Well, let me encourage you to turn with me
to 2 Samuel and to chapter 11, where I will read from the fourteenth to the twenty-seventh
verse—from verse 14 to the end of the chapter. And I invite you to follow along as I read. Two Samuel 11:14:
“In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 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.’ And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned
Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 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. 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 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.”’ “So the messenger went and came and told
David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 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. 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.’ 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 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.” Amen. Well, if you’re visiting today, then you
may say to yourself, “I wonder what has prompted the pastor to choose this passage
of Scripture.” And somebody, if you were to say that, around
you would say, “Oh, he didn’t choose it; it chose him.” And that is because we have now for some considerable
time been working our way through the record of God’s dealings with his people in 1 and
2 Samuel. And the further we have gone in our studies,
the more we have realized what we have said from time to time—namely, that the ways
of God are undeniably odd; that they are sure and they are certain, that he does accomplish
his purposes, but he accomplishes his purposes in ways that, quite frankly, surprise us. He uses people that, if we are honest, we
would never have selected. And the unfolding of his purposes deals in
events that we would never choose to experience, events that we would rather forget about entirely. And as we’ve been studying, we’ve realized
that the people that we’re meeting are very much like us: foolish, frail, and sinful. And we’re not talking about the subplot
characters. We’re not talking about the people in the
small print. We’re talking about those who are actually
the heroes, and no one more so than David, the anointed one, the chosen of God, who,
up until “late one afternoon,” as it says in verse 2 of our chapter—up until “late
one afternoon,” he hadn’t really put a foot wrong. I mean, he was remarkable! And it was clear to see just how gifted he
was. And yet here we find ourselves with a dreadful
illustration of what it means to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We have, if you like, an Old Testament life-sized
model of what James is dealing with in his letter when he writes, “Each person is tempted
when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth
to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” It’s hard not to think that of all the things
that James might have had in mind from the Old Testament record when he penned those
words, that this incident concerning David would not have been there. Now, it’s important for us in coming to
this to recognize that if we are tempted to believe (as we may be tempted to believe and
some of us perhaps do believe) that the kingdom of God comes by way of human cleverness, or
by way of the essential goodness of the people who are involved, on the basis of how strong
they are—if we are tempted to believe that at any level at all, then this passage of
the Bible, along with others, will disavow us of that notion. Because what we’ve been discovering is that
we’re meeting people here—again I say to you—who are just like us. They’re sinful, they’re lustful, they’re
ambitious, they’re cruel, and they’re mistaken. They make bad choices. They do wrong things. We’re surely not going to stand in judgment
on this, are we? We’re not gonna suggest that “Oh, well,
I’m glad we can learn about people like that.” After all, we know what we are like. Well, we’ll come to that later on. Now, how did they find themselves here? Well, back from the very beginning. The book of Judges has ended, remember, with
everybody doing what is right in their own eyes. It was chaos—political, moral, social chaos. And so the people had decided that if they
could establish a monarchy, if they could have a king, then a king would then presumably
be able to deal with their dilemma. Which was not a bad idea, if only they could
find a king who is equal to the task. But they haven’t been able to find one. Saul wasn’t, Solomon won’t be, and David,
as we can see, isn’t. The kingdom isn’t safe even in the hands
of David, who is the man after God’s own heart. In fact, really, the story of the Old Testament
is just a big, long search, a longing cry. If there is a voice that cries out in the
Old Testament, it is “Give us a leader! Give us a king! Give us somebody!” “Well,” I said to myself as I was thinking
along those lines, “that’s really the same cry that is going out at the moment in
the United States of America.” This nation, our nation, was founded by dispensing
with the place of a king. “If only we could get rid of the king!” That was the word. If we could get rid of King George, then we
would be fine. We would form a republic. And in our republic, then we would have peace
and safety and justice and truth. Did you read the newspaper yesterday? Have you thought about life today? How well are we doing? We strive for justice, and yet people still
treat one another unfairly. We vaccinate for COVID, and yet we can’t
master the common cold. We hope for a world that is freed from conflict,
but we continue to fight with ourselves and with those whom we love. The longings for peace and security and kindness
and generosity are clearly, unmistakably, undeniably beyond our grasp. What in the world are we supposed to do? Well, that’s where our Bible comes in, you
see. That’s why we’ve said to one another routinely,
we will never understand history without our Bibles. Because the Bible explains who man is, what
man is, who God is, and what God is doing . Leave that aside, and then you have all
these pieces of a jigsaw with no picture on the box and no possible way of putting all
the end pieces in so that you can fill in the middle. And that’s exactly where men and women are
today—even if they believe there’s a jigsaw at all. Now, I’m helped—I hope you’re helped—by
the honesty and clarity of the Bible, not just in this area but in every area. For example, in our Bible reading in the last
few days, we’ve been reading Isaiah 51. And in Isaiah 51 it says, “The earth will
wear out [as] a garment.” Well, I made a note of that. I said, “Well, that’s interesting.” And not only is it interesting, but it’s
of vital importance. Because all the concerns of ecology and the
cataclysmic stories of an apocalyptic end to our universe are before us almost every
single day. The G7 gathered, and one of their great preoccupations
is “What in the world are we gonna do with our planet?” Now, does the Bible have something to say? Well, it says that we’ve been given this
that we might enjoy it, that we might care for it, that we might tend for it, and so
on. But it also says that it’s gonna wear out
like an old bathrobe. So therefore, we cannot be entrusted with
the responsibility to withstand that which is written in from eternity to the very structure
of our universe. Well, I was pondering that. But then I went to the next passage of Scripture,
and the next passage—because there’s four every day—and the next passage was Revelation
21, which begins, “[And] then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” “Oh,” I said, “that’s it! That’s it.” This one is gonna get rolled up like a garment. Look after it while you’ve got it. But don’t actually believe that divinity
is contained within the universe. Don’t, for goodness’ sake, become a pantheist. Don’t look for God inside this. Before there was time, before there was anything,
there was God. He will eventually roll this up like an old
carpet. But there is a new heaven and a new earth. You see, this is the Christian’s hope. This is the Christian’s view of the world. This is what allows us to engage in the obvious
and necessary issues of time and planet in a way that recognizes that there is a sovereign
God. But if you have no God, if there is no Creator,
if there is no one who sustains the universe, then, of course, what are you going to do? You’re just gonna have to scramble and wonder
and be concerned and say all these things that nobody really knows whether they’re
true or not. Well, that was just an aside. Let’s get to the passage. Some of you were hoping that was the sermon
and that we’re going straight to the benediction. Sorry to disappoint you. But we’ll try and move through this with
relative swiftness. It begins “in the morning.” “In the morning.” It’s interesting the way that the story
is told, isn’t it? These little details. “It happened, late one afternoon,” verse
2. And then the nighttime falls, but he doesn’t
go down to his house in the night. And then the next day dawns, and “in the
morning…” The previous day had not ended as David had
hoped. If only Uriah had done what he said. If only he’d gone down to his house and
slept with his wife, then that would have been the ideal cover-up. He could have provided that for him. But he hasn’t provided it for him. He did not provide David with the cover-up
he hoped for, and so now David has decided that he is going to make sure that Uriah is
covered up—covered up with the dirt of the earth, covered up and placed in the grave. “If he won’t go down to his house, I’m
gonna send him down to his grave.” That’s exactly what he says. And so he’s been unable to get him to comply. And so he resorts, unbelievably, to murder. To murder! Ah, the depth of this! We know that he’s vulnerable to women. We’ve noticed that. We know that his background as a military
man makes killing and swords and stuff part of his framework. He’s familiar with vengeance. But what began as a glance at a lady in her
bath is about to end with the death of one of his servants on a battlefield. What has happened to David? And has what has happened to David ever happened
to you? Could it? Well, actually, he’s lost his sensitivity
to right and wrong. He, as a king, is supposed to be the champion
of good and evil. He’s supposed to, as a king, be able to
discern the difference between good and evil. But now, apparently, he’s lost every ounce
of human decency, and he’s now become shameless. Shameless! How do you get like this? I then just put in my notes, “This is for
Joab.” In other words, the letter. He wrote a letter. And the details of the letter you will find
in verse 15. Now, some of the commentators say it’s quite
unusual that he would write a letter. After all, most of the communiqués that are
happening, even in the text here, are verbal. One, the messenger speaks to Joab, Joab speaks
to the messenger, and so on. But I don’t understand why they say that,
because how in the world could it be any other way than in a letter? I mean, he couldn’t ask Uriah to go up and
just say it, right? “Hey, David…” He finds Joab, he says, “David would like
you to find a place for me on the battlefield so that I could get killed.” That’s not gonna work. So he writes it. A risky business! I wonder, was Uriah such a man of integrity
that he wouldn’t open it? Have you ever been tempted to open a letter? Somebody gave it to you to take? I wonder, maybe he couldn’t read, so it
wouldn’t be so risky. Well, I don’t know. But what David has done is he has deliberately
silenced the fear of God in his heart. Because he’s the one who knows that God
searches him and knows him, knows the details of his life—when he stands up, when he sits
down. He knows all of that. But now all he needs to do is silence Uriah:
“If I can silence Uriah, the deed is done.” (But he can’t silence his own conscience. We never can.) “If Uriah is dead, the matter is closed.” So what he’s actually doing is acting in
a way that people are tempted to act when we begin to think that sin is only significant
if somebody finds out. If we’re convinced that there is actually
no God to find out, then we’ve got no accountability up there. Therefore, as long as the people in the office
can’t find out, as long as my wife can’t find out, then I’ll be okay, if I can just
get through with it. In other words, he’s starting to act now
like an atheist. He’s starting to act like there’s no God. He’s starting to act like he doesn’t recognize
that God holds him accountable. In a world without God, of course sin will
never be discovered; sin will never be punished. Incidentally, that’s one of the reasons
people choose not to believe in God. We suppress the truth of God for a lie. Well, of course you do! If I’m gonna sin, then I don’t want a
God who knows about it. Therefore, it’s better if I believe there
is no God; then I can get on with my bad business without at least worrying about that—as
long as the lady up the street doesn’t know. It all makes perfect sense. He doesn’t live in that kind of world, and
neither do you or I. In God’s eyes, sin is sin, wrong is wrong. Strange categories, aren’t they? Wrong. Right. Sin. Failure. Hmm. Well, if the pulpit does not speak to this
in our relativistic age, it will never be heard. And if the people in the pew do not carry
it forward both by lip and by life, then the impact of the salt on the populace of potatoes
will be minimal at best. “For if the salt should lose its savor,
wherewith shall it be salted? It would be better to be cast out and trampled
under the feet of men.” That’s how serious it is. That’s why the Bible is so clear. So what happens? Well, the mission is accomplished. How is it accomplished? Well, we’re told there: “As Joab was besieging
the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men,” where the
best fighters of the Ammonites would be; “the men of the city came out … fought with Joab,
and some of the servants of David among the people fell,” and “Uriah the Hittite also
died.” When I was studying this week, I wrote in
my notes, my scribbles… I have a lot of scribbles, sheets and sheets
of scribbles. None of them are any good. But I wrote, as I was reading this, I wrote
in my notes, “Spare a thought for Uriah.” Because I suddenly said to myself, “What
about Uriah? What a deal he got!” I mean, he’s going about his business. He’s fighting for the king. He’s living in a sensible relationship with
his wife and presumably any family he has. What are we to make of this? Why do bad things happen to good people? After all, doesn’t Uriah know the passage
of Scripture that says he will give his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways? What happened? Did the angels leave for vacation in Uriah’s
case? Have you ever felt like that? “God, your Word promises this, and yet I’m
living in this. Does it mean that because I’m living in
this, that your promise is nullified? That somehow or another, the circumstances
of my life overturn, call in question, disprove the truth of who and what you are?” It can’t possibly be! But what we do discover, both from the reading
of our Bibles and the living of our lives, is this: that the promises of God do not exempt
the children of God from the realm of suffering, from the realm of trials, and, finally, from
the realm of death . Facts! I then thought to myself, I said, “Uriah
would really have struggled with the kind of Joel Osteen message of ‘your best life
now.’” “Yeah right,” he’d say, “what best
life now? Are you kidding me? Look at this mess!” No, you see, that kind of story doesn’t
work, because it isn’t true. It’s not true to the Bible, and it’s not
true to life. It plays well for a little while, while people
are thinking only with a quarter at the most of their brain. But as soon as they get a diagnosis, as soon
as their children turn back on them, as soon as they find that they’ve collapsed in a
heap psychologically, they realize, “This story is a dream! There’s no reality to this at all. The earth wears down, and I’m wearing down.” Calvin says, “The wages of the good and
[the] faithful are not received in this world.” And they’re not. Because “eye [hasn’t] seen, nor ear heard,
neither [has it] entered into the heart of man, the things [that] God ha[s] prepared
for them that love him.” There is a better life than this one. And it is in this one that we live in anticipation
of the one that awaits us. Now, that has taken place, and the news is
then sent from the front in verse 18 and following: “Joab sent and told David all the news about
the fighting.” See the way this story is constructed, where
you have a summary statement, and then you advance, and then it fills in more of the
background? Which is about to happen again. So, he says to the messenger, “Now I want
you to go back and tell David what has happened. And you need to know this: that there’s
a fair chance that he will lose his mind. There’s a fair chance that he will be really
annoyed. And so, if he is as I anticipate, and that
is not pleased with what he hears, let me tell you how you should approach this.” And so he sets him up. He basically controls the media, if you like. He says, “Now, this is how you need to do
it.” And he says, “It may well be that he will
bring up that famous incident concerning Abimelech.” And you can read that for yourselves in your
homework in Judges chapter 9. But it basically is that in that instance,
which became part of folklore, if you like, or part of the historical record, the soldiers
on that occasion had been drawn into a situation where it was possible for a lady up on the
ramparts to throw a millstone out the top and land it on Abimelech’s head. Everybody knew that. Everybody knew you don’t go near the wall. “And he’s gonna find out that we went
near the wall. So make sure that whatever else you say, you
say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ That’s the closer, okay?” And so that’s exactly it. Now, you think about being the messenger. First of all, the messenger says, “Why am
I going back to tell David that this thing was a dog’s breakfast, that this was a debacle,
that this was not a strategic piece of military warfare? Why would I, first of all, go back and do
that? And also, what’s the thing about—what’s
so special about ‘Uriah the Hittite is dead’?” You see, he couldn’t have known that that
was the only answer to the question “Why did you go so near the wall?” That’s the answer! Because of David’s plan to cover his sin
up under the earth which would swallow Uriah. Well, you see there in 22 and following, the
messenger came; he “told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.” And he has his speech already prepared. He goes through it. He says, “The people came out. We approached. They came out. We drove them back. And when we drove them back, we were up against
the wall. The archer shot your servants from the wall. And some of the king’s servants are dead,
and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” Well, what remains? The reaction of David in verse 25. It’s quite incredible, this, actually. As I said before, you know, David doesn’t
use a lot of words, does he? I mean, in his sin with Bathsheba, there doesn’t
seem to be a lot of conversation, no expressions of affection, nothing at all. Just the miserable nature of the act. And now he has sent instructions to have his
servant murdered. And look at his reaction! He’s morally bankrupt at this point. His innocent glance at a lady taking a bath
has led to the innocent death of many of his servants on the battlefield. What has happened to David? I’ll tell you what has happened to him:
somewhere along the line he convinced himself, as we’ve said, that as long as no one saw,
there was no harm, there was no shame. But that’s not true. And his message by return to Joab is, I suggest
to you, as dreadful as his outgoing message back up in verse 14 where we began: “Say
to Joab, ‘Don’t let this trouble you. These things happen. Proceed with the battle.’ And try and encourage him if you can.” End of story. Thank you very much. Let’s move on. What remains? Well, all that remained was for the wife of
Uriah to be informed. She “heard that Uriah her husband was dead.” There’s no reason for us to believe that
she knew just exactly how it was that he came to die. We don’t know whether she did or she didn’t. The chances are that she wouldn’t have. All she knew was that her husband had died
on the battlefield. She did what would be expected: “She lamented
over her husband.” The time of sadness passed. “And when [that] mourning was over, David
sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.” It’s all so matter of fact, isn’t it? That’s the striking thing about it: it’s
all… Are we talking about this murderous deed? And so all that remains to be said is the
most important thing that is actually said, in one sentence, in the entire chapter. The way the story is told is masterful. If you love stories, you have to love this. You gotta love the way a story is told. It’s so fun to read it, and to read it properly,
and to realize that the narrator is telling it in such a way that we might then be saying
to ourselves, “You know, there’s no mention of God. There’s nothing about God in this. Why doesn’t God say something? There’s nothing at all.” And then here it comes, the punchline: “But
the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.” The divine verdict. The divine verdict. And what he does is he sets in juxtaposition
his statement to the messenger: “Say to Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing be evil in
your eyes.’” That’s a more literal translation. “Don’t let this thing be evil in your
eyes,” he says. But the thing that David had done was evil
in the eyes of God. See, that’s the deal. “This is not that big of a deal.” Oh, yes it is. It always is. And what is quite remarkable is that we’re
not left, as we often are in Old Testament narrative, to draw our own conclusions, but
we’re actually told here specifically that David’s actions were wrong. My friend from a distance, Woodhouse, says
this is “the story of a callous brute with the conscience of a brick wall!” I couldn’t put it better myself. (To which they said, “No, we know that.”) Now, this is the same man who displayed his
kindness by giving Mephibosheth a place at his table when he didn’t deserve it. And now he gives to his servant Uriah a place
in a graveyard which he doesn’t deserve. Now, what shall we say in response to all
of this? How shall we end this? I hope you’re not going to say—I hope
you haven’t even thought for a nanosecond as I’ve been speaking to you, you said to
yourself, “Well, I’m glad I’m not like that.” I hope you haven’t thought that. I wouldn’t be prepared to say that. But what I wrote in my notes was “If that
can happen to him, it can surely happen to me.” And you too. Because what we have here is a demonstration
of the depth of human depravity—the capacity that exists within us, even in Christ, to
run up against a day where all the seeds of human desires against God begin to germinate,
on the day when desire and temptation and opportunity coincide, and suddenly we find
ourselves in that evil day. And that evil day dawned for David, and he
collapsed. And part of the reason it’s in the Bible
is as a warning, so that none of us would be so foolish as to say, “Oh, I’m glad
I’m not like that.” “Let [the one] who thinks … he stands
take heed lest he fall[s].” And then, what are we to do with the promises
of God? After all, the promise that was given concerning
David was so straightforward: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever
before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” What in the world’s happened now? Has the promise of God come to a crashing
halt in the poor decision-making of David and in his sin in this? And the answer is, not for a moment! Not for a moment it has! Because the security of the fulfillment of
God’s promise does not and never does lie in the goodness of the individuals concerned
but in the goodness of God who made the promise .
And so, we won’t be around long enough to get all the way into 1 and 2 Kings. “At least,” you say, “I’m certainly
not gonna be here for it.” But when the kingdoms are divided, and Judah’s
here, and Israel’s there, and kings are rising up here, and they’re ascending to
the throne over here, and the searchlight, as it were, is moving through the whole drama
of the Old Testament, looking for a leader, looking for a king: How in the world will
this promise be fulfilled? And then it eventually all comes to an end,
and the prophets stand on the stage of history. And what do they say? Well, they say, “Relax!” Amos: “In that day,” says God, “I will
raise up the booth of David that is fallen.” How’s he going to do that? Isaiah: “For [unto you] a child is born,
[and unto you] a son is given; and the government [will] be upon his shoulder[s], and [he will]
be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The Messiah! Jesus! This is it, you see. The kings inevitably, like all of us: frail,
foolish, sinful, stupid. And yet God continues. Well, how do we explain it? Well, in a simple sentence: in the coming
of the Lord Jesus, God has kept and keeps his promises. In the coming of the Lord Jesus. Are you one of these genealogy people? You don’t have to put up your hand. Are you an Ancestry.com guru? I meet them all the time. They come to me and they tell me, you know,
they tell me, “I’m a quarter Portuguese, I am one-third such-and-such, I’m a thing
and this and this,” and they through this big thing. And I’m like, “Really? Wow. Well, how is that helping you? How much did you pay for that information? You really trust that DNA test thing? How specific would you like it to be?” “Oh, not too specific.” Good thought! Because I noted this week that one of those
groups was offering a fifty-dollar-off deal if you would sign up for it. And it said to me, it said, “Would you like
to find relatives you never knew and uncover stories of your family’s past?” And I said, “No. No, I don’t think so. No, no! I’m sort of intrigued, but not really. ’Cause there’s gotta be at least one crazy
uncle somewhere just out there that will give leverage to my wife to explain, ‘I know
why that’s… It’s that uncle! See, I knew that all the time.’” So no, I don’t want to know. I don’t need to know! I know my grandpa, I know my great-grandpa,
and I’m good with that. I don’t mean to be unkind to you if you
spend your rainy afternoons trying to find out your forebears. Be that as it may. But let me end in this way: Have you read
the genealogy of Jesus? Wow! Yeah. The wife of Uriah the Hittite is in there. Just read it in Matthew. She’s not the only one with a kind of shady
background. There’s also Ruth. She didn’t have a shady background, but
she was an outsider. There’s also Tamar. We’ll come to her. Also Rahab the harlot. What a mess! You mean that Jesus knows what it is to have
a strange family tree? Yeah! So do you think that Jesus, who knows about
strange family trees, is unable to deal with your strange family tree? Do you think that for a moment he cannot sympathize
with us in the blots that are on our past, in the mistakes that we have made? That somehow or another, we can bring to a
crashing end his plans and purposes for us? Loved ones, it cannot be. These people, like us, failed. And their failures are in the Bible in part
for our instruction, so that we would find ourselves saying, “Isn’t it a remarkable
indication of the wonder of God that he continues to bother with people like that?” And then we would say, “Isn’t it remarkable
that he continues to bother with someone like me?”—that he has pledged himself to bring
to fruition the good work that he has begun in us, not because we’re perfect, not because
we’re good, but because he is God, and he is good, and what he promises to do he will
keep. He’s entirely reliable. Oh, I urge you: come to him. Come to him in the only way you can, at the
cross of Jesus Christ. And be prepared to just dump out there all
the things that you are tempted to believe you have to hide forever and stumble through
your life. You don’t. You can come clean with him. And he has provided cleansing for all of that. There’s no story like this. Salvation belongs to the Lord our God. Father, thank you that we find ourselves again,
wonderfully, in the company of Christ, in the company of the only one who can cleanse
us from our sins, can enable us to keep on. We stand against the accusations of the Evil
One, the one who likes to come and get us rummaging around in old, forgiven sins. O Lord God, look upon us in your mercy we
pray. Thank you that you have reached out to us. And may we then live to the praise of your
glory, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
