Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Monday,
I’m sure all of us have faced the consequences of our decisions and actions. If you are a parent or grandparent, you’ve warned your kids and grandkids that consequences are real and sometimes can be disastrous and long lasting, even to the extreme of destroying relationships and reputations!
I left you yesterday stunned at the terrible choices King David had made over a period of more than 1 year, resulting in adultery with Bathsheba; the murder of her husband Uriah, one of David’s faithful warriors; and a prolonged year of cover-up of his terrible sins. That horrible but very important story in God’s Grand Narrative is found in 2 Samuel 11,12.
Now today we need to look at some of the consequences of David’s horrible choices and actions in the chapters which follow. If you and I are going to live God honoring lives and teach our children & grandchildren to do the same, we need to pay close attention to the reality of CONSEQUENCES!
2 Samuel 5:13 gives us this insight into King David’s large and growing family: “After David left Hebron, he took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.” Nowhere in God’s Grand Narrative do I find God commanding or encouraging His people to polygamy yet often the Kings of Israel did so. Sometimes as part of treaties between nations, as Solomon often did.
But both for King’s David and Solomon, their multiple wives and large number of offspring became burdensome and complicated their leadership role and responsibilities.
Parenting by God’s design is a high and holy calling and requires intentional investment of love, time, wisdom and mentoring by parents into the lives of their children and grandchildren. God made that clear through Moses in Deut. 6:5-9. Asaph, David’s worship leader at the ‘Ark Tent’, wrote about parenting in Psalm 78:1-8. But David, it appears, did not parent well. It’s true he was a very busy man, but beginning in 2 Samuel chapter 13 the dark shadow of David’s sin with Bathsheba bore very dark fruit in David’s children.
I find these chapters painful to read and even more painful to try and learn lessons from. The prophet Nathan’s words of consequence judgment from God found in 2 Samuel 12, are seen in horrible reality in 2 Samuel 13 and the chapters which follow.
Nathan had told unrepentant King David: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says…’Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in His eyes?… The sword will never depart from your house, because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah to be your own…Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you…” (2 Samuel 12:9-12) While David finally repented of his sin, these shocking words of God’s judgment played out in David’s life for many years to come! Why?
May I offer us three significant lessons to be learned in these painful, powerful chapters regarding David’s sin and the consequences which followed?
* David’s adultery with Bathsheba happened while David intentionally turned his back on the Ark of God’s Covenant and the sacred worship David had commanded should take place there within David’s sight and hearing. (1 Chronicles 16)
When you and I turn our back on God and the holy worship we once enjoyed with God, then we actually INVITE the strong influence, even the control of the demonic dark kingdom into our lives! While David loved worship of Holy God and enjoyed the Presence and leading of the Holy Spirit in his life, (1 Samuel 16:13) as David turned away from God and first pursued then embraced Bathsheba in adultery, David deeply grieved the Holy Spirit of God and David invited the devil into his sin. (Ephesians 4:27,30) We can’t play with fire expecting not to be burned!
* When David received word, presumably several weeks after his adultery, that Bathsheba was pregnant, (2 Samuel 11:5) David resisted the convicting work of the Holy Spirit; David hardened his heart and David more intensely invited the strong influence of the dark kingdom as he devised a plan regarding Bathsheba’s husband to try and cover up his sin! (2 Samuel 6-13)
Perhaps this is one reason King Solomon wrote: “Above all else, guard your heart, it is the wellspring of your life.” (Prov. 4:23) David didn’t guard his heart and, in his refusal, to repent of his terrible adultery sin, David’s hardening heart devised a plan of murder!! The harder your heart, the more defiant your attitude toward God will become, the more decadent your decisions will be, with increasingly despicable consequences! Did you get that?
* Leadership is a great privilege but also a very dangerous potential if misused. David failed miserably as he used his Commander in Chief leadership role to interfere with his army battlefield plans.
David’s orders when followed resulted in the shameful death of Uriah and the breaking of the long-held trust and allegiance that his field commander Joab and many of the soldiers had in David. (2 Sam. 11:6-17) Before long Joab warned David that many of his army commanders had lost their willingness to risk their lives in following David’s leadership! (2 Samuel 19:5-7)
Leadership is a sacred trust built on integrity. Once that trust is broken, leadership is lost.
In the years following David’s horrific moral failure with Bathsheba and Uriah, David’s family unraveled into shameful infighting and rebellion; David’s kingship never recovered full trust or respect from the people of Israel; and David’s relationship with God was never fully restored to what it was before. Consequences of intentional sin can be devastating for generations to come.
We would be wise to learn these lessons well my friends, so further notes are available at the “Grand Narrative” link below and of course I’ve searched for an appropriate worship song for us. And I’ll be waiting for you here, with my Bible open, tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: 2 Samuel 13,14.
Choose below to read or listen.
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2 Samuel 14
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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