The Ripple Effect of David's Sin, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith.

I'm Sharon Otz thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message, the ripple effect of David's sins, is quite informative. He was the only man in the Bible of whom God testified, I have found David to be a man after mine own heart. He had successfully committed the sin of adultery, using his kingly authority to steal another man's wife.

But what was worse was the cover up and the collateral damage that created many victims in the ripple effect of David's sins. Amen, Amen. What a mighty God he is. His ways are past finding out. You know, that's one thing that I always loved about Moses, because he didn't ask to see God's miracles. He said, teach me your ways. He wanted to know God's heart.

That's what I want to do. I want to know God's heart. Last week we talked about, Lord, enlarge our hearts. And our primary example, because he's the one who prayed it, was David. You know, I have been alluding to the story of David. I thought of this over several times in many recent messages, but there's the part that I always say, and you know about David's sin, and go on from there. And then the next message I'll mention, and you know about David's sin, and go on from there, because of course I know we all know about it. But you know, I thought it was really strong in my heart this week.

Well, why don't you just take the time to go through it? And I thought, but everybody knows it. But then the Lord started giving me those little serendipitous coincidences, and then I know, okay, that's what he wants me to actually minister on. And you know, when I got to reading it, I saw a couple things I never saw before. It goes to show you, you never know everything you think you know.

And so I think that we can learn something today from this. So let's go to 2 Samuel chapter 11. We know that David was the only person that God said of in the Bible, a man after mine own heart. God said that in spite of the fact that David was imperfect, and his sins were great. And we're going to look at that today in 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 1. And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, which was his commander under him, and his servants with him, which would have been the armies, and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked up 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. And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house.

We'll stop here for a moment. So at the time when kings go to battle, you know, as I've mentioned many times before, you can read it in the writings of Moses, that the kings were supposed to be the ones who actually were out in front leading the battle. And next to him was on his horse was the standard bearer or the flag holder. And when the king said it was time to go and to charge, he would tell him and he would hold up that flag. And everybody way, way back yonder knew it's time to go forth and to charge.

But the king would have been out in front. But in this time, David, who was a warrior from his childhood, I mean, when he killed Goliath, he was just a young man, a lad, as it were, a youth. And so he was accustomed to being the warrior because after that, Saul had made him commander of the armies. But what was he doing? He was taking a vacation.

And he was at home at ease, lying around in his bed when he should have been on the battlefield with his men. But he stayed behind and he turned out that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Have you ever been at the wrong place at the wrong time? Amen. And when you're in that wrong place at the wrong time, you can either say, what am I doing here? And get up and skedaddle.

Or if you hesitate and you loiter, you may end up in big trouble. See, David was neglecting his calling. And this state of mind that he was in began with the fact when he made the decision not to go to the battle, not to be on the front lines for the Lord doing what he was anointed to do.

That was the beginning. He was not fulfilling his calling. He was losing his anointing.

Amen. And so he was at ease and he found himself bored and then careless and then reckless. He walked up on the rooftop in the evening. And the first thing that we are told is he saw a woman taking a bath on a nearby rooftop, which means she was naked because she was taking a bath. And apparently from what we read about, she was clean from her. She was purified.

It was her time when women, after the time of their monthly, they would have a special bath and purification. And she was going through all of that when he saw her. And when he saw her, there was temptation. You know, you have no control over temptation. It comes to us all. We're bombarded with it. We're surrounded with it. Amen.

But when temptation comes and we feel that little thing that's starting, we've got to make a decision then to cut it off. Amen. He saw a woman.

It reminds me of the first thing that's said about Samson says, and he saw a woman. Amen. And so he did not turn away. He did not say, I'm out of here.

Go on back down stairs. Amen. No, he continued to watch her. He saw her.

Amen. And there was the beginning. That temptation was now turning into lust. It says he thought how beautiful she was. She was a beautiful woman. And as he watched her, he could imagine in his mind what it would be like to have sex with her.

I'm just going to say it like we would say it today. Amen. And so he was watching her. And do not raise your hand and don't look down because then that won't be good either. But if anyone has ever imagined what it's like to have sex with someone else.

Amen. And that's what came into his mind. So now he's going from he saw her to now he's imagining in his thought life.

The eye gate opened up his thought life and now he takes his thoughts and he puts them to life because he asks, who is that woman over there in that house? Who is she? And he was told right away. Her name is Bathsheba. She is the daughter of Eliam and she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Well, right away, he knows she's a married woman. Number two, he knows that she's married to Uriah and Uriah is one of the captains in his army. Also, that she is the daughter of Eliam.

I'm going to let that hang for a minute or two. And I'm going to tell you a little later why that third piece of information was extremely important to him. I'm not going to tell you now.

I'm going to tell you in a moment. So he knew that she was married. She was the wife of Uriah, the daughter of Eliam, which also told him something important. So then he saw her. He thought about her. He spoke about her. And now he's going to act on it. He sends for her and took her.

Did you notice it said he took her? See, he was the king. He was an authority and not so much now, because now it's this generation is not going to put up with it. But for many years, women who were trying to break into the business part of the world and trying to move up, maybe to be a little higher, even make a CEO, they had to put up with a whole lot of sexual harassment from bosses and supervisors. And often the woman was afraid to speak up because she would lose her job.

And so rather than jeopardize her job and her standing, she would a lot of times have to put up with stuff. Amen. And how many back in the 40s and 50s did how many aspiring young women who wanted to be an actress? But when they got out there, the Hollywood, they had to practically sleep their way. Why?

Because they were that way. No, not in the beginning. Not at all. They went out there with stars in their eyes, but they found out you heard of the casting couch. You know, you want to be in my movie? Fine.

You can be in my movie, but now you're going to have to please me. Amen. So David took advantage of her. Also, her husband was away.

He took advantage of that. I mean, if this would have happened and Uriah was home at the time and not at war. Do you think David would have sent for her?

No, he would not have. Now, usually we think of the woman as being the seductress and the one who seduces. But in this case, David seduced her because of his position, his power and his authority. And there is no reason for us to think that Bathsheba was not in love with her husband. I feel that she loved her husband. She was not the one who initiated this whole thing.

Amen. But remember, she's just a woman. Women didn't have authority.

Her husband was not at home there to defend her and protect her because he was on the king's business. David's sin turned this innocent woman into an adulterous. And look at verse five. And the woman conceived and sent and told David and said, I am with child. So this implies that she got pregnant that very first time. Amen. And it makes sense.

The fact that she was having her bath of purification tells you that she was in her fertile time. And so she got pregnant right away. And, you know, it happens. It happens. Sometimes a person has a one night stand and realizes that was wrong.

I was wrong. Repents. And they're not going to do it again. But then they end up pregnant. And unfortunately, sometimes they add sin to sin, just like David's about to do. And they go and get an abortion. Amen. But it never, ever pays or pans out a good outcome when you try to cover your sin.

It only gets worse. So we saw Bathsheba, the lust of the eyes. He thought about how beautiful and sexy she was, the lust of the flesh. And then he spoke out his lustful desires. He inquired about her. And when she learned she was married, he just dismissed it and thought, I am the king. I'm the king.

I'll just take her. The pride of life, who he was. He acted on his desires and sent for her, had sex with her. And now he's going to have to put into motion a plan to cover it up.

He wants to cover it up. Amen. So we're going to begin to see now the degrees of David's sin. The ripple effect, if you will, of David's sin.

You throw a stone into the pond and first it's that little tiny circle, but stand there for a moment and watch and it'll span out and out and out and out. Amen. And when I began this message, I was going to call it the five degrees of David's sin. But as I got into it, I found out I had to make it six.

Oh, wait a minute. No, I got seven up. Here's another one. There's eight.

I think we're I think eight is it. But I might discover one as we go along. He had to put a plan in motion to do something to cover up.

Amen. So I'm going to paraphrase now for time. He sends word to his chief of the Army, Joab, and he tells Joab, I want you to send Uriah back here to me with a report of what is going on with the war. When Uriah arrived, David, you know, courteously asked him and give me the report of what's going on with the war, what she did. Now he tells Uriah, which is really his ruse, what he really wanted, go home and be with your wife. And David had his servants send a whole bunch of good food so they could have a nice feast.

And I'm sure he had it figured in his mind. They'll have a romantic dinner. He hasn't seen his wife in a long time.

He'll be with her and my sin will be covered. But Uriah did not go home. But instead he's hung out at the palace and he slept with the servants in their quarters. And the next morning when David found this out, he called for him and he asked him, why didn't you go home and see your wife?

I'm sure she's lonely and misses you. Look at verse 11, and Uriah said unto David, the ark, which would be the ark of the covenant, and Israel, the armies, and Judah, the armies abide in tents. And my Lord Joab, your chief, and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?

As your soul lives, I will not do this thing. He was adamant about it. He had a strong conviction. He felt like I cannot go home and sit in my house and eat and drink and have time with my wife and all of this when all of my fellow compatriots are out there lying in the fields.

Probably who knows what they're scrounging around eating out there. Amen. He said, I just can't do it. I wouldn't feel right about that. That is wrong.

To me, that's wrong and I won't do it. Amen. So now David's got to come up with a plan B. So he calls Uriah to come and have dinner with him that night.

Because Uriah can't go back to the army until David sends him. So he says, come have dinner with me. And that night he had a nice feast and he made sure that he had wine, plenty of wine, the intoxicating wine. And the Bible says he got him drunk.

Now think about this was a man who would not even go home and have supper with his wife. And now David's done made him eat and drink until he's drunk. Let me say it to you like this, David seduced Uriah. He made him do something that he already said he would not do. I won't do this thing. And yet David made him do it.

Why? Again, David used his power, his authority as the king. How could Uriah tell him, no, I won't eat with you.

He couldn't do that. So David, using his power and his authority, seduced Uriah to do something that he did not want to do. And then he told him, go home, go home to your wife.

But what did he do? Look at verse 13. And David called him and he did eat and drink before him and he made him drunk and at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his Lord and went not down to his house. So in the morning, when David realized again he had not gone home to his wife, it came to pass that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, set you Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire you from him. You send him up in the hottest battle and then you retreat.

Don't give him any backup, my God, and retire you from him that he may be smitten and die. Now he's written it down, Uriah's death warrant, and making Uriah be the one to hand deliver it to Joab. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah. Now remember, watch this, the city. Now they're getting to a city. What does the city have around it? Walls. When a city's going to be attacked, what do the men of the city do? Go up on the walls and start shooting people.

Keep that in mind. Observe the city that he assigned Uriah into a place where he knew that valument were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also.

So now things are escalating here. We see that he acted on his lust, amen, and he had sex, he got her pregnant, he's trying to cover it up, but it didn't work out the way he wanted to. So now he devised a plan telling Joab, put him on the front line, put him, as it were, near the walls of the city where he will be killed because the men up there are going to be shooting him.

And he's not going to have any backup to shoot back. How many see that? But I want you to understand that Uriah was not the only one that got killed. You see that? And some of the men of David, the servants of David, other soldiers, also died. Ah, the ripple's going out now.

See it? Adultery, and now we're going to murder Uriah. Oh, but the ripple effect's going out another circle because other men in the army, righteous men and servants of David, because if you were the king they were considered your servants, amen, also died. So now this has occurred.

There's another ripple I want you to see that happened this same time. What other person was affected now by David's plan of cover-up? Joab. Joab. Because now Joab is forced to participate in murder. David had said, you put him out there where he will be smitten and die. Can you imagine when Joab got that letter he must have went, what? Uriah, he's one of our captains.

He's one of our best men. Now, we don't know. I sort of doubt, seriously doubt that David said, because I got his wife pregnant.

Amen? So I don't think Joab even knew what was happening. He could only imagine or try to imagine. Maybe he thought that when Joab went there in the beginning the ruse was to get news of the war, to send him so I know what's going on. But maybe he thought that Uriah did something terrible, that now the king says he's got to die. But whatever, Joab was forced again because of David's authority and power and being the king. And he said, put him there where he will die. But you see, Joab couldn't just send Uriah all by himself and say, you all by yourself go and attack the city wall.

He couldn't do that. He had to send at least a group of men to make it even look sensible. Because if he had sent Joab by himself then it would have been obvious that they set him up to be killed. So he sent a group of men and made it look like they were special ops.

That they were going to go somehow and maybe he thought that, you know, they thought the men might have thought, we're going to be special ops and we're going to get there and we're going to pick off some of these people. But they were no match. They were no match for a fortified city with men on the wall shooting down at them.

With no backup. Because Joab retreated. So the ripple effect, Bathsheba, Uriah, Joab, other righteous men are now collateral damage of David's sin. So now Joab has to send a message back to David to tell him what's going on. And he told the messenger, he says, when you go see King David and you tell him that we lost a lot of men in battle. And the king will get angry at you.

He will get angry and he might say to you, why did you approach so near to the city? Didn't you know that they would pick you off, that they would shoot at you from the walls? Why did you go near the walls?

Listen to this. Joab said to the messenger, if the king gets angry and asks you those questions, here's how you answer him. Your servant Uriah the Hittite died also. Because he knew that that's all that David cared about.

He was reckless, careless. He didn't care about the collateral damage and he didn't care about those righteous men. He only wanted to know Uriah is dead. And now that he's dead, my sin will be covered and nobody else will know about it.

So he forced Joab to participate in murder and then he forced Joab to participate in the cover up. Amen. He sent valiant men to their deaths just so he could get Uriah killed. Amen. There were grieving widows and orphaned children weeping in the towns of Israel and Judah because valiant men died that day to cover up David's sin.

Amen. I hope you are being enlightened by this intriguing message, the ripple effect of David's sins. This larger than life king was a man after God's own heart. He was Israel's heroic giant slayer, but he did not slay the giant of sexual lust that spurred him to commit adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his righteous captains in the army. He took an innocent woman and made her an adulteress.

When she became pregnant, he devised a cover up. When it failed, David's unrepentant heart deceived him to commit the murder of the innocent husband Uriah. The ripple effect of this evil deed forced his general Joab to participate in the murderous scheme. It took the lives of other valiant soldiers who were sent to die on the battlefield with Uriah. When judgment was pronounced on David, the baby born in adultery died. Ten of his concubines were publicly sexually molested by his own son and forced into a state of secluded widowhood. And the sword of death took three more of his sons.

Thank God for second chances. David got right with God, and we have his recorded words that reveal what true repentance is and the extent of God's merciful forgiveness. There are many nuggets and nuances in this message, so order your CD today for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request offer SK-206, mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203, or go online to our e-store at soundoffaith.org, where MP3s are also available. But to order the ripple effect of David's sin by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10, request SK-206 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Autzen, Maranatha.