Faithful Are the Wounds
Download MP3Good morning again. We are continuing our study of the life of David, and today we are going to be in one of the more well known stories in David's life. It's, 2nd Samuel, chapters 11 and 12. It's the story of David and Bathsheba. I've preached on this passage a number of times, 3 or 4 times over the years at Redeemer, most recently March of just last year, where we looked at repentance at the beginning of the season of Lent.
Jeffrey Heine:Don't worry, it's not the same sermon. We're going to be approaching the story a little bit differently this time. Joel will be picking up chapter 12 next week, and and we'll speak more to David's repentance and restoration. But today, we're gonna focus on the sin of David and the confrontation that follows with the prophet Nathan. Forasmuch as the writers of 1st and second Samuel have held David up as a man of bravery who fights lions and giants, as a man of patience and honor, refusing to usurp his predecessor, King Saul, as a man of worship dancing before the ark of the Lord and a man after God's own heart, they are also unflinchingly honest with his failures.
Jeffrey Heine:And today's passage is a stark reminder that King David is just as broken and just as selfish as the rest of us. So I I'd like for us to begin our time by reading a a portion of the coming confrontation from the prophet Nathan in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 verses 7 through 10. It's in your worship guide if you've got your Bible with you. We're in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 beginning in verse 7. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word.
Jeffrey Heine:Thus says the lord, 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.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks to God. Let's pray together. Lord, we are grateful for a new day that you have made, the opportunity to gather as your children to worship you in spirit and in truth.
Jeffrey Heine:So we ask we ask the spirit that you would meet us this morning, that you would draw us nearer to Christ, and that we may desire him more and more. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening? We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It was springtime in Israel, which meant 2 things.
Jeffrey Heine:1, it was the beginning of a new year, and second, it was the season when kings would go to war. So most kings were with their armies readying for battle, but king David has decided to stay back in Jerusalem. He has sent Joab, his nephew, to lead his men against the Ammonites and to besiege the city of Rabbah. Back in Jerusalem, by what the scriptures say, David is living more like a teenager whose parents are out of town than a grown man in his fifties. A perfect picture of this is that the passage opens with David getting out of bed late in the afternoon.
Jeffrey Heine:So while Joab is ravaging the Ammonites, David is lazily getting out of bed with the day practically gone. David goes out onto his rooftop, the palace where he can overlook the city of Jerusalem. And David could see from his high roof, the lower rooftops below, he sees one rooftop in particular. It's the home of one of his commanders, a brave warrior named Uriah. And like any brave warrior, he was out on the battle field with Joab.
Jeffrey Heine:David looked down at Uriah's home, and he saw Uriah's wife outside on the rooftop. Her name is Bathsheba, bat meaning daughter, and Shabbah meaning promise. Bat, Shabbah, daughter of promise. True to her name, Bathsheba was on the roof practicing a Jewish ritual, a cleanliness ritual. There were numerous rituals that faithful Israelites would practice every day.
Jeffrey Heine:Bathsheba was practicing a bathing ritual that the Lord commanded, and it's recorded in Leviticus 15. It was a cleanliness ritual for women that followed menstruation and was chiefly a practice for health and hygiene. A surprising number of the laws, given to the people of Israel were practical health and hygiene rules, which is doubly surprising given that so little was known about hygiene at that time. I mean, doctors didn't figure out the benefits of washing hands between patients until a 150 years ago. But that's why Bathsheba was on the roof.
Jeffrey Heine:Worshipful obedience to God's law, and God's law was there to care for her health. Worship and hygiene are not typically the preludes for temptation. Bathsheba wasn't acting out of turn, and she wasn't trying to tempt anyone. She was worshiping the lord by obeying his commands. But high atop the roof of the palace where the brave warrior king David was not supposed to be, he sees Bathsheba.
Jeffrey Heine:And in a foolishly brazen act that foreshadows more foolishly brazen acts, David asks his servants who this woman is. And the servants tell him it's Bathsheba, the daughter of Elim and the wife of Uriah. David knows who those two men are. Eliam, Bathsheba's father, Uriah, her husband, were soldiers, men of courage and bravery. They were warriors, outrisking their lives for the king.
Jeffrey Heine:That also meant that they're not at home. David sends for Bathsheba. The Hebrew reads, David sent his messengers to take Bathsheba. The text is brief, but what is said is damning. Without regard for Bathsheba, without regard for her marriage, without regard for her husband, out on the battlefield, David takes what he wants.
Jeffrey Heine:And given the nature of the power dynamic, it's unimaginable that Bathsheba had an option to resist. David appears to have no shame in this. He wasn't ashamed to watch her from his roof. He wasn't ashamed to inquire as to who she was. He wasn't ashamed to send servants to take her to his palace.
Jeffrey Heine:And further, David seems to have no shame when he sends her back home after he gets what he wants. The scriptures give zero indication that Bathsheba wanted any of this to happen. Bathsheba is not given a voice at all. In fact, the only words that Bathsheba will speak in his entire story are the words that should have been said in celebration with her husband, Uriah, words she should have said with joy and delight. But instead, she has to say these life changing words to this pathetic excuse for a king.
Jeffrey Heine:Bathsheba says to David, I'm pregnant. So now what? David sets out to cover up his sin. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden, just like every person since the fall, the response is to hide, to cover up sin with more sin. I once heard an older pastor say that sin makes you stupid, and I believe that.
Jeffrey Heine:I believe it because I've lived it so many times. Sin leads to more sin, and you get dumber along the way. David's horrific sin of assault and adultery with Bathsheba only leads to more sin. Sin will either lead to more sin or repentance. There's not a third option.
Jeffrey Heine:There there isn't a consequence free option. We are either gonna move towards more sin, or we are going to move towards repentance. There's a moment of choice. We all face it. We can run to the Lord in confession and repentance, or we can hide and cover our sin with more sin.
Jeffrey Heine:David chooses more sin. David comes up with a plan. In his mind, it's a good one. He decides to bring Uriah back from the war. If Uriah comes back and he sleeps with his wife, no one will know that David is the father of the child.
Jeffrey Heine:And when Uriah comes from the war, David pretends to care about the battle. He asks Uriah how things are going with Joab and the soldiers like he actually cares. And then David tells Uriah to go home, wash up, rest, visit your wife. But Uriah refuses. Instead, he stays the night with David's servants.
Jeffrey Heine:The next morning, the servants report to David that Uriah did not go home. The plan is not working. David is getting frustrated. He goes to Uriah again and says, have you not come from a long journey? Why did you not go down to your house and rest?
Jeffrey Heine:But Uriah is a man of honor. He says to David, Because the ark of the Lord, the soldiers of Israel, Joab, my commander, they are outside in tents camping in open fields. I cannot go home and enjoy the pleasures of home. It wouldn't be right. It doesn't seem to make any sense to David.
Jeffrey Heine:He seems to have forgotten what it means to be a man of honor and integrity. And now honor and integrity are thwarting his plans. David tries one more time. He invites Uriah to dine with him. David fills him up with food and drink.
Jeffrey Heine:He tries to send a drunken Uriah home to Bathsheba, but again, Uriah refuses. So the following day, David writes a letter to Joab. He says, set Uriah in the forefront of the bloodiest fighting and then draw back from him, that he might be struck down and die. And David gives this letter to Uriah and sends him back to the battlefield. And so unbeknownst to Uriah, he is carrying his own death sentence, a letter ordering his murder.
Jeffrey Heine:Joab follows David's command. Uriah is sent to the front lines of the war. It doesn't say if Joab and his men intentionally retreat and draw back from Uriah. Joab might have had too much honor for that, but, nevertheless, Uriah is ultimately killed in a fight. Joab sends a messenger to David to let him know.
Jeffrey Heine:The news comes to David, and he simply replies, tell Joab not to beat himself up about this. People die in war. Sometimes the sword will kill these people and other times, these people. That's it. His pitiful response betrays the destitute state of his heart.
Jeffrey Heine:Bathsheba, however, mourns her husband. Because of David's wicked abuse of power, Bathsheba is now pregnant and a widow. David brings Bathsheba into his home, and she becomes his wife. And again, we don't know how Bathsheba feels about this. We can speculate.
Jeffrey Heine:We can infer. But the only thing that shows us her emotions is that she mourns her husband. That doesn't lead me to envision a happy bride. No wedding bells. No bouquet tossing.
Jeffrey Heine:I would expect to see sadness and fear and desperation. It's not a happy scene, and it appears that this is how God views all of this playing out too. You might have noted that Yahweh hasn't been mentioned at all yet. But as chapter 11 ends with the jarring words, it says this, the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. And then the very next line begins chapter 12, and the Lord sent Nathan to David.
Jeffrey Heine:You may recall that we met Nathan a couple chapters back. Nathan is a prophet in the king's court. He serves as a counselor and adviser to the Lord. When we first read of Nathan in chapter 7, David was seeking to build a temple for the Lord. And when David brings this idea up to Nathan, Nathan's first reply sounded something like what you would hear, being told to a hero in a Disney movie, something that a fairy godmother or Jiminy Cricket might say.
Jeffrey Heine:Nathan goes to David and says, do what's in your heart. He goes further than that. He goes on to tell David, do what's in your heart because the lord is with you. Build that house for the lord, he says. Do what's in your heart.
Jeffrey Heine:Yahweh is with you. And then the lord shows up to set things straight. God speaks to Nathan directly and asks, who in all of Israel did I ask to build me a house? Nathan was wrong. He gave David the absolute wrong advice, so wrong that God spoke up to stop it.
Jeffrey Heine:A king or any leader is often surrounded by people who want to speak into their leadership. And of all the people to be wrong, you don't want it to be a prophet. The prophet is supposed to speak for God. But I get it. Nathan hears the anointed king of Israel say that he wants to build a house, a temple for the Ark of the Covenant to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:How's that a bad idea? David is seeking to honor God. He's trying to worship Yahweh. Nathan sees this as a no brainer. How could worship be bad?
Jeffrey Heine:But as Nathan soon finds out, David building the temple is not what God desires of him. It isn't what he wants. It isn't worship when it isn't what God wants. It might look like worship, sound like worship, be meant for worship, but if it isn't what God has desired, it isn't worship. So after telling David that God was with him in this desire to build the temple, Nathan is sent by the Lord to correct his unfounded advice, to correct David.
Jeffrey Heine:And here in chapter 12, Nathan is back. In the nearly year long aftermath of David's sin against Bathsheba and his sin against her husband, Uriah, God sends Nathan to correct David again. And Nathan begins in an unexpected way. Rather than beginning with the words that start a prophecy, thus says the Lord, Nathan starts with the words that begin, a lot of ancient Hebrew storytelling. That common phrase was, there once was a man.
Jeffrey Heine:Well, in this story, there are 2 men. 2 men in a particular city, 1, a rich man, the other, poor. The rich man had what most rich men do, very many flocks, very many herds. And the poor man had what most poor men have, very little. But the poor man did have a young female lamb.
Jeffrey Heine:With his meager amount of money, he bought this lamb and raised it with his children. He even let the lamb eat from his plate and drink from his cup. He'd hold the lamb in his arms while she slept. And though it might sound silly, the lamb was like a daughter to him. Because when you don't have much, you learn to value what you do have.
Jeffrey Heine:And now, there was a third man, a traveler, coming to visit the rich man. And when it came time to show hospitality to the traveler and prepare a meal, the rich man did not wanna take from his many livestock, his many herds. No. He took the poor man's lamb, and he killed it, and he prepared it for his guest to eat. Nathan's story stops there.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a brief story, but the point is razor sharp, and we see that it cuts David just as Nathan had hoped. You might remember back when when David was still a boy, when the Lord called him to be anointed as king. When he did that, David was a young boy who was tending the flocks. He was a shepherd. He knew the patience and the tenderness that you would show to a little lamb.
Jeffrey Heine:He can recall his own affection for his flocks that he tended over the years. And so when Nathan tells this story, David burns for justice. This story ignites a righteous rage in David. And in this newfound righteous anger, David says to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because of this thing he did and because he had no pity. No pity.
Jeffrey Heine:It appears David is remembering what righteousness is. And then Nathan says to David the the memorable line, you are the man. You are the rich man in this story. And with all the rage that David felt over the lamb being stolen and slaughtered, Nathan directs this fury of David back at David. You are the man.
Jeffrey Heine:Now Nathan will go on to deliver the prophetic word from Yahweh. Look with me at second Samuel chapter 12 verse 7. Thus says the lord, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 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.
Jeffrey Heine: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 a 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 not depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. The lord goes on to pronounce judgment against David. Thus says the lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.
Jeffrey Heine:And 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 his son. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. David finally sees what he has done. I'm not sure if the sin had made him so dumb and numb or that he was so confident that he had gotten away with all of this. But after nearly a year and all of his foolish attempts to cover up his wickedness with more wickedness, David is finally beginning to realize, truly realize, that what he thought he had done in secret was before the eyes of the Lord all along.
Jeffrey Heine:He understands this now. And in this brokenness, he finally confesses to Nathan in verse 13. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die.
Jeffrey Heine:Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the lord, the child who is born to you shall die. Then Nathan went to his house, and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. When we are tempted by sin, temptation looks like David lusting on the rooftop, appearing at an unsuspecting Bathsheba. It's the promise of fulfillment, the promise of pleasure and satisfaction. Sin never tempt tempts us with a picture of the aftermath.
Jeffrey Heine:It doesn't tempt us with a vision of the consequences. It doesn't tempt us with the fallout and the emptiness that we will feel after our temporary fulfillment. If David had looked down at Bathsheba and glimpsed this confrontation with David, the death of a child due to his sins, he would have run back inside and gotten back in bed. But that's not how sin tempted David, and it's not how sin tempts us. We don't see the reality of consequence.
Jeffrey Heine:Sin is far less attractive with the lights on, with the consequences clear, with the pain that we cause to others visible. And while Nathan's first attempt at advising David was a failure, this time, Nathan boldly counseled David to the truth of God's judgment and to God's mercy. Have you ever had a phone call that you knew you needed to make? You had to psych yourself up for it because you just didn't wanna do it. For some reason, I usually make those calls in my car, not while I'm driving, but just sitting in my car.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know why. It might be that in my mind, it makes me feel like I have a sense of escape. Like, if things go sideways, I can just take off. But years back, I had a friend who had been having an affair with a married woman, and I just found out. And I knew I needed to call him, But I had no idea what to say.
Jeffrey Heine:At the same time, I had another friend whose wife had been having that affair with the first friend, and I knew I needed to call him too. And again, I had no idea what to say. I'm sure that you've had people in your life that you've had incredibly difficult conversations with, and and maybe you've got one of those conversations looming that you you should have now, and you are avoiding it at all costs. And to be honest, there's also the likelihood that there are people in your life who know that they need to have a hard conversation with you, and they too are avoiding it. The cost of avoiding these hard conversations is our growth in the gospel of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:When we avoid these difficult conversations about sin and brokenness and obedience and disobedience, when we avoid these hard conversations, we stunt our growth in the gospel, our growth in obedience, our growth in worship. We stunt both the person we need to confront and ourselves. David needed Nathan to confront him, and Nathan needed it too. He needed to grow from the last time that he counseled David in error. Nathan also needed to grow in his obedience to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:David, by all accounts, had moved on. Uriah was dead and buried. Bathsheba was now his wife living in his palace, and the child was born. In his mind, he had glued all of the busted and broken pieces back together. But it wasn't over, not even close.
Jeffrey Heine:Covering up our sin It's like when a toddler covers their own eyes and thinks that you can't see them anymore. They haven't covered up anything but their own eyes. You're only blinding yourself. So we need friends. We need Christ following friends who will come to us in our blind ignorance and point us to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:But there is a problem. To truly welcome these hard conversations, you have to want Jesus more, more than the sin, more than avoiding the pain of confrontation. We have to desire Jesus more if we're going to welcome these difficult conversations about our own sin and obedience. Desiring Jesus more is the only way that we can endure the painful confrontation of our sin being called out by friends, friends who love us enough to speak up. And desiring Jesus more is the only way to ever be willing to be a friend enough who faithfully and lovingly calls out the sin in others.
Jeffrey Heine:Proverbs 27:6 says this, faithful are the wounds of a friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. If we are unwilling to receive a brother or sister calling out our sin, then we cannot expect others to receive us. And if we are unwilling to bring the light of truth into the dark places of our brothers and sisters. We cannot expect others to be willing to do this for us.
Jeffrey Heine:Faithful are the wounds of a friend. The proverb goes on to say that plentiful, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. You can find those folks, the ones who only give kisses, the ones who only say things that you want to hear, but that's not a friend. In fact, it's an enemy. A holy friend is willing to faithfully wound us so we can turn from that which is trying to kill us.
Jeffrey Heine:And their words may hurt, and the bright light of day might be overwhelming to us, but it's the only way out of the darkness. So I want to pose 2 questions for you to reflect on this morning, and I invite you to be honest with yourself and with the Lord. The first question is this, am I a faithful friend to the people in my life? I I don't simply mean a friend that that always shows up, is always available, always helping, a good listener? Those are all fine and great.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, are you a faithful friend who is willing to speak hard truths and point people to repentance in Christ? A follow-up to that one, if you are seeking to be a faithful friend, who might you need to have a hard conversation with this week, tomorrow, this afternoon? Who comes to mind? If you aren't being a faithful friend, then what is the next step that you need to take to become that faithful friend to others? Perhaps the place to start, that next step, is repentance in your own heart.
Jeffrey Heine:One step that might be necessary to be that faithful friend is in your own heart before the Lord going to him in repentance. There's an old story. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's about Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian revolutionary and philosopher. In the 19 thirties, a mother brought her young son to visit Gandhi, and she asked Gandhi to tell the boy to stop eating so much sugar. It was unhealthy for him.
Jeffrey Heine:And she thought that if this greatly respected Gandhi were to say this to the boy, the boy would listen to him. Gandhi looked at the mother and said, come back in 1 week. Surprised, the the mother took the boy home and returned the following week. And she brought the boy up to Gandhi, and Gandhi looked the boy in the eye, and he said to the child, stop eating so much sugar. That was it.
Jeffrey Heine:The mother, again, surprised, said, thank you. But why did we have to wait a week for you just to say that? And Gandhi looked at the woman and said, because last week, I still ate sugar. To be a friend who faithfully wounds in love, we must honestly examine our own hearts before the Lord. Because don't forget, we can be like Nathan in chapter 7 when he told David that the Lord was with him when in fact the lord was not with him, we can give bad advice.
Jeffrey Heine:And part of avoiding that good intentioned bad advice is to examine our hearts before the Lord. We must ask the Lord for help to discern what we might need to say to our friend and how to best go about it in love. So that's the first question. Am I a faithful friend to the people in my life? The second question, do I have faithful friends in my life?
Jeffrey Heine:Who in your life have you honestly given jurisdiction to speak God's truth and to shine His light in the dark places of your heart? Who honestly has access to you in such a way? Perhaps you find yourself in a challenging season of transition where faithful friendships are not as plentiful as they once were. I've seen this in people in every season and stage of life. I've seen it, this lack of faithful friends in high school, college age believers, in post grad, in the newly married, and parents of young kids, parents of teenagers, I've seen it in empty nesters, and in retirees.
Jeffrey Heine:No season of life is immune to loneliness, and loneliness and isolation are fertile soil for temptation and sin. David was alone in Jerusalem, up on the rooftop where he was not supposed to be. He was supposed to be with his men on the battlefield. And the people who could have or should have confronted David when he started inquiring about this woman on the rooftop, they simply did their master's bidding. They gave kisses, not faithful wounds.
Jeffrey Heine:But Nathan finally was a faithful friend. He listened to the Lord, and when the Lord said, Go and confront David, He did it. And when we live into the role of the faithful friend, only then are we a loving friend. Because in faithful confrontation, in these hard conversations, we do not bring shame, and we do not bring condemnation. We bring the truth of God's word and the grace of the Lord Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:The root of repentance is not guilt, it is joy. And the result of repentance is not shame, it is worship. So much of the turmoil that that we feel in our day to day lives is from a failure of faithful friendship. We seek politeness over honesty. We prioritize self governance over accountability.
Jeffrey Heine:We practice defensiveness over submission. And in this silence, in this absence of faithful wounding from friends, we fail to grow up in the gospel of Jesus. We fail to grow in love and trust and obedience. So I ask you, are you a faithful friend? If yes, prayerfully ask the Lord who needs your friendship, your loving wounding right now?
Jeffrey Heine:And if you're not, if you take stock and you say, I I don't think I am that faithful friend, then what is that next step for you in friendship? What is that next step examining your heart, your own life, the plank in your eye before the Lord that might motivate you and push you and strengthen you to be that faithful friend to others? Are you a faithful friend? And then the second question, do you have faithful friends in your life? If yes, prayerfully ask the Lord how you can more actively invite their accountability into your life.
Jeffrey Heine:Say to them, this week, I need you to speak in to the things I don't want you to speak into. If you don't have those faithful friends in your life, prayerfully ask the Lord how you might seek to deepen the relationships that you do have, to reach out to those people, to have that conversation of saying, I need you to have jurisdiction into my life and my heart. I need you to say hard things to me. David's sin did not just impact David. It wasn't just a problem between David and God.
Jeffrey Heine:So many people were impacted by David's sin. Obviously, Bathsheba, but also their child and Uriah and Joab and Nathan, and every servant who helped facilitate this wickedness, that's part of the poison of sin. It doesn't just affect you. As followers of Jesus, we cannot despise one another enough to say, you do you. That is not love.
Jeffrey Heine:The faithful wound from Nathan to David led to true repentance, and we will look at that more specifically next week. But the ramifications of Nathan obeying the lord and faithfully wounding David, we will see the effects of that for the rest of David's life. This wasn't a one off moment. David didn't just feel bad and guilty. This was transformational.
Jeffrey Heine:So do you dare to love your brothers and sisters enough to see them transformed and conformed into the image of Christ? Because if you do, if you dare, you will speak the truth in love and point them to the one hope that we have in heaven and on earth. He is the one born in the line of Bat Shaba. He is the son of promise, born in the lineage of the daughter of promise. Faithfully and bow boldly pointing our friends to him is part of our worship to the Son of Promise.
Jeffrey Heine:We point our friends to the great Redeemer, the faithful friend of sinners because it is by his wounds that all of your wounds are healed forever. Let's go to him in prayer. Oh, lord, would you lead us and guide us in this time to think honestly about our own lives, that we wouldn't just hear things and nod our heads in agreement, but that you would shape our hearts and our lives to respond. We would think deeply before you these questions that we would ponder them and that you would direct us, lead us, and guide us, that we would be a faithful friend to those in our lives and that we would seek those faithful friendships more earnestly. So, spirit, would you lead us in this time all to the glory and the honor and the praise of Christ our King, in whose name we pray these things.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.
