He's miserable according to what we'll write later in the Psalms. He can't shake the guilt and shame. He knows that the hand of God is heavy upon him. Think of it this way, a lamb that slips into a mud puddle might enjoy the cool liquid for a moment before it struggles to get out. A pig will slip into a mud puddle and say to himself, man, I am finally home.
This is living, right? The children of God are never completely comfortable with sin. Can you remember a time when you sinned and you hoped that your sin would never see the light of day? Having your sin exposed is one of the most painful experiences in a person's life. After committing adultery, King David thought he could get away with his sin.
He went so far as to commit murder as part of his cover-up. What finally broke David was a confrontation by Nathan. David's sin was forgiven, but sin has consequences, and that's our theme today on Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davey continues through his series on the life of David in a sermon that he's calling, Caught Red-Handed. I personally can't think of a better time for the voice of the church that believes the gospel to be heard than today.
If there was ever a need, it is this hour. In fact, I was given an article by one of my staff pastors and talking about one of the largest ever roundups of a child pornography ring, and dozens of people were arrested. Front page news, and I had that on my desk this week as I prepared to sort of open our study with this. What made it even more startling to read or see was that on the front page of the USA Today were mug shots of these individuals who'd been arrested.
Individuals that you would expect could be trusted, individuals that should be trustworthy. And yet among those arrested, hundreds are going to be caught up in this net, but among them initially here was a picture, a mug shot of a police chief, along with another police officer, a nurse, a paramedic, and a great bearded middle-aged Jewish rabbi. The article said more than 600 desktop computers have been seized.
Laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other devices containing thousands of images and videos. These images and videos now pointing a finger of incrimination, undeniable evidence these individuals have been caught red-handed. That expression began to swirl around in my mind, caught red-handed. I did a little study to find out when it started. It's been used and is used to this day in a number of different contexts, typically not in a positive way. I found that it appeared for the first time in 1432 in the Scottish Acts of Parliament under the reign of King James I, and it was a new law that attempted to deal with poachers who were killing deer on other people's property. And the law read, and I quote, although I have translated it into more current English, if the offender be caught red-handed, he may be pursued and put to the knowledge of the landlord.
In other words, there's no need for an expensive trial, no delay, turn him over. He literally had the blood of the deer on his hands as incriminating, undeniable evidence. A little more than 300 years later, Sir Walter Scott in his novel Ivanhoe used that expression red-handed, and from there it just sort of picked up and became a popular expression, where Scott was referring to a hunter caught with blood on his hands, having poached a deer, he was caught red-handed.
It's interesting, as I did a little study on this, to find other cultures have had similar ways of using this concept. In Japan, temple monks would paint on their coins, their money, an invisible coating of sap from poison ivy, so that any thief would eventually break out with an irritating red rash. He'd be detected by his red hands. Back in England, the red coats worn by England's top-tier military, you can still see them parading around Buckingham Palace, very expensive coats, would often be stolen from woolen mills, I read centuries ago, more valuable than they are certainly today. They would be stolen while hanging on lines, just having been stained with red dye to dry out, and of course the thieves could be easily apprehended, the red dye visible from their hands.
Also discovered that English nobles had the practice of dipping their expensive pistachios in this clear dye, so that if their servants stole any of them, their fingertips and tongues would turn bright red. Being caught red-handed has traveled down to us today. It refers to somebody caught either in the act or with the evidence of wrongdoing in their possession. Being caught red-handed then is a metaphor for being caught without any excuse.
There's no need for any denial. You are literally stained, as it were, with the evidence of your wrongdoing. Now in our last study, if you were with us, we watched the elaborate cover-up of a man whose hands were stained. King David had taken another man's wife for one night, assuming he'd never be found out. Trouble is, she became pregnant and instead of revealing the truth, David plunged into this downward spiral of cover-up that eventually led to a conspiracy with his top general Joab and the death of this woman's husband while in battle. We left our study in 2 Samuel 11, where we were informed that at the end of the traditional period of mourning, death of someone which would have been seven days, David takes the widow and brings her into his harem as one of his wives and assumes that nobody is the wiser. But there are eyewitnesses, certainly Joab the general, and I'll use it, as I mentioned, against him for the rest of his career.
There's certainly the pregnant widow who joins him in this secret. But there was another reliable eyewitness, and we found out who at the end of the chapter simply put, God. Chapter 11 ends, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. I know the Lord wasn't apparently moving, acting, speaking.
He was certainly watching, and he could see the blood on David's hands. By the end of chapter 11, the student of the Word assumes that chapter 12 takes place five minutes later, and it doesn't. It's a year later.
Keep that in mind. By now, the gossips of the palace staff have sort of settled down. They knew what he'd done, though they hadn't probably any evidence.
They'd figured it out. A few cynics around the court were probably still moaning, I told you that nothing would happen to David. He's God's pet. And it really does look like David has gotten away with adultery and murder. But just in case you're thinking he did, and he's at this moment in between chapter 11 and chapter 12, in that 10 to 12 month period of time having the time of his life, think again. Psalm chapter 32 gives us a peek into his heart. It's a psalm that David will write later describing that year period during the cover-up.
We don't have time, but let me just quickly quote one or two of the lyrics. He says this, Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven. That's how he starts. Then he goes into detail. When I kept silent, that is when I covered up my sin, my bones wasted away, he says, through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand, he's speaking of God, was heavy upon me.
My strength was dried up like a hot summer day. He's not having the time of his life. He's buried with guilt. One commentary put it this way, he's not relaxing. He's not sipping lemonade on his patio.
Count on it. He has sleepless nights. He can see his sin written across the ceiling of his room as he tosses and turns. He sees it written across the walls. He sees it on the plate where he tried to choke down his meals.
He sees it on the faces of his counselors and his wife Bathsheba. He has become a miserable husband, an irritable father, a poor leader, and a songless composer. He is living a lie, but he cannot escape the truth.
Well put. He's miserable. The passing pleasure of sin has long since passed. He can't shake it. By the way, that's the mark of a genuine believer. This actually spells hope for David. He's miserable according to what he'll write later in the Psalms. He can't shake the guilt and shame. He knows that the hand of God is heavy upon him. Think of it this way, a lamb that slips into a mud puddle might enjoy the cool liquid for a moment before it struggles to get out. A pig will slip into a mud puddle and say to himself, man, I am finally home.
This is living, right? The children of God are never completely comfortable with sin. And you've found that to be true, haven't you? So the timing of God is delayed, but it's perfect. It's been a year now and David's hidden it.
As far as he's concerned, there are no visible stains. It's time for God to move. And with that, chapter 12 opens. Notice verse 1. And or then 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.
The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 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 food and drink from his cup and lie in his arms. And it was like a daughter to him. By the way, if you're an older believer, you've read through this story.
Slow down for a minute. If you're reading it for the first time, you'll notice that Nathan's not coming to David like we as older Bible students think. Okay, David, I'm going to deliver to you a parable and you're going to find yourself in the parable. He doesn't announce that. He begins to tell him a story as if it's happened. And he really pours on the emotional language, doesn't he? As he describes the bond between this little lamb and this poor man.
And you can just see his children. This is their pet. Did you notice he's doing things for his little lamb that you would not do for your pet?
More than likely he's letting it, did you notice, eat right off his plate and drink right out of his cup? You would not let your dog do that, right? You wouldn't. You wouldn't. I mean, your cat would do it without permission and then demand refills, but that's another story, okay? But he probably wouldn't do that. Nathan, by the way, is using words loaded to the Hebrew ear with implication.
Let me point out a couple of them. In verse 3, he said that this little lamb lay in his arms. That word is never used between a pet and the owner. It's a word commonly used for a man embracing, hugging his wife. So already he's sort of noodling around the edges here.
He also does something else. The phrase that comes next is, this lamb was like a daughter. That's actually the same Hebrew word, the first part of it, that you find in the name Bat Sheba. The lamb was like a bath to him, and that must have arrested, perhaps unconsciously, David's heart pricked. Notice verse 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'd come to him.
But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Now again, Nathan is using loaded words. In fact, the word for traveler here that I read is a word for someone who was walking around. It's a different kind of word, not for someone traveling from home to some location.
It's actually a word for somebody who's just walking around. And the interesting thing is that it appears that same verb in the Hebrew language back in chapter 11 to describe David who was walking around his roof. Again, Nathan is loading it up here. David isn't necessarily connecting the dots, but there is something happening to him emotionally because he responds with rage. Notice verse 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, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Now keep in mind David just sentenced himself. Now before we get there, don't you find it interesting to see in David our own ability to condemn others for doing less than what we have done ourselves?
Quick to see in someone even the slightest sliver of what we do is coming down so hard. The Lord Jesus talks about this, and this is another sermon, but I just want to drop it in here as an aside in Matthew 7. How is it that we can see the splinter of wood in someone's eye when we have a beam protruding from our own? The splinter and the beam, by the way, are made out of the same thing, the same substance, wood.
In other words, the person who sins the most in some area is able to spot that same sin in someone else's life even though it's only a fraction of theirs. The rich man stole something. David is incensed. What did he steal? A lamb? What did David steal? A wife? A man's life? That sheep stealer ought to die.
Why? Well, because he stole something he had plenty of, because he acted without pity towards somebody who could defend himself, because he abused his power to do whatever he wanted, because he ripped a family apart with grief. Yes, all of the above, and David just comes off his throne, and he sputters in rage as God lives. He's going to bring God into it, but as God lives, that man who did that deserves to die. And you can just imagine Nathan pausing for a fact as David's sentence just reverberates around the palace walls. And then he gets quiet. And Nathan looks David in the eye and says in verse 7, You are that man.
That rich man, David, is you. I can imagine that David's jaw, as one author said, probably dropped open. He probably blinked a couple of times looking at Nathan inquisitively at first, and then his eyes opened wide with sudden recognition.
He probably slumped back to his throne as his heart began to beat against his chest. He didn't know that anybody knew outside of that closed circle, and they'd kept the secret. He hadn't even thought of the fact that God knew.
He knew God knew. And the prophet of God has just arrived to spill it. David has been caught, effectively red-handed. David had stains on his heart that had already begun to eat like corrosive rust away at his peace and joy, his communion with God. Is there something, by the way, my friend, that you hope never gets out? As you look at that text, and by the way, this isn't just to look at David.
It's to look in the mirror of the Word at ourselves. Is there something, is there some stain you're hoping never gets detected? Is there some evidence that you hope never surfaces? What if a prophet of God by the name of Nathan showed up at your doorstep this afternoon?
What would happen to the palms of your hands and the beating of your heart? One author told the interesting story of a man named Rogers Cadenhead. It happened not too long ago.
I clipped it, put it away, pulled it out. Thought it would be a timely illustration. When Pope John Paul II died, Rogers, and others do this, some make a pretty decent living off it, purchased a web domain, assuming it would be needed later. That web domain, he purchased, he registered as www.benedict16.com. And he waited. He'd guessed correctly. That would be the Pope's new name, the new Pope's name. He knew that Rome would want it. He had watched as another name, popebenedict16.com, had sold on eBay for $16,000.
Now you're wishing you had the idea yourself, and you didn't do it. He figured that his would be worth more money, and it would be. The article said, in a surprising twist, Rogers informed the Catholic officials who came knocking, and they did, that he didn't want money.
He was a Catholic himself and wanted the church to have the domain. Instead, he wanted two things. He wanted a free night in the Vatican Hotel, and he wanted complete absolution, no questions asked, for the third week of March, 1987. Makes you wonder what happened on the third week of March, 1987. Whatever it was, that man was carrying it. He was being buried by it.
He didn't want the news out, but he just wanted it wiped away. I wonder if you're hiding something from God. Is it a business practice that God would never honor, or your spouse if they found out?
Is it a relationship you're nursing along that you shouldn't have? Is it a test score you didn't deserve? Is it a diploma that you didn't earn? Could it be an award you didn't merit? A resume where you didn't completely tell the truth?
Is it something from the past you've never admitted? Is it something like David, that when we look at a text like this, it surfaces and your hands feel stained all over again? It robs your joy and your sleep and your communion with God, because you know deep down that God knows too. What happens next is the ultimate solution, and it isn't found in some church's absolution. A church can't wipe stains away. In fact, before David can interrupt Nathan with saying anything, what we're often remiss in not noting is that Nathan continues on and delivers some consequences to David's sin.
There are three of them. First, if I could put it into a sentence form, violence and death would become a part of David's household. Look down at verse 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. Now if you study the final years of David's reign from this point forward, the sword never, never stops swinging.
Never. Murder among the royal family will become the scandal of Jerusalem. It's going to be front page. It would make a serial show fit for 21st century television. It's going to stain the legacy of David's reign. Secondly, not only will violence and murder become part of his household, but illicit lust and immorality.
In fact, in the very next chapter, lust and rape will enter the palace grounds among members of the royal family. David will be powerless to remedy it. In fact, it's going to end in even more murder. There will be immorality that David would never dream of.
Why? Because his children will see his compromise and his sin, and they will take it a thousand miles further than he would have ever wanted or dreamed. They're going to run with it because that mud puddle is home to them. And they'll excuse themselves on what they've seen their father do.
That's one of the challenges and penalties of being a parent or even being a leader. In verse 11, Nathan says, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am going to 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. This is, by the way, judgment on David's ongoing sin, having more than one wife.
And he, this neighbor, shall lie with your wives in plain view. Verse 12, You did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. In other words, God is going to allow a sinner to take what David did secretly and parade it. And this is going to be fulfilled by Absalom, David's son, as he overthrows his father's throne or attempts to. But in the meantime of that coup, as David is running for his life, Absalom takes David's harem, pitches a tent on the top of the palace roof, and defiles all of them sexually as a show of his power now and certainly his utter contempt and hatred for his father.
I can remember my father often telling us four boys, My father grew up on a farm and has that rural wisdom at times that comes out, and he would often say to us as we grew up that we could not sow a life of wild oats and then pray for a crop failure. Even though David will be forgiven, there is still the principle of reaping and sowing, and there are some consequences that will linger that for the believer who is asked forgiveness will continually take before the Lord for strength. If anybody thinks David gets a free pass, you just haven't read the rest of this story. Sin always has consequences, and King David is learning that lesson the hard way. We need to be the kind of people who run from sin, and when we do sin, we need to be the kind of people who are quick to confess our sin and seek restoration from God.
There may be consequences for our sin, but facing those consequences is far better than leaving our sin unconfessed. Stephen's not quite through with this lesson, but we need to stop here and resume this lesson tomorrow. You can learn more about us if you visit our website, which is wisdomonline.org. Go there to listen to the complete archive of Stephen's Bible Teaching Ministry.
That archive is available to you free of charge, and you can access it anytime at wisdomonline.org. In addition to equipping you with these daily Bible lessons, we also have a magazine. We'd like to send you a free issue if you've never seen it. It includes articles written by Stephen and a daily devotional guide to help you in your spiritual walk. The magazine is called Heart to Heart. We send Heart to Heart magazine to all of our wisdom partners, but we'd be happy to send you a sample issue so that you can see it for yourself. You can sign up for it on our website, or you can call us today. Our number is 866-48-BIBLE. Thanks again for joining us. Come back next time for more wisdom for the heart. .
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-06-15 13:50:50 / 2023-06-15 14:00:28 / 10