2 Samuel 11:5 Consequences

 ”And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”“ II Samuel‬ ‭11‬:‭5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. And the woman conceived: David didn’t plan on this. This pregnancy must have alarmed both David and Bathsheba. This meant that David’s sin would be found out.

b. So she sent and told David: Her message “involved an appeal to him to take the necessary steps to avert the evil consequences of the sin, inasmuch as the law required that both the adulterer and adulteress should be put to death (Leviticus 20:10).” (Keil and Delitzsch)

(Guzik)

Consequences 

Every single one of us is a sinner and sin has its consequences. 

Where we get in trouble is when we sit on His throne and judge someone else for their sin.

Jesus said: ”And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?“ ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

How do we avert the evil consequences of sin?

By accepting the sacrifice Jesus did for us on the cross.

”The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!“ John‬ ‭1‬:‭29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Is Jesus your Lord and Savior?

Blessings 

2 Samuel 11:4 Destructive Behavior!

 ”Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.“

‭‭II Samuel‬ ‭11‬:‭4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Then David sent messengers, and took her: In this the man after God’s heart went against his own heart, following through on a lustful impulse. David ignored every warning and way of escape God set before him. In doing this, David took her – he “took” Bathsheba, someone who did not belong to him through the covenant of marriage.

i. “In the expression he took her, and she came to him there is no intimation whatever that David brought Bathsheba into his palace through craft or violence, but rather that she came at his request without any hesitation, and offered no resistance to his desires. Consequently Bathsheba is not to be regarded as free from blame.” (Keil and Delitzsch)

ii. “We hear nothing of her reluctance, and there is no evidence that she was taken by force.” (Clarke)

b. He lay with her: David knew this was wrong, yet he did it. It’s hard to explain David’s thinking here because he wasn’t thinking. He acted on feeling and impulse instead of thinking.

i. If David had thought about all this, he would have seen the cost was so much greater than he wanted to consider at the time. If David had only known that this illicit pursuit of pleasure would directly or indirectly result in:

· An unwanted pregnancy.

· The murder of a trusted friend.

· A dead baby.

· A daughter raped by his son.

· One son murdered by another son.

· A civil war led by one of his sons.

· A son who imitates David’s lack of self-control, leading him and much of Israel away from God.

ii. At this moment David agreed with the world’s understanding of the purpose of sex, seeing it primarily as the pursuit of a pleasurable experience. With his many wives, David may have neverreally understood God’s purpose for sex: to be the “cement” that helps bond together a one-flesh relationship.

c. She was cleansed from her impurity: This confirms that Bathsheba had recently had her menstrual period and was not already pregnant when David committed adultery with her.

i. It seemed as though David “got away” with this sin. But David could only think this if he believed that his sin was something good that God did not want for David. In truth, David did something harmful and destructive to himself and others, and great harm and destruction would come of it. Just because David wasn’t caught at the moment doesn’t mean that he got away with anything.

ii. The phrase she was cleansed from her impurity leads some people to believe that bathing of verse 2 was Bathsheba’s ceremonial cleansing at the conclusion of her menstrual period. (Guzik)

Destructive Behavior!

The Bible lays out to good, the bad and the ugly for generations to see! 

The acronym for Bible is, basic instructions before leaving earth.

David was a sinful man just like anyone else and his sin of adultery will lead to murder and cost him dearly. 

Sin has a price!

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. –” R Zaccharias

If we could see the cost of sin would we continue to pay the price?

Blessings 

2 Samuel 11:3 Heart-Mind-Practice

 ”So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”“

‭‭II Samuel‬ ‭11‬:‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. So David sent and inquired: David could have ended the temptation by leaving the scene at that time, even after entertaining the temptation for a while. Instead, David put himself into a moretempting situation.

b. Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam: From this, David learned that the woman came from a notable family. She was from the upper classes. Her father was Eliam, one of David’s mighty men (2 Samuel 23:34). Her grandfather was Ahithophel – one of David’s chief counselors (2 Samuel 23:34, 2 Samuel 15:12).

c. The wife of Uriah the Hittite: From this, David learned that Bathsheba was married, and the wife of another of David’s mighty men (2 Samuel 23:8, 39). He also learned that this woman’s husband was away because the mighty men were away in battle against the Ammonites. This knowledge made the situation far more tempting. David began to think, “I could get away with this.”

i. David committed adultery in his heart up on the roof. Now he knew that he had an opportunity to commit adultery in practice. Adultery in the heart and mind is bad; adultery in practice is far worse.

ii. David should have received the news of the woman’s identity as a warning. He learned that this woman was related to men close to him. In taking Bathsheba, David sinned against Uriah, Eliam, and Ahithophel – each man was close and important to David. (Guzik)

Heart-Mind-Practice

This is the birth of sin, the heart is willing, the mind thinks it through and then the body carries it out in practice.

If only Adam and Eve didn’t sin! 

Spoiler alert! If it wasn’t them, it would have been you or I for the Bible says: 

”As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;“ ‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Because of God’s grace, everyday is new in Jesus Christ! 

We need to finish the race He set before us!

Blessings 

2 Samuel 11:2 Bait Hides The Hook!

 ”Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.“ ‭‭II Samuel‬ ‭11‬:‭2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. David arose from his bed and walked on the roof: The Hebrew verb form of walked suggests that David paced back and forth on the roof. He couldn’t sleep and was uneasy – uneasy because he wasn’t where God wanted him to be.

b. He saw a woman bathing: It may be that this woman (later called by the name Bathsheba) acted immodestly. Though it was evening and apparently the time when most people were asleep, it is possible (even likely) that she knew that her bath was visible from the roof of the palace. Any possible immodesty on Bathsheba’s part did not excuse David’s sin in any way, but if she was immodest, she was still responsible for her wrong.

i. We must never be an occasion for sin to others, even in how we dress. Paul’s word in 1 Timothy 2:9 is relevant here: the women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation.

c. He saw a woman bathing: David’s sin was not in seeing Bathsheba. It was unlikely that he expected or planned to see her. David’s sin was in choosing to keep his eyes on an alluring image after the sight came before his eyes.

i. Christians – men, especially – must learn to never let their eyes (or their mind) rest on alluring images except for what God has given to them in marriage. Our eyes must not remain on alluring images that come into sight.

ii. David’s many wives did not satisfy his lust. This was because you can’t satisfy lusts of the flesh. They are primarily rebellious assertions of self. It wasn’t so much that David wanted Bathsheba, it was that he would not be satisfied with what God gave him.

iii. The principle would be illustrated in an exaggerated way in the life of Solomon, David’s son. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. David and Solomon show us that if one woman isn’t enough, 1000 women aren’t enough.

d. The woman was very beautiful to behold: Bathsheba’s great beauty made the sight tempting. But the real strength of temptation often does not lie in the quality of the tempting object, but in the state of heart and mind of the one being tempted. David was carefully “prepared” to fail at this very point. Even so, this temptation was not too strong for David, no matter how beautiful Bathsheba was.

i. For example, Joseph was more severely tempted to commit sexual immorality than David was here, but he fled that temptation.

ii. David looked at Bathsheba and said “beauty” but God saw this as ugly. The hoped-for pleasures of sin deceive us like the bait hides the hook. We must call it what God calls it – sin. We want to say “affair” but God says “adultery.” We want to say “love” but God says “lust.” We want to say “sexy” but God says “sin.” We want to say “romantic” but God says “ruin.” We want to say “destiny” but God says “destruction.” (Guzik)

Bait Hides The Hook!

This is a great analogy for sin! Satan fishing 🎣 for people hides the hook under the bait and once you are hooked he reels in the line drawing you away from God! 

Sin is an enticing addiction as we can see with king David and his many wives wasn’t enough to satisfy his lust of the flesh! 

One thing I’ve learned from attending and leading a twelve step group is that every one of us has an addiction of one kind or another. If you take a moral inventory of yourself you will understand what I mean.

One of the men in our group once asked another man, what is your drug of choice?

David’s drug of choice was lust, what is yours?

Blessings 

2 Samuel 11:1 Walk In The Spirit!

 ”It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.“

‭‭II Samuel‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. In the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle: In that part of the world, wars were not normally fought during the winter months because rains and cold weather made travel and campaigning difficult. Fighting resumed in the spring.

b. David sent Joab…. But David remained at Jerusalem: David should have been out at the battle, but he remained behind. In 2 Samuel 10 Joab and the army of the mighty men were preserved against the Syrians and the Ammonites, but they did not win a decisive victory. The decisive victory came when David led the battle at the end of 2 Samuel 10. Both through custom and experience God told David, “You need to be at the battle.” But David remained at Jerusalem.

i. The principle of Galatians 5:16 rings true: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If David’s attention had been where God wanted it, he would never have put it where God didn’t want it. “While Joab is busy in laying siege to Rabbah, Satan is to David, and far sooner prevailed.” (Trapp)

ii. Nevertheless, it is wrong to think that this began the chain of events David followed all the way down to adultery and murder. David showed his disregard of God’s plan for marriage many years before when he took more than one wife 

(1 Samuel 25:42-43, 2 Samuel 3:2-5). David’s practice of adding wives showed a lack of sexual restraint and an indulgence of his passions. This corrupt seed, sown long ago, grew unchecked long enough and would bear bitter fruit.

iii. “As I think of what happened, of this I am sure, that it did not happen all at once. This matter of Bathsheba was simply the climax of something that had been going on in his life for twenty years.” (Redpath)

iv. Therefore, staying home from the battle merely provided an opportunity for the long-standing lack of sexual restraint and indulgence of passion to display itself. (Guzik)

Walk in the Spirit!

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

Many of us fall as David did! We are bombarded with sexual images everywhere we turn. Pornography is just a click away and Satan has brought down many with lust of the flesh!

If you have a problem with lust, turn off the internet, get rid of your smartphone and use a flip phone without internet. Seek help from godly people and find a solution.

Dear Heavenly Father, I lift up all of us that struggle with lust of the flesh, please help us overcome it and walk in the Spirit today. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.

Blessings 

2 Samuel 10:15-19 God’s Gracious Warning!

 ”When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered together. Then Hadadezer sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the River, and they came to Helam. And Shobach the commander of Hadadezer’s army went before them. When it was told David, he gathered all Israel, crossed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves in battle array against David and fought with him. Then the Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed seven hundred charioteers and forty thousand horsemen of the Syrians, and struck Shobach the commander of their army, who died there. And when all the kings who were servants to Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Syrians were afraid to help the people of Ammon anymore.“ II Samuel‬ ‭10‬:‭15‬-‭19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered together: The enemies of Israel wouldn’t quit after one defeat. They were a persistent enemy and came back to fight again.

b. When it was told David, he gathered all Israel: David gathered the rest of the army of Israel to prevent this army of Syrian reinforcements from crushing the army of the mighty men. The result was glorious: the Syrians fled before Israel.

i. The chapter ends with unfinished business at Rabbah. The offending Ammonites were still in their city and Joab returned to Jerusalem. In the spring King David sent Joab and the army out again to deal with Rabbah as he waited in Jerusalem. While he waited comfortably in Jerusalem he fell into sin with Bathsheba.

ii. Many know about David’s sin with Bathsheba, and how it happened when David waited in Jerusalem when he should have led the battle at Rabbah. 2 Samuel 10 shows that God gave David a warning by showing it was necessary for him to come out against the Syrians. David tried to leave the battle with Joab in 2 Samuel 10, but his army needed him; and God endeavored to show him that by blessing Israel when David did go out to battle. 2 Samuel 10 was God’s gracious warning that David sadly wasted. (Guzik)

God’s Gracious Warning!

We’ve all been there and have gotten it in one way or another. 

That small whisper from our conscience, a word from a brother or sister in Christ or someone that the Lord puts in our path giving us God’s gracious warning!

But unfortunately we are like David and still sinned. 

But tomorrow is a new day to repent and move forward!

Next time, will we heed God’s gracious warning or will we sadly waste it?

Blessings