was a great man with a genuine heart for God. He is applauded in ways that few others are in the Bible. Yet at the same time, he is a man filled with faults and besetting sin issues. And in some fashion, this teaches us all that even at our best, in the flesh we are all still a mess in too many ways.

In this bridge chapter that we read today (before we skip quickly on Sunday to the end events of David’s life), we see the continued retreat of David from Jerusalem and the recording of two encounters with two men: Ziba and Sheba…

David and Ziba

16:1  When David had gone a short distance beyond the summit, there was Ziba, the steward of Mephibosheth, waiting to meet him. He had a string of donkeys saddled and loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred cakes of raisins, a hundred cakes of figs and a skin of wine.

2 The king asked Ziba, “Why have you brought these?”

Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on, the bread and fruit are for the men to eat, and the wine is to refresh those who become exhausted in the wilderness.”

3 The king then asked, “Where is your master’s grandson?”

Ziba said to him, “He is staying in Jerusalem, because he thinks, ‘Today the Israelites will restore to me my grandfather’s kingdom.’”

4 Then the king said to Ziba, “All that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours.”

“I humbly bow,” Ziba said. “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord the king.”

You will recall the story from two weeks ago of Mephibosheth, the son of David’s friend Jonathan … who though lame in both feet, was restored and given a place at the king’s table. Saul’s former servant Ziba, with his sons and servants, were to care for Mephibosheth while tending all the lands given to him that formerly belonged to Saul, his grandfather.

Here Ziba tells David that Miphibosheth remained in Jerusalem under the belief that the people would restore the kingdom to him. Later, in chapter 19, when David returns to Jerusalem, there is Mephibosheth with the opposite story – claiming that Ziba lied. It appears that David did not know who to believe, so he split the assets in half for each. I tend to see this as Mephibosheth being on the side of truth, though we don’t know for sure.

Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin – often a bit of a wild and crazy bunch. And Shimei is from the same clan as Saul and he curses David and pelts the group with rocks as they ignominiously retreat from Jerusalem.

Shimei Curses David

5 As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul’s family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. 6 He pelted David and all the king’s officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David’s right and left. 7 As he cursed, Shimei said, “Get out, get out, you murderer, you scoundrel! 8 The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has given the kingdom into the hands of your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a murderer!”

9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head.”

10 But the king said, “What does this have to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why do you do this?’”

11 David then said to Abishai and all his officials, “My son, my own flesh and blood, is trying to kill me. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to.12 It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today.”

13 So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. 14 The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself.

Again we see David taking the broader view and perspective about the hand of God being sovereign over all things good and bad. David believed that by God’s grace, the very, very bad day he was having would be turned around at a later time; and indeed it was. In fact, Shimei had to humble himself later in the story as David returned to Jerusalem, and David forgave him and the Benjamites with him. This was the beginning of an alliance between the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah – as they would together remain more true to the Lord than the split-off northern kingdom of 10 tribes in the division after the reign of Solomon.

I have to say that I’m too often like Abishai than like David. When wronged, I’d rather go over and chop someone’s head off than trust God to work circumstances over time to my vindication through his power. (Many years ago I named a pet “Abishai.”)  This was one of David’s “mighty men,” who were themselves a mixed bag of good and bad traits.

But that is what we all are; and the trick to the Christian life is to allow the Spirit to maximize our good traits and divine gifts, while yielding to God to suppress the traits of the sin nature that express themselves in self-absorption.

In the following several chapters we see that Absalom is overthrown and dies, and David is restored to the kingdom. But troubles and trials persist to David’s final days. And even in this time, we see the mixed bag of positive and negative traits in David himself … though the good traits of trust, faith, and repentance were the larger and defining reality at the foundation of David’s character and spirit.

Sometimes the greatest agonies aren’t those we feel, but those we don’t.  When we encounter someone in deep mourning over some tragedy, we rightly weep with them.  But when we encounter someone whose hardened heart refuses to spill tears, we feel all the more pity.

Story has its own way of re-sensitizing numb hearts to the reality around us.  The deadened nerves of human conscience are enlivened with truth layered with symbol and meaning.  Shakespeare’s Hamlet, for example, tells the story of Prince Hamlet trying to avenge his father’s assassination.  King Claudius had taken the throne after murdering his predecessor—Hamlet’s father.  Now Hamlet seeks to evoke a confession from Claudius by staging a play depicting his father’s murder.  “The play’s the thing in which I’ll catch the conscience of the king,” Hamlet utters in preparation.

Sometimes it’s easier to recognize the sin in others than it is to see the sin in ourselves.  We need an external conscience, someone to jar us out of our moral slumber and expose us to the penetrating light of reality.  Thankfully, David had this in Nathan.  At this point, David had thought his crime with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah to have been resolved.  But Nathan comes to him with a story that snaps David’s mind to reality:

And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you 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. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” 13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house.

In his 2000 work simply called Humanity, Jonathan Glover chronicles what might be called a “moral history” of the twentieth century.  Glover notes the ways that human selfishness and unmitigated evil resulted in some of the most virulent bloodbaths humanity has ever seen.  But Glover goes on to note two countervailing forces—what he calls “moral resources.”

First, there is sensitivity to others.  Glover uses the example of Afrikaner police during South Africa’s Apartheid.  These police would often chase down protesters—club in hand—in meting out cruel justice.  In one such incident, an officer is chasing a young woman when she loses her shoe.  Suddenly she switches from being a faceless protester—a target, to the cop—and becomes a human being.  Chivalry wins the day.  The officer puts down his club and hands the woman her shoe.  Something similar is happening with David.  He begins to recognize that his actions had devastating consequences for the people in his life.  Uriah had been wronged—and murdered.  Bathsheba had lost everything.  And what about you and me?  Reality hits us when we recognize the women we objectify as actual human beings.  The woman on your computer screen is more than a collection of anatomical parts.  She has a name.  She is someone’s daughter.  Perhaps a sister.  A friend.  She had dreams, as a little girl, of growing up and becoming a mommy.  She had a favorite stuffed animal.  She played with her dog.  Suddenly we can no longer see her as only someone to be used, but a person who deserves love.

Second, Glover noted a sensitivity to self.  We must ask the question: “Am I the sort of person who would do a thing like this?”  And the harsh reality is simple: if we do something, it’s because we’re exactly the sort of person who does things like that.  Nathan tells David: “You are that man!”  There’s  no escaping it.  Sin dehumanizes us.  We cease to function as agents and image-bearers of God and become creatures ruled by lust and greed.

Thankfully God provides a way out.  In almost the same breath, Nathan promises that God would “put away” David’s sin.  There would be forgiveness—though there would be consequences.

And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick.16 David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 18 On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” 19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.” 20 Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. 21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Can you imagine the pain inflicted on David, who for seven consecutive days had to listen to his child’s cries knowing he was the one who caused him this pain?

But can you imagine the anguish of another Father, who had to watch His Son ascend the hill toward a place called Golgotha, a Son whose limbs were pulled from their sockets as He hung there bleeding?  Nathan looked at David and said: “You are that man!”  But the Roman governor Pilate presented Jesus to an unruly crowd and said “Behold the man!”  David was forgiven for his physical adultery.  Jesus was condemned for my spiritual adultery.   The marvelous good news of the gospel is that God’s grace triumphs over my sin.  Ultimately, God would use this incident to bring about the fulfillment of his promise to David to use Solomon in the furthering of His Kingdom:

24 Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him 25 and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.

Still, we mustn’t gloss over the seriousness of sin and its consequences.  God’s grace offers forgiveness—but God also provides every resource we need to wage war against our own desires.  Is there a Nathan in your life?  Someone who challenges you?  Points out to you the consequences of your failings?

If you do not already pursue internet accountability, I urge you to do so.  Multiple programs exist that allow you to surf the web but will send reports of your activity to an accountability partner—a “Nathan” in your life.  If you have not already done so, I’d encourage you to check out www.covenanteyes.com for their program, or www.x3watch.com, both of which offer valuable resources in maintaining your purity in today’s digital world.

In his 1991 work Needful Things, horror novelist Stephen King tells the story of how the devil came to a small town in Maine.  Under the guise of a man named Leland Gaunt, the devil opens a small shop that sells…well, just what your heart most desires.  Gaunt’s first customer was a young boy named Brian Rusk.  In Gaunt’s shop, Brian discovers a 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card—a must-have for his collection.  Gaunt sells him the card for the unexpectedly low price of eighty-five cents—but also for the promise that Brian would perform a small task on Gaunt’s behalf.  Brian is asked to throw mud at his neighbor’s sheets while they hang on the clothesline.  Brian complies.  But when the neighbor discovers the ruined sheets, she blames not Brian (who remains undiscovered), but another, rival neighbor.  Things escalate quickly.  Harsh words are exchanged.  Rocks are thrown through windows.  The feud culminates in a double homicide.  King’s novel contains dozens of such stories, as the town of Castle Rock visits Gaunt’s shop, performing these small “tricks” that spiral into town-wide anarchy.  As Gaunt tells young Brian, “when you slung that mud at [your neighbor’s] sheets, you started something.   Like a guy who starts an avalanche just by shouting too loud on a warm winter day.”

Though we won’t find the gospel contained in horror fiction, King is onto something altogether basic—almost echoing the words of James.  Unchecked desire, writes James, “gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown leads to death” (James 1:15).  The compromises we make to secure our desires may seem small, but they “avalanche” into something demonic and unstoppable.

This is essentially what happened to King David.  His desire for his neighbor’s wife quickly spiraled out of control—to an extent that would bring desolation and destruction.

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

In his analysis of 1-2 Samuel, Victor Hamilton notes that this isn’t the first time David sent others to fight in his stead (cf. 2 Samuel 10:7-14).  But here it seems to take a sour note—suggesting that trouble began when David neglected his duties in favor of resting in security.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

It’s tempting to cast blame in Bathsheba’s direction.   Surely she should have been more discreet about bathing on the rooftop.  But not only does this reek of victim-shaming, it fails to account for some basic practices of the ancient world.  First, bathing typically took place outside—and it’s reasonable to think that only those with rooftop access (like David) would have had a vantage-point to see her bathing.  But secondly, bathing—in that era—did not necessitate a removal of clothing.  It’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that Bathsheba had been giving herself the equivalent of a sponge bath.

Nevertheless, David saw something he wanted—and took it for himself.  Now, the Bible uses a variety of words for sexual activity.  The most common—and most intimate—is the word yada meaning “to know.”  But here, we’re told, David “took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.”  He took her.  Now, I’m not suggesting that this was an outright example of sexual assault.  But I’m also not clear that Bathsheba was in a position to refuse, either.  And it brings to the surface one of our culture’s most dangerous myths about sex.

THE MYTH OF “CONSENT CULTURE”

The Bible describes marriage as a relationship of radical unity.  Married partners literally become “one flesh”—united in both body and soul.  So marital intimacy is about sharing one’s whole self: thoughts, feelings, dreams, passions—and yes, our bodies.  But this is equally why Christianity has traditionally reserved sex for marriage.  We should never say with our bodies what we’re unwilling to say with our souls.

Today’s world insists on what I frequently hear referred to as a “consent culture.”  This “myth” (as I call it) insists that what goes on between two consenting adults is no one’s business but their own.  Religion has no place in the bedroom.

The problem is that it simply doesn’t work like that.  There’s a reason we feel profound guilt over our sexual history.  There’s a reason we tend to label sexual brokenness as being “dirty:” dirty bookstores, dirty movies, dirty websites.  There’s a reason young people refer to the return home after a one-night stand as the “walk of shame.”  But surely, the reason must only be a sense of “residual Catholic guilt,” right?  Surely we’re past the age of Leave-it-to-Beaver style sexual values?

Shame and guilt fall under the umbrella of “moral emotions.”  Contemporary psychologist Richard Shweder says that there are three different types of ethics.  If I accidently curse during a wedding toast, I feel embarrassed for having violated the “ethics of community.”  If I fail to receive the promotion I sought, I may feel frustrated or angry for having failed to meet my personal standards of “the ethics of autonomy.”  But if I violate some deeper law, I feel ashamed and ever dirty for having violated “the ethics of divinity.”  Shweder is an atheist, but his work in this area made him more fully appreciate man’s religious impulse.  Why else would sexual guilt and shame be common across all cultures unless there was some deeper principle at work?  Surely we recognize the profound gift of human sexuality—just as we recognize the way it’s been so repeatedly vandalized.

THE MYTH OF INVULNERABILITY

With Bathsheba pregnant, David now risks exposure.  So he seeks a solution.

6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

Do you see the irony?  Not long ago King Saul had sought to eliminate David in a similar way—by sending David to battle seemingly impossible odds so that he’d be killed (1 Samuel 18).  Now David becomes the thing he once ran from.

The mysterious author of Ecclesiastes says that “because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11).  We might call this the “myth of invulnerability,” the lie that says I’m only as bad as my consequences.  I can hide.  I can deflect.  I can wear a religious mask. David believed himself impervious to consequence—even though all around him lay in shambles:

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

Does your sin grieve you like it grieves God?  Or—like David—have you become numb to it?  Have you bought into one of the myths above?  The good news of the gospel can only be fully experienced by those who realize the bad news of their own condition.   Sin is a powerful, corrupting force—one that penetrates deeper than mere behavior to the very core of our souls.  And nothing that you and I do can possibly stem the tide of uncontrolled desire.

Paul writes that “Godly sorrow brings repentance” (2 Corinthians 7:10).  Sometimes the healthiest thing we can pray for is for God to make us sad.  Do you have the courage today, to pray for Godly sorrow?  For earnest and honest conviction of your own sin?  Because to do so may be the start of a larger journey toward repentance, toward faithfulness, toward renewal.

Today’s passage in 2 Samuel 10 serves as a bridge from what we have studied thus far in the account of David that carries us up to the next chapter which will be the topic for Chris’ sermon on Sunday – David’s moral failure.

Much of what we have looked at revolves around the solidification of David of the nation of Israel as he establishes his kingdom. But there were international matters as well, as Israel was surrounded by oft hostile Gentile nations and people groups.

At this time, Israel was the strongest and most dominant power in the region, but it did not mean that they were free from conflicts … almost seasonally and annually, as we see in the opening words of the following chapter: “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war …”  This almost sounds like opening day of the baseball season!

God often used the nation of Israel as an instrument of judgment against the surrounding godless nations; and likewise, in times of disobedience, the judgment came in the opposite direction.

It is good to recall that the Lord God is the sovereign over all the nations. As it says in the 47^th Psalm …

God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne … for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.

This is a good remembrance, not only for our understanding of biblical times, but for our modern era as well. It certainly is true that the Near East has seen wars and conflicts between Israel and surrounding nations for even thousands of years.

The only thing more frightening about watching the news these days and seeing the evil forces of ISIS / ISIL growing and advancing, would be to see all of this happening without the perspective of God’s superintendence over the affairs of the world.

David Defeats the Ammonites

10:1  In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.

When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.

5 When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”

6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.

7 On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 8 The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were by themselves in the open country.

9 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 10 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. 11 Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. 12 Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.”

13 Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him.14 When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they fled before Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab returned from fighting the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.

15 After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they regrouped. 16 Hadadezer had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River; they went to Helam, with Shobak the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.

17 When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and went to Helam. The Arameans formed their battle lines to meet David and fought against him. 18 But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there. 19 When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them.

So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.