“At that moment when lust takes control of your heart, God loses all reality. Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

by Matt Black

There’s an old saying that goes. “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you’ll ever want to pay!”  In this blog post, come to the saddest chapter in King David’s life—his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and his murder of Uriah.

 

Corinthian Culture is Infecting Our Churches

No one starts out planning for moral failure. Yet it is so prevalent in our churches today. We have seen a Corinthian culture infect Christ’s beloved church. Sensuality is available and being accessed by God’s people, and we as a church – each of us as followers of Christ need a strategy for purity. Purity is an issue for both men and women. At any time we could be drawn away into the bondage of lust. We cannot serve two masters. Either we are going to serve Jesus Christ or not, but He will not share the throne of your heart with any other master.

 

Forgetfulness of God: Bonhoeffer

Every servant of God will be tempted to sin in lust and immorality. It is a forgetfulness we are subject to if we are not careful to walk with God.

The beloved German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “At that moment when lust takes control of your heart, God loses all reality. Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.”

We are all going to give an account before God. So I want to read this account from the life of David.

 

Reading of Holy Scripture

2 Samuel 11:1-27, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

2 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. 3 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?” 4 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. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 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. 9 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. 10 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?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 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. 13 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.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 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? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 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. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 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.”

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning 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.”

The Prevalence of moral failure, vs.1-2, “it happened…”

 

David, a Man after God’s Own Heart

David was a man after God’s own heart. He had over 20 years of success before all of this mess happened. Be warned older men and women. Just because you have had great spiritual success in life, does not mean you are immune for the sin of lust and immorality. We are all susceptible.

It was not a passionate youth who deliberately walked into this sin, but a man of God who had now reached middle age.^[1] David wrote one-half of the Psalms. It seems he was for most of his ministry as King and prophet a man of exemplary character and purity.

But then one day it happened. It shows that moral failure is possible with the best of God’s saints. We want to be warned today that moral failure is spreading like a disease in the church today. It ought not to be, but the rate that it happens is alarming. We see if it can happen in David’s life, the temptation is fierce for every one of us.

 

It Happened!

And so we come to a very telling verse in Scripture. 2 Sam. 11:1-2, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 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…”

It happened late one afternoon. We wonder how did this happen? We are going to find out in detail in a moment. But know this it does happen. It is prevalent in the church.

 

The Prevalence of moral failure in the Church

Dear saints, there is a great prevalence of moral failure in the church. I bring it to you because I want you to consider what it will do if we do not kill it and nail it to the cross. We are at war.

Recently Leadership Magazine commissioned a poll of a thousand pastors. The pastors indicated that

• 12 percent of them had committed adultery while in the ministry — one out of eight pastors! — and
• 23 percent had done something they considered sexually inappropriate such as view pornography.

Christianity Today surveyed a thousand of its subscribers both men and women and found the figure to be nearly double, with

• 23 percent saying they had had extramarital intercourse and
• 45 percent indicating they had done something they themselves deemed sexually inappropriate like viewing pornography.

One in four Christians are unfaithful, and nearly one half have behaved unbecomingly! Shocking statistics! Especially when we remember that Christianity Today readers tend to be college-educated church leaders, elders, deacons, Ladies’ ministry leaders, Sunday school superintendents, and teachers. If this is so for the Church’s leadership, how much more for the average member of the congregation? Only God knows!

This leads us to an inescapable conclusion: The contemporary evangelical Church, broadly considered, is “Corinthian” to the core. It is no wonder…

• No wonder the Church has lost its grip on holiness.
• No wonder it is so slow to discipline its members.
• No wonder it is dismissed by the world as irrelevant.
• No wonder so many of its children reject it.
• No wonder it has lost its power in many places

Where are we to turn for help? The most instructive example in all of God’s Word is the experience of King David as it is told in 2 Samuel 11.

 

The Seventh Commandment

The 7^th Commandment still tells us that we ought to be faithful to our spouse if we are married. We are to keep a promise of purity as well if you are single today. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  When God says don’t, He’s saying, “Don’t hurt yourself.” Yet we are constantly under assault. I want to give relief to our congregation this morning. But we must understand the scope of the commandment. It’s much larger than being faithful  merely with your body.

The seventh commandment is about keeping your promise through sexual purity both in your mind and in your body. God’s wants us to be holy in our hearts and imaginations.

Jesus made it clear that the scope of the seventh commandment includes our thoughts, words, and actions: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5:27-28).[2]

 

 

The Pathway to moral failure, vs.2-5.

David had an exemplary sanguine personality brimming with joy, enthusiasm, and confidence and overflowing with irresistible charisma. He was the poet — the sweet Psalmist of Israel — so in touch with God and himself that his Psalms pluck the heartstrings of man even today, writing half or more of the Psalter. Under his leadership all Israel had been united. David hardly seemed a candidate for moral disaster. But the king was vulnerable, for there were definite flaws in his conduct which left him open to tragedy.[3] In 2 Samuel 11, we see David’s pathway to moral failure, and it is a warning to every sincere believer in Jesus Christ today.

Kent Hughes’ gives several steps to moral failure in his book Disciplines of a Godly Man: (1) Pride, (2) Desensitization, (3) Relaxation, (4) Fixation, (5) Rationalization, (6) Degeneration.

 

1. PRIDE

Pride is the first step in the pathway to moral failure. David was not always proud. He was mostly humble. But Satan just needs you to think you are a mature and that you are special and stronger in your spiritual life than most people. You can handle it!

Remember Samuel said of David, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). God liked what He saw. God liked David’s heart! David was a man after God’s own heart.

David had a brave heart. He was not afraid of the great Philistine giant Goliath. He stood courageously against God’s enemies and smote Goliath with a sling and a stone. And then David stood over the fallen giant and cut off his head (1 Sam. 17:45–49).

But we read in verse 1, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.” It was the season when kings go to war, but David was satisfied with his victories. We might call that spiritual pride. That’s where it all begins.

When we come to this story we all say, “David should have known better”. He was 50 years old. There is a temptation to think that as saints of God mature spiritually, that they become immune to temptation. This morning’s message is hopefully going to be a wakeup call and a warning to us all. There is no one at any stage of his spiritual life that is beyond even grievous sin.

 

2. DESENSITIZATION

2 Samuel 5, which records David’s initial assumption of power in Jerusalem, mentions almost as an aside that “after he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem” (v. 13). We must note, and note well, that David’s taking additional wives was sin!

Deuteronomy 17, which set down the standards for Hebrew kings, commanded that they refrain from three things:

• acquiring many horses,
• taking many wives, and
• accumulating much silver and gold (cf. vv. 14–17).

David did fine on one and three, but he completely failed on number two by willfully collecting a considerable harem.

 

Seeking Pleasure Outside God’s Order

We must understand that a progressive desensitization to sin and an inner fall from a sincere pursuit of God had taken root in David’s life and left him vulnerable to seek pleasure outside of God and God’s order. God has ordered in creation that two should be one flesh. A third party is never acceptable in God’s order.

Hebrews 13:4, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”

David’s collection of wives, though it was “legal” and not considered adultery in the culture of the day, was nevertheless sin. King David’s sensual indulgence desensitized him to God’s holy calling in his life. These things were socially permitted, but spiritually deadly.

 

Culturally Acceptable Indulgences

Men, it is the “legal” sensualities, the culturally acceptable indulgences, which will take us down. The long hours of indiscriminate TV watching, which is not only culturally cachet but is expected of the American male, is a massive culprit of desensitization. The expected male talk — double entendre, coarse humor, laughter at things which ought to make us blush — is another deadly agent. Acceptable sensualities have insidiously softened Christian men, as statistics well attest. A man who succumbs to desensitization of the “legal” sensualities is primed for a fall.

 

3. RELAXATION

Another step in David’s pathway to moral failure was his relaxation from the rigors and discipline which had been part of his active life. David was at midlife, about fifty years old, and his military campaigns had been so successful, it was not necessary for him to personally go off to war. He rightly gave the “mopping up” job to his capable general, Joab — and then relaxed. The problem was, his relaxation extended to his moral life. It is hard to maintain inner discipline when you are relaxing in this way. David was imminently vulnerable.

 

No one Says, “I’ll Commit Adultery Today”

David did not suspect anything unusual was going to happen on that fatal spring day. He did not get up and say, “My, what a beautiful day. I think I will commit adultery today!” May this lesson not be wasted on us, men. Just when we think we are the safest, when we feel no need to keep our guard up, to work on our inner integrity, to discipline ourselves for godliness — temptation will come!

 

4. FIXATION

“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 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. 3 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?” (2 Sam. 11:1–3)

It had been a warm day, and evening was falling. The king strode out on the rooftop for some cool air and a look at his city at dusk. As he gazed, his eye caught the form of an unusually beautiful woman who was bathing without modesty. As to how beautiful she was, the Hebrew is explicit: the woman was “beautiful of appearance, very” (v. 2).

 

David Continued to Look: Sinful Stare

She was young, in the flower of life, and the evening shadows made her even more enticing. The king looked at her, and this is where he fell – he continued to look at her form. After the first glance David should have turned ran the other way and retired to his chamber, but he did not. His look became a sinful stare and then a burning, piercing leer. In that moment David, who had been a man after God’s own heart, became a dirty, leering, defiled old man. A lustful fixation overcame him, and David decided he would not be denied.

 

Bonhoeffer Quote

The beloved German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “At that moment when lust takes control of your heart, God loses all reality. Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.”

 

Lust Numbs Us

Lust numbs us so powerfully and dangerously that we forget God.

When we are in the grip of lust, the reality of God’s presence fades. We become “practical atheists.” The longer King David leered, the less real God became to him. David also lost awareness everything God made him to be: his holy calling as king, a mighty warrior for God. David also forgot he was a frail sinner and he forgot the disastrous consequences of sin. This is what lust does! It has done it millions of times. God disappears to lust-glazed eyes.

Brothers and sisters, the truth demands some serious questions: Has God faded you’re your view? Did you once see Him in bright hues, but now His memory is blurred like an old faded photograph? Do you have an illicit fixation which has become all you can see? Is the most real thing in your life your desire? If so, you are in deep trouble. Some decisive steps are necessary, as we will see.

 

5. RATIONALIZATON

From deadly fixation, King David descended to the next level down, which is rationalization. When his intent became apparent to his servants, one tried to dissuade him, saying, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” (vs. 3).  But David would not be rebuffed. Some massive rationalization took place in David’s mind, perhaps he said something like this:

Uriah’s can’t be much of a husband or lover – he’s so old!

He’ll be away for a long time.

I’m the king. It’s so hard being the king. This is a special situation. I deserve a break.

God knows how hard it is to be king.

Then David says to the servant, “Bring her to me.”

 

The mind controlled by lust has an infinite capacity for rationalization.

• “How can something that has brought such enjoyment be wrong?”
• “God’s will for me is to be happy; certainly He would not deny me anything which is essential to my happiness.”
• “The question here is one of love — I’m acting in love, not lust.”
• “My marriage was never God’s will in the first place.”
• “You Christians and your narrow judgmental attitudes make me sick. You are judging me. You are a greater sinner than I’ll ever be!”

 

6. DEGENERATION (ADULTERY, LIES, MURDER)

2 Sam. 11:4-5, “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. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

David was unaware he had stepped off the precipice and was falling, and that reality would soon arrive — the bottom was coming up fast.

Before he knew it he was going from a man who was lukewarm, to a man who was cold and calculated.

David went from being a man after God’s own heart to an adulterer, a liar, and finally a murderer.

 

Transition: This is the pathway to moral failure. Now we look at the marks of this moral failure.

The Marks of moral failure

Sin Will Take You Farther!

Proverbs 13:15 says, “the way of transgressor is hard.” Hear me now! Don’t get near sin.  Someone said it this way: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you’ll ever want to pay!”

 

1. DECEIT

First, let’s see the first particular mark of sin is deceit. Rather than confessing his sin, David executed a murderous cover-up process that led to more sins, holding God and his Word in contempt. For the rest of his life, David bore the scars and consequences of this sin; however, in grace, God forgave him.

 

If You Never Lie… Never Have to Remember

Someone said, “If you never lie, then you never have to remember what you said.” Oh, that King David had taken that advice! But he didn’t. The sin of lust is closely linked with deceit. When David

 

Weaving a Web of Lies with Uriah

Consider Uriah is a married man. 2 Sam. 11:6-8, “So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 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.”

“Wash your feet” was a euphemism for “spend a night of marital intimacy with your wife!”  David thinks he can get out of this one by having Uriah have relations with Bathsheba.

Sin will cause you to lie. It will cause you to be deceitful.

 

Uriah the Hittite’s Loyalty to Israel

Look at Uriah’s response in 2 Sam. 11:11, “Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”

You need to see the irony in this. Uriah is a HITTITE. He is a FORGEINGER. And He has more loyalty to Israel than Israel’s king.  This is what the deceitfulness of sin will do to you.

 

2. DEPRAVITY

Sadly, deceit turns much darker as the heart grows colder. This is what happens when you don’t maintain your walk with God. Deceit turns into depravity. David starts doing extreme things to cover up for his deceit.

 

David Makes Uriah Drunk

We read next that David gets Uriah drunk hoping that he would stumble home into the arms of his wife Bathsheba. But once again the plan failed as Uriah, ever loyal and humble, simply slept on his mat among the David’s servants.  2 Sam. 11:13, “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.”

 

David’s Heart Turns Cold

When Uriah did not want to have relations with his wife out of loyalty to the army of Israel, David grew even more desperate, and the deceit led his heart to grow so cold that he decided to have Uriah killed in battle! David ordered Joab to put Uriah at the front of the battle lines.

 

David’s Deceit Leads to Murder

In fact, David’s heart is so deceitful it has grown murderous, and he has Uriah deliver his own death sentence to further his lies. 2 Sam. 11:14-15, “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.”

Now David’s deceit and depravity begins to destroy lives.

 

3. DESTRUCTION OF LIVES

Bathsheba, Robbed of her Virtue

David ruined Bathsheba’s life. Matthew Henry said, “The adulterer not only wrongs and ruins his own soul, but, as much as he can, another’s soul too.”

The latter part of verse 4 states David’s sin in stark terms—“he lay with her.” Then verse 4 states, “(Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house”.  The mention of Bathsheba’s act of purification serves to confirm that she was not pregnant when she was brought to David. Bathsheba was robbed of her virtue. She was likely a Hittite. She knew in the ancient world that a woman had no rights and was like property. This was especially true with a king.

Following their sexual encounter, however, she soon began to notice the bodily changes signaling her pregnancy.  Verse 5 records that she sent a message to the King declaring “I am pregnant.”

She was pure. David violated her. Then David violated her husband.

 

Uriah the Hittite / Bathsheba Wails!

David ruined Uriah’s life. He murdered him. We read in 2 Sam. 11:26, “When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.” Upon learning of her husband’s death, Bathsheba began to mourn for him in the customary manner. One historian describes this ritual as including

“weeping; wailing—… expressing a mournful, high-pitched cry; rolling in dust; modifying one’s diet for a period of time; and modifying one’s [clothing], either putting on sackcloth or, in the case of a woman who lost her spouse, wearing garments that identified her as a widow.”[4]

Sin does not take into account the harm it does to others.  It is even blind to the harm done to one’s self.

 

David’s Life and Reputation

David ruined his own life and reputation.  He was blind to these consequences when he sinned. He only listened to his lustful heart and then tried to cover it up.

 

David’s Children

David ruined his children’s life. Oh, the price they paid! We read in 2 Sam. 12:11 Nathan was given a message to give to David. Part of it was about his family. “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.”

 

Premature Death to 4 Sons

History would soon reveal that David would lose four sons to premature death (Bathsheba’s baby—12:18; Amnon—13:29; Absalom—18:14-15; Adonijah—1 Kings 2:25).

 

Tragic Lives of David’s Sons

Look at the havoc that David’s actions cause his sons.

• Absalom died, he would try to usurp the kingdom from David. He was a rebel.
• Amnon would become a rapist of his sister and be killed by Absolom.
• Solomon would have his brother Adonijah executed in a power struggle.
• Solomon would then multiply many foreign and pagan wives that would turn his heart from God.

The kingdom would split and go into apostasy.  The sword would never depart from David’s family. What a disaster sin brings with it!

 

4. DEADNESS

The third particular mark of sin is Deadness. Sin can render one unable to feel. There can be a searing of the conscience for a time.

When King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, over 9 months went by before Nathan confronted him and he confessed. Bathsheba had already given birth to David’s child by the time David was confronted by Nathan and confessed his sin.  Sometimes we may think God has forgotten—that He really does not care or does not see. This is the deceitfulness of sin.

Unconfessed sin was the cause of the storm in David’s life—look at David’s description of this time of deadness in his life in Psalm 32:3-4:

“For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;

my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”

 

Later he describes the joy which comes to the upright in heart when they confess.

Sin will render you unfeeling if you continue in it. At first you will feel the singe of sin. But if you continue, it will render you numb, and the chastening to bring you back may be severe.

 

God’s grace for moral failure, Rom. 5:20; Psalm 51

Where Sin Abounds… Grace Super Abounds

Remember Romans 5:20, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” John Bunyan wrote an autobiography entitled, “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.” Don’t we all feel that way. That could be the title of each one of our biographies.

Where sin abounds, grace literally super abounds!

 

You are Worse than You Think (Spurgeon)

Perhaps you are here today and you don’t feel the need of God’s grace. Oh, if you could see yourself through the pure eyes of God, your own depravity would be infinitely shocking to you.

Charles Spurgeon said, “If any person thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted and it is ugly, be satisfied, for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.”[5]

 

Remember Psalm 51

Consider Psalm 51. David wrote a whole Psalm of repentance. He didn’t make excuses. He received God’s grace, but God’s grace isn’t cheap.

He asked for and got cleansing.

Verses 1-2, “Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!”

 

He acknowledged that His sin was not just horizontal in the human realm, but that his sin was ultimately against Almighty God. David says in verse 4, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

Verse 11, says he wanted to stop grieving the Holy Spirit and be restored to the Spirit’s fellowship.

 

Allusion to Christ

Psalm 51:7, he asked to be cleansed with hissop and then he would be clean and “whiter than snow.” This is an allusion to Christ. When the Israelites left Egypt they had to put the blood of the lamb on the door posts with a hissop branch.

If the blood was on the door then the angel of death who brought God’s justice and wrath would “pass over” that home.

Dear child of God, there is forgiveness for sins of lust like David sinned, but it’s not cheap grace. Jesus paid it all. Jesus poured out His life’s blood for this sin.  Hallelujah.

He will restore your joy!

 

Restore the Years the Locusts Have Eaten

Remember Joel 2:25, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,” God’s grace is amazing.

 

A Romans 12:1-2 Kind of Surrender

Let me give you hope! God is in the business of healing and renewing. There is hope. Turn to God with all your heart. Yield yourself to Him. You will not be disappointed. Remember Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

^[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1993). Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (2 Sa 11:1–4). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[2] Smith, Colin S. (2006-02-01). The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life (Kindle Locations 1334-1336). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[3] R. Kent Hughes. Disciplines of a Godly Man (p. 20ff). Kindle Edition.

[4] (Bergen, 367).

[5] Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)_Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_ Vol. 34 [1888].