After God’s Heart (Part 11)(2 Samuel 11)                                                                                  2009.03.22    Pastor Edward Cheng

We continue this morning with our series, After God’s Heart, with a story that is very familiar to us.  We know David is a great king, but on a couple of occasions, he messes up big time.  Not so long ago, we saw David thinking the things of God with his concern that he lives in a palace while the ark of God dwells in a tent, followed by God’s promise that David will have a descendent to sit on the throne of Israel forever.

Now we find out that all that goodness and blessing that God has given to David leads to laziness and complacency.  Look at 2 Samuel 11:1.  The very first words tell us that David has become lazy and complacent—the narrator says that David, who ought to have gone to battle himself (“at the time when kings go off to war”), sends his commander and stays in Jerusalem instead.  The author already gives us a foreshadowing of the downfall.

What is this telling us about what it means to be after God’s heart?  In this passage, it’s going to be about looking at what David does, and learning the opposite.  For the first time, David becomes the antithesis of what is it to be after God’s heart.  Those who are after God’s heart are constantly watchful lest they become complacent in life.  In our spiritual lives, if we’re not careful, at some point all of us become complacent and lose our focus and sense of discipline.

David forgot the responsibility that God had put on him to be faithful and diligent.  As we continue with the story, we see that laziness and complacency lay the seeds for greater sin.  And each unchecked sin leads to even greater sin.  At every turn, David messes up.

2 Samuel 11:2 tells us that David gets out of bed (in the evening; laziness again) and walks around and sees a woman bathing.  The author further notes “the woman was very beautiful,” which tells us that David is looking longer than he should.  Then he actually finds out who she is and sends for her, sleeps with her, and sends her back.  The next thing is that she sends word that she is pregnant, which means some time has passed meanwhile in which David has had nothing to do with her.  He satisfied his lust and cast her aside.  Yes, there’s adultery there, but there is also selfishness and thinking the things of himself rather than of God.

David brings Uriah back from the battle, and tries to send him home in an attempt to cover up what he’s done.  Now we see David plotting and scheming, as we saw others do before.  But Uriah is too dutiful and faithful to fall for it.  He says (v.11), “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents…. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife?”  (Where have we heard this before?  See what David himself says in 7:2.)  David tries again and gets Uriah drunk, but again Uriah does not go home.  If only he had just gone home and slept with his wife!

The murder was not planned from the beginning.  David does it only to save his own skin.  At this point, he clearly doesn’t love Bathsheba and wants only to have the matter cleared up and done with.  He ends up having to kill Uriah because Uriah is thinking the things of God.  Since Uriah will not sleep with his wife, David must get rid of him before Bathsheba’s pregnancy begins to show.  He gives the order, Uriah is put at the front lines, the army withdraws, Uriah dies.  When we’re lazy and unrepentant, sin just leads to greater sin, like when you’re caught in a lie and feel forced to lie again to try to cover it up.

A last note on the power of sin unchecked: it starts with laziness and complacency, sin leads to greater sin, and it corrupts our thinking.  Look at how David reacts to the messenger’s report of the heavy losses in the battle (v.23-25).  When he would normally be really upset that so many of his people have died, he’s actually cheerful because Uriah is dead.  His heart has been warped by sin, and he’s so gleeful that Uriah is dead that he neglects to mourn for his soldiers. 

When we allow sin to go unchecked, when we allow laziness and complacency to characterize how we live, it affects our hearts and eats us up from the inside.  We should ask ourselves, Is there unchecked sin in our lives that prevents us from achieving the heart that David has shown us before this point?