F4F | Jentezen Franklin Beware the Traveler

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Why This Clip Is About Missing the Point in David and Bathsheba

Now, all of that being said, this next segment here is titled, Beware the Traveler, and this is one of the most bizarre adventures in missing the point things I have ever seen in my entire career of, you know, comparing and contrasting what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God.

I don't even have a name for this exact type of Bible twist. It's so unique. It's like almost a one-of-a-kind. So let me go ahead and whirl up the browser, and here's Jensen Franklin in Beware the Traveler.

If you want to open up, by the way, to 2 Samuel chapter 12, yeah, 2 Samuel chapter 12 is where we're going to be, and he's going to tell us to beware the traveler, but just listen in. I don't even know what to do with it.

Here we go.

Chapter 12, and I'm going to begin reading with verse 1. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, there were two men in one city, one rich and one poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished.

It grew up together with him and his children. It ate of his food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom as if it was like a daughter to him. And behold, a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one of the a meal for the wayfaring man.

He took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man. He said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, this man who has done this will surely die.

And he said, restore fourfold the lamb because he did this thing because he had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, you are the man. You are the man. And I want to talk to you for just a few moments about this, this particularly verse four.

And there came a traveler and a traveler came to the rich man, everything in the story, pivots and changes. When a traveler shows up, I want to talk to you about what that traveler represents in our life.

The traveler took. What? What the traveler represents in your.

Life? Are you kidding me? Okay. Little bit of backstory here. We'll go to second Samuel chapter 11 and we'll add in 12 just so that we can kind of see the point of what's going on here. Second Samuel 11, I'll start at verse one.

In the spring of the year, the time when the kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him in all of Israel and they ravaged the Ammonites, besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman and one said, is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

So David sent messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house and the woman conceived and she sent and told David and said, I am pregnant.

So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going.

Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house.

So clearly at this point, David's trying to get Uriah to go home and spend some time with his wife intimately so that as she gets the baby bump and stuff, he would think that it's his child. But Uriah is not doing that.

So when they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? And Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my Lord Joab, the servant of my Lord, are camping in the open field.

Shall I then go to my house and eat and drink and lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow I will send you back.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next, and David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord, but he did not go down to his house.

So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, sent it by the hand of Uriah, and in the letter he wrote, set Uriah in front of and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die. I mean, as the kids say nowadays, this is really messed up because Uriah is literally carrying his own orders to have himself murdered.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew where the valiant men were. And then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. Some of the servants of David among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting, and he instructed the messenger, when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger rises and if he says to you, why did you go so near the city to fight?

Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jeroboam? Did not the woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall?

And then you shall say, your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. And then the messenger said to David, the men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.

And then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. David said to the messenger, thus shall you say to Joab, do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another.

Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Now that's the backstory to 2nd Samuel 12, which I think is kind of an important little detail if we're going to rightly understand 2nd Samuel 12.

Now picking up at verse 1, which is where Jensen Franklin started, the Lord sent Nathan to David, and 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 brought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children, and it used to eat of his morsels and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.

So you're going to note, Nathan is going to confront David with his sin, and he's using a parable to do it. There was no literal traveler. This was a parable. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him.

Now note here, it's not the traveler who was unwilling, it's the rich man who was unwilling, not the traveler, the rich man. It just so happened that he had a guest, somebody who had traveled from a long distance.

And so the rich man decided he didn't want to kill one of his own flock, so he killed this little lamb. So he took the poor man's lamb, prepared it for the man who had come to him, and 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 then he said, restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity. So Nathan said to David, you are the man. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you've despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says Yahweh, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.

I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the sun.

David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is to be born to you shall die.

Then Nathan went to his house.". Now a little bit of a note here. What David did was horrific. I mean, it's unbelievable this man after God's own heart would commit adultery and murder in this way. And you'll notice that in confessing his sins, you know, we learn in the New Testament this idea that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. David, rather than deflecting, rather than, you know, blaming somebody else or shifting blame or anything like that, he owned his sin and he was forgiven.

And then no sooner does Nathan the prophet leave that David pens these wonderful words for us in Psalm 51 that says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love and according to your abundant mercy.

Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgression and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words, blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. So purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. I mean, let's just put it this way. The account of David's adultery and murder in the subsequent psalm that he wrote literally creates opportunities like you wouldn't believe to preach God's law and then proclaim the gospel that in Christ there is the forgiveness of sins, that God can forgive even the rankest of sinner of their worst sins.

And so, I mean, this is a great text to work from to tease out those important biblical themes and motifs. And what's the best thing that Jensen Franklin can come up with? That beware the traveler, you know, who's only mentioned just for a brief moment in the parable that Nathan told.

Let me back this up so that you can hear it for yourself. I mean, it's unbelievable what he's doing here.

Traveler came to the rich man. Everything in the story pivots and changes when a traveler shows up. I want to talk to you about what that traveler represents in our life. The traveler took something from the poor man that was precious.

No, the rich man did.

The traveler did not. It was the rich man. I just read that text out. He hasn't even rightly identified who was the guy who killed the sheep. And he'll take something from you.

If you allow him in and you feed him. He said, beware of the traveler. The traveler is coming through. There's a traveler that's coming through, and you can't help it if the traveler comes through.

I mean, talk about adventures in missing the point. I mean, this isn't even an example of missing the forest because of a tree. This is like literally missing the forest because of a pebble.

What on earth? But you don't have to let him in and you don't have to feed him. The traveler represents our thought life. How do you figure? You see, there are thoughts that are coming at us all the time.

Thoughts that could cause us to make decisions that could really wreck our lives. And you can't help it if the thought comes at you because we live in a world that is just a climate that thoughts are constantly.

Trying to come at us. Thoughts are constantly trying to come at us. Have they organized themselves into a zombie army? What are you talking about? The mistake that this man made.

Was when he opened the door and he let the traveler in and he started feeding him. And.

This is what I'm preaching on today. Beware of the traveler. This is why probably megachurch pastors need to have mandatory drug screening. I've never seen anything this jaw-droppingly bad as far as like totally missing the whole point of a text.

Wow. This whole story changes when the.

Traveler gets in and the man begins to feed the traveler. What caused David to go from being a warrior to a weakling? What caused the saint to become a sinner? I assure you David was a sinner.

As well as a saint the whole time he was believing. Wow. Caused this man who was so powerful and so.

Anointed to somehow become a weakling. It didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen in a week's.

Time. He was 50 years of age. Yeah it happened while he was looking out his window. I mean as quick as he could say, wow that lady's hot. You know and figure out who she was. I mean that's how quick sin can can nab you because sin starts in your heart you know.

30 when he first became.

King of Israel and he reigned for 20 years. And for 20 years satan watched him. Our enemy watches what we smile at. Our enemy watches what we react to. I marvel at the patience of hell. Hell is very patient.

It doesn't take you down quick. It just watches you and probes and watches. And the enemy watched this man named David. You see David never considered how far one thought.

Could take him. Oh boy. Now you're like inserting stuff into the biblical text that isn't there. Is the text, the story as it reads not enough for you Jensen? That you need to add your own things to it and you know or maybe it's because you need to be so clever that when the people leave your building on Sunday morning they'll say, oh I've never heard the story of David and Bathsheba told that way.

Whoa that talk about insight. What's the traveler in your life dude? I don't want to talk about my travelers man. My travelers are dark. This is nonsense. This is no way to preach the bible because he's not preaching it.

I don't know what he's doing here but this is utter nonsense. I think you get the point. If you found this helpful, please feel free to subscribe down below and ring that little bell and you'll be notified when we update our YouTube channel.

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Amen.