David's Attempt to Cover His Sin Part 1 — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, we'll be following David's attempt to cover his sin, as we pick up in 2 Samuel, chapter 11, verse 1. And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

David's Fall at the Height of Strength

It is interesting that as we have come to the end of chapter 10, we have come to about the peak of the strength of the nation. God has subdued their enemies round about. They're strong. They're powerful.

It is noteworthy that at the time of the great strength was the time of David's fall. The Bible warns us that a man needs to take heed when he thinks he stands, lest he falls. When I feel that I am weak, when I know I am weak, when I know that I'm not able to handle the situation, I am more apt to depend upon the Lord than the Lord.

For I know that I can't do it in myself. And thus, those times when I know that I am weak, I'm really strong. Paul the Apostle said that he would glory in his weaknesses. For when he is weak, then he is really strong, because he knows, I have to trust in the Lord.

I can't handle this. And the Lord's strength is made perfect in our weaknesses. When I am weak, the time that I am in real danger is when I think, well, I am strong. I don't need any help here, Lord. I'm able to manage this quite readily by myself.

And it is in that time that I am usually going to fall, because I am not relying upon the Lord, but I'm relying in my own strength, in my own will in this point. And that is the time when you are really in danger and you are subject to falling.

David had come now to the peak of the strength of the nation, and it is interesting that it is at this point that David stumbled and fell into this great sin. So it came to pass, after the year was expired, they had subdued their enemies.

David Remains in Jerusalem

They're in great strength. They have not thoroughly put down the Ammonites. And so the kings go forth to battle. David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and they besieged the capital city of Rabbah.

But David tarried still at Jerusalem. Up until this point, David had led the troops year by year in their conquest of the nations. But now that things are pretty well settled, he sends Joab on with the troops over to completely subdue the Ammonites.

And the Ammonites are uprising of the Ammonites against Israel. They had gained victory over them the year before. They had not totally destroyed them. And now they're going to bring them into complete subjugation.

But again, David feels that not necessary for him to go. Joab can do the job quite readily. Now, it came to pass in the evening tide that David arose from off his bed. In the areas where there are hot climates, it is usually a custom to take a siesta.

And so David really got up from his siesta, and he was walking on the roof of the king's house. Now that sounds a little peculiar perhaps to us, but if you were over there, it wouldn't be peculiar at all.

Their gardens were usually on their roofs. It was the patio area of the house quite often. Even to the present day, you find a lot of activity on the roofs of the house. That's where the ladies hang their washing.

And there are patio tables and all, and there's a lot of activity on the roofs of the house. Actually, they are flat roofs, and it's really a good way to pick up a lot of square footage of a nice yard, you know, just have it up on the roof.

And David was walking on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman who was bathing, and she was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman, who is she?

And one said, is it not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And that should have ended it for David completely right there. She's a married woman. Being the daughter of Eliam, we are told that Eliam was the son of Ahithophel.

Now we will be coming to Ahithophel pretty soon. Ahithophel was a friend of David's. In fact, he was one of David's counselors. A close friend. In fact, turn to the 55th Psalm, verse 12, and we find David making a reference to Ahithophel.

He said, For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myself from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my guide, my acquaintance.

We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company. When David's son Absalom rebelled against his father and drove his father out of the kingdom, Ahithophel became a counselor to Absalom.

He turned against David. Now Bathsheba then would have been the granddaughter of Ahithophel. And it is interesting that though there is this tie, Ahithophel turned and sided with Absalom in the rebellion against David.

He was a, you might say, a poor loser. He gave counsel to Absalom and David had a friend who also counseled Absalom and the counsel that he gave to Absalom was different from Ahithophel's. And David took the counsel of Hushai, this other fellow, and it made Ahithophel so mad he went out and killed himself.

But we'll get to this fellow Ahithophel more as we move along with the story. David sent messengers. As I said, he should have just stopped when they said the wife of Uriah. Uriah was one of David's mighty men.

He was one of the captains of David's army. He was numbered with the 39 mighty men of David. David sent messengers and took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness.

And she returned unto her house. And so David called her and had an adulterous relationship. And as the result, she conceived and she sent and told David and said, I'm with child, I'm pregnant. There is a scripture that Moses declared to the men of Gad and Manasseh.

He said, And if you don't do this, you have sinned against the Lord, and you can be sure your sin will find you out. People talk about secret sin, but that is a misnomer. Sin is against God, and the Bible says everything is naked and open with Him with whom we have to do.

In other words, you can't hide anything from God. There's no secret sin. God even knows the thoughts that precede the sin, the desire, the intent. And so David sinned against the Lord. He violated the commandment of God.

He went in to another man's wife. And as a consequence, she became pregnant. Sent the message to David. Now David's first attempt was to cover his sin. A very natural characteristic of David was that he was a man.

The Human Attempt to Hide Sin and Guilt

Try to hide my sin. Started in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve, after they sinned, conscious of their nakedness, sewed together fig leaves to hide their nakedness and trying to hide their guilt, their sin.

Moses, when he killed the Egyptian, tried to bury him. Thought that no one saw him. He looked this way, he looked that way, it said, and then he killed the guy and tried to bury him. Thought that no one saw him.

It's just a common thing for a person. The first reaction when I realize that, hey, it's catching up with me, is try to hide my guilt. So David sent to Joab, and he said, send me Uriah the Hittite. And so Joab sent Uriah to David.

And when Uriah was coming to him, David demanded of him how the Joab was doing, how the people were doing, and how the war was prospering. Just sort of like, you know, talking to one of his captains, how are things going, you know, how's the war progressing, what's been happening, and how's the morale, and is everything all right.

And so he was getting a report firsthand from one of his captains concerning the battle against Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites. And David said to Uriah, well, why don't you go home and wash your feet.

And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a portion of meat from the king. However, Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all of the servants of his lord. He slept in the guardhouse with David's bodyguards, and he did not go down to his own house.

David's First Attempt: Sending Uriah Home

Now of course, David, in trying to cover his guilt, it was a smart ploy, he thought, well, you know, bring Uriah home from battle for a couple of days. Let him go home with his wife, and he'll no doubt, you know, have relations with her.

And so later on, when he finds out she's pregnant, he'll just figure, well, it was when I was home on leave, you know, that it happened. So Uriah is thwarting, in a sense, David's plan. He stayed in the guardhouse, he didn't go home.

And when they told David, saying Uriah did not go to his house, David said to Uriah, how come you didn't go from your journey? Why didn't you go to your own house? And Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah live in tents, and my wife and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields.

Shall I then go into my house and eat and drink and lie with my wife? As thou livest, and as my soul liveth, I wouldn't do such a thing. And so Uriah seemed to be a pretty honorable guy. He, you know, was thinking about how that, you know, that people are living in tents, and Joab and all the troops are out there on the open ground at night sleeping.

And man, for me to have that kind of comfort, go home and eat and drink and go to bed with my wife, no, I can't do that, you know, not when, you know, my friends are all out there suffering the discomforts of war.

So David said to Uriah, well, spend the day here, and tomorrow I will let you depart, let you go back. So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And then when David called him, he did eat and drink before him.

And David just had his servants keep pouring his cup until he was drunk. Now, David figured if he gets drunk enough, he won't know what he's doing, he'll go home. So he made him drunk, and at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his Lord, but he didn't go home.

He just staggered out to the guardhouse again, and there flopped down and wouldn't go home. So it came to pass in the morning, David is faced with the dilemma, you know, that this first ploy is not going to work.

Sin's Escalation into Murder

This guy's not going to go home. So it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He wrote in the letter saying, set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and then retire from him that he may be smitten and die.

So David is conspiring to murder Uriah. Sin has an interesting way of compounding. You get involved in something and it's not very serious maybe at first. You know you shouldn't, it was wrong. But then things start piling up.

You try to cover it, and it gets deeper and deeper and deeper until you're so embroiled that you're doing abhorrent things that you never dreamed you would ever do. Tragic how that sin has a way of just, well, leaven is a good type of sin because you put a little bit in the dough and it just permeates through the whole loaf.

And so sin, a little bit of tolerated sin in your life will permeate until it just fills the entire life. Leprosy, another type of sin, which slowly spreads through the whole body beginning at the extremities and the fingers or toes.

Leprosy deadens first of all the nerves. It kills the nerves. So leprosy is painless. But because you can't feel pain, if you have leprosy in your hand, you can put your hand down on a hot plate and not even know it's hot until you smell the seared flesh.

Then of course the gangrene and the loss of the hand. And leprosy is a horrible, loathsome disease that gradually just destroys it. So David, infected with sin, finds the thing growing, finds the thing compounding until he finally is sending with Uriah a note to Joab that is the death knell for Uriah.

David is in conspiracy to murder him. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that is he had been studying it that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew the strongest men were of the enemy.

And the men of the city came out and they fought with Joab. And there fell some of the people of the servants of David and Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war.

He charged the messenger saying, when you have made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, if it so be that the king's wrath arises. And he says unto you, why did you approach so close to the city when you fought?

Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? And he makes reference to a case in the book of Judges which shows that the book of Judges was written by then. They had their history recorded by this point.

Who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerebosheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall? And he died in Thebes? Why did you go so close to the wall? If David is challenging Joab's strategy then you're to tell him your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.

So the messenger went and he came and he showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, surely the men prevailed against us and came out unto us into the field and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate.

That is, we pursued them right back to the gate, which was a poor battle strategy. And the archers shot from the wall upon your servants, and some of the king's servants are dead. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.

Then David said to the messenger, go and tell Joab, don't let this thing displease you for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle strong against the city, overthrow it, and encourage him.

So rather than sending back a message that would castigate him for this poor strategy, he said just go back and tell him, well, can't help, the sword is going to, some are bound to fall and shame. And when the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.

Now the general period of mourning was for seven days or for a notable person, 30 days. She probably mourned for his death for 30 days. And when the mourning was passed, David sent and called her to his house and she became his wife and she bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased her.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of 2 Samuel in our next lesson. As we continue to follow David's attempt to cover his sin. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us.

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That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

Walking in the Spirit Rather Than the Flesh

God be with you and God bless you. May He give you the strength to walk with Him in all purity, holiness and righteousness, that we might be as God would have us to be, living in complete trust in Him, not relying upon our own strength, but relying on the strength upon His Spirit and the power of His Spirit to give us victory over our flesh and the things and the deeds of our flesh.

And thus, this week, may God set you free and may you experience His victory and His power working in you for the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Person and Gifts of the Holy Spirit

We'd like to draw your attention to a couple of very special resources by Pastor Chuck Smith that answer some of the many questions about the third person of the Trinity. The first of these two resources is entitled, The Person of the Holy Spirit and contains twelve messages that explain the baptism of the Holy Spirit in detail, as well as how the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer.

Now the second resource is entitled, The Gifts of the Holy Spirit and consists of nineteen messages covering such subjects as healing, prophecy and faith. Pastor Chuck not only explains how and why the gifts of the Holy Spirit are available to the church today, but he also encourages believers to fully understand the working of the Holy Spirit in a Christian's life.

Once again, you'll be asking for The Person of the Holy Spirit and The Gifts of the Holy Spirit. For those of you wishing to call, our toll-free number is 1 -800 -272 -9673. Once again, that's 1 -800 -272 -9673.

This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.