Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
“Cover Up” is a phrase you might have used when putting your kids or grandkids to bed many years ago. But it’s also a phrase which has become all too familiar over the past few decades in the world of politics or corruption in the law or the business world. Sadly, it even shows up in the Bible, did you know that? Come with me, let’s rejoin a very sad season in the life of highly respected King David who reigned as the second King of Israel from 1010bc to about 970bc.
We don’t know exactly when in those 40 years David had his moral meltdown, but we know it stained his professional and moral reputation for the rest of his life. It profoundly damaged his family too. 2 Samuel 11:5 tells us what King David did after he had time to think and make a ‘cover up plan’ after receiving news from Bathsheba that she was pregnant from an evening spent with David several weeks before.
The record says: “So King David sent word to Joab: ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite’. And Joab sent Uriah to King David. When Uriah came to him King David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house…’ So Uriah left the palace and a gift was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.” What do you see happening here my friends? A guilty conscience can be a very powerful force motivating a person to behave in a way dramatically different from normal, have you found that to be true?
On the surface King David’s actions look very appropriate as the King seeks fresh information from a messenger directly from the battlefield. The tender heart of King David would be expected to urge his faithful soldier to go home and spend the night with his wife. But when David found out Uriah had not gone home, suddenly the evil which was nourishing David’s ‘cover up’ plan and was festering deep in the bottom of David’s tender heart, began to boil up.
“When King David was told, ‘Uriah did not go home’ David asked him, ‘Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?’ Uriah said to King David, ‘The Ark of the Covenant and people of Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped out in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lay with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” (2 Samuel 11:10,11)
At West Point Military Academy, along the Hudson River in New York State, three words are hallowed by the cadets and engraved as nearly sacred words around the campus and on the hearts of those in uniform preparing to lead America’s soldiers in battle anywhere in the world.
Those words are “Duty, Honor, Country” and it seems to me Uriah’s bold statement to King David proclaims courageously those three words. Oh, what a contrast between the faithful heart of Uriah the soldier, and the quickly darkening, sinful heart of King David. King David’s shame and desperation to ‘cover up’ his great sin moved David to adjust his diabolical plan.
The record says: “Then King David said to Uriah, ‘Stay here one more day and tomorrow I’ll send you back to the battle.’ So, Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David’s invitation Uriah ate and drank with the King and David made Uriah drunk. But in the evening Uriah slept on his mat among his master’s servants, he did not go home.” (2 Samuel 11:12,13)
We see the decay happening in King David’s heart, don’t we? As a man of God who has had a close relationship with God since his boyhood and has worship of God happening right outside his palace window at the tent which houses the Ark of God, David is not simply drifting morally, he’s ‘covering up’ a secret sin and grieving the Holy Spirit who has been upon him since the day Samuel anointed him as king. In fact, he’s nurturing his rebellion against God, isn’t he?
His mind is not thinking as a man of God but rather as a man struggling to cover up his sin by hoping Uriah would go home, sleep with his wife and then everyone might assume her baby was the result of Uriah’s brief R&R at home from the war. But the contrast of Uriah’s commitment to his honor code as an Israelite soldier is quite different from David’s rapidly failing honor code as Israel’s king.
Can you see the spiritual battle raging in the Jerusalem Palace and in the heart of Israel’s king? Demons are working hard to draw David deeper and deeper into wickedness which will destroy King David’s wonderful reputation; undermine his leadership influence; harden his heart toward God; tear apart his family and lead him to ignore the “Ark of God’s Presence” which he brought to a tent very near where he lived and worked.
At the same time, we can assume the Holy Spirit of God is convicting David of His sin and trying to draw David to repentance and back to God, but David clearly is refusing any work of God in his life. Have you ever been in that situation, or have you tried to help a friend who you can see clearly is struggling with a sin coverup yet refuses your help?
David’s problem, his coverup was getting more complicated by the hour. The record says: “In the morning King David wrote a letter to Joab the commander of his army and sent the letter with Uriah. The letter said, ‘Put Uriah in the front line of the battle where the fighting is the fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” (2 Samuel 11:14,15)
As King David sealed the letter with his signet ring and handed it to Uriah, sending him back to the battle, can you imagine what is going on inside David’s heart? Unknown to soldier Uriah, the letter he guards in his satchel and delivers faithfully to commander Joab, is his death sentence. And what was his crime for which David has called for Uriah’s execution? Humble service to his king? Faithfulness to his commander and his fellow soldiers and the oath of honor he took when he entered the army.
Oh, my friends, do we understand the wicked, evil, dark kingdom and how powerful lust can be? Lust for power or fame or popularity or lust for something or someone which is not yours to have? Do we understand how deadly yielding to lust can be? Deadly to your conscience, deadly to your relationship with God, deadly to your reputation, deadly to your potential?
The letter David sent was not only a death sentence for Uriah his faithful soldier, husband to Bathsheba, it was also a death sentence to King David, for never again would David’s relationship with God be the same, or David’s relationship with any of his family, or David’s relationship with Joab his field commander, or David’s heart and mind.
This horrible act would never be erased from David’s legacy and to this day, 3000 years later, while young David is famous for killing Goliath the giant with a sling and one stone; King David is famous for adultery with a faithful soldiers’ wife and then ordering the execution of that innocent, honorable soldier!!
And all the while the Ark of the Presence of Holy God is adjacent to his palace and from that tent, day and night, worship of Holy God is taking place at David’s insistence and David’s instruction.
Now friends we need to ponder this, for it is exactly the same diabolical, deadly, demonic attack happening in the hearts of millions of good, honorable, God loving men all around our world today, even in your town, maybe even in your home! What is God trying to say to you and me today my friends? Are we listening to God? Can we hear His voice?
Here’s a song to help us open our ears and our hearts so God’s voice can speak to us in this matter. Especially watch for the Scriptures in the middle of this song… It may save your life and your reputation:
Today’s Scripture: 2 Samuel 11:6-15.
Choose below to read or listen.
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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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