Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Today I want to continue what I started last Sunday - a look at the great King of the Old Testament, David. David was a great king because he had a great faith in the Lord. We saw that last week in the story of David and Goliath. David was not a great king because he always did the right thing. He didn't, as we see this week in the story of David and Bathsheba.

After David killed Goliath, Saul grew increasingly jealous of David's popularity ongoing escapades. He began to disregard the instructions God gave him and repeatedly disobeyed the Lord. So God decided to make David king in his place. It was a time of bloodshed and conflict. Not only was Israel in conflict with her neighbors on every side: the Philistines, the Amalikites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, but the transition from Saul to David was marked by political intrigue, assassination, and eventually civil war. It took better than 10 years for David to solidify his rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, to secure his borders, and to establish Jerusalem as the political and religious center of the country.

In his poem, "Locksley Hall" Tennyson writes, "In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." 2 Samuel tells us that in the spring a king's fancy turned to thoughts of war. One such spring, the new king of the Ammonites decided to challenge the aging king of Israel. But as Samuel points out, David sent his army out against the Ammonites while he stayed behind in Jerusalem. That spring the fancy of this king turned to thoughts of love rather than war.

It happened late one afternoon, just after David got up from his nap. He went up on the roof of his palace to enjoy the early evening breeze and when he looked down on the city of Jerusalem below, he saw a woman on the roof of her house taking a bath. Her name was Bathsheba, and she was very beautiful. Now there is nothing wrong with a man admiring a beautiful woman. But when admiration turns to lust, the man has crossed the line.

Someone once asked his pastor where that line between admiration and lust was, and the pastor explained it this way: When you are driving down the street and notice a beautiful woman, there is nothing wrong with that. But when you drive around the block to get another look, you have already crossed the line.

Well, David did not only go around the block for another look, David sent one of his servants to inquire about her. When David learned that she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, a member of David's special forces. Since Uriah was away fighting the Ammonites, David invited Bathsheba up to see his proverbial etchings. One thing led to another and by the time Bathsheba got home she was pregnant. Now David had a problem. Jerusalem was not a large city. With Uriah on the battlefield and Bathsheba showing up pregnant, there was a real danger that his adultery would be exposed. So David came up with a plan to cover up his affair with Bathsheba. He sent word to General Joab on the battlefield and told him to send Uriah back to Jerusalem with a report on how the war was going.

After hearing Uriah's report, David told him to go home and spend the night with his wife before he headed back to the front lines. Uriah left, but he did not go home. Instead he spent the night sleeping at the palace gate. When David found out, he questioned Uriah. "Why didn't you go home?" And Uriah said that it would not have been right for him to enjoy the warmth of his wife while his comrades were camped in an open field. So David told Uriah to stay another day, and in the evening David invited Uriah for dinner. He made sure that Uriah had a lot of wine to drink, expecting that the alcohol would have stimulated his libido or at least dulled his sense of duty. It didn't work. Uriah did not go home, but spent the night in the servant quarters at the palace.

Then David decided to try a more radical solution. He wrote a letter to General Joab instructing him to put Uriah on the front lines and then have the other soldiers draw back so that Uriah would be killed. That plan worked. Uriah was killed, and after a brief but appropriate time of mourning, Bathsheba moved into the palace. David had compounded his adultery with murder. But he seemed to have covered it all up rather nicely. Or so he thought.

The Lord knew what David had done, and God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David with his sin. It was not an enviable assignment. Nathan began by telling David about a rich man with many flocks and herds who lived next to a poor man who had only one little ewe. He had raised her from a lamb, and she was like a family pet. One day the rich man had someone come to visit. He didn't want to take one of his own flock or herd to feed his guest, so he took the poor man's lamb and served it for dinner.

When David heard this story he was outraged. With no separation between the branches of government in a monarchy, the king was also the judge, responsible for protecting the rights of all his subjects. So in anger David said, "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die."

At that point, Nathan looked David right in the eye and said, "You are that man! You have struck down Uriah the Hittite and have taken his wife to be your own."

That was a gutsy thing for Nathan to say - even if he was a prophet of God. After all, David had already killed one man to cover up his adultery, what would keep him from doing the same thing to Nathan? Most kings would have killed Nathan without batting an eye. David didn't. Instead of anger, David showed remorse. Instead of striking out, David confessed, "I have sinned against the Lord."

David was not only a shepherd, a warrior, and a king; he was also a poet and a songwriter. After this episode, David wrote Psalm 51, in which he said, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love . . . Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is every before me." In this Psalm, David not only asks for forgiveness, but he also asks for renewal: "Create in me a clean heart, O God," he prays. "And put a new and right spirit within me."

The David who showed us how to trust in God in the face of our own Goliaths, now show us how to repent in the face of our own sins. In many ways it is easier for us to relate to the David and Bathsheba story than it is to relate to the Goliath story. Our sins may not be as grievous as adultery and murder, but we are as eager to cover them up as David was. No one likes to have their secret sins exposed, their dirty laundry hung out for the world to see. But the truth of the matter is that what we do in secret is not secret from the Lord. Our God sees it all, hears it all, knows it all. We are no more successful cover up our sins than David was - or than Adam and Eve were in the very beginning.

The story of David and Bathsheba is not a soap opera intended to entertain us (even if it is a very good story). Neither is it a morality play intended to teach us what is right and what is wrong. The story of David and Bathsheba is as lesson in confession and forgiveness, which lie at the very heart of our Christian faith. So here are some do's and don'ts that we can learn from this David story. First the don'ts: 1) Don't deny the truth. Denial only makes it worse. 2) Don't make excuses. God is not impressed with excuses. God wants us to take responsibility for what we have done or failed to do. 3) Don't attack those who confront you - they may be like Nathan and only have your best interests at heart.

And the do's: 1) Do recognize that when you sin, you sin not only against the people you have hurt, but ultimately you are sinning against the Lord. 2) Do ask for forgiveness. God loves us, and God would much rather forgive us than punish us. That is why Jesus died on the cross for our sins. 3) Do ask God to change you - from the inside out. True repentance always includes a change of heart and a change of behavior.

And the finally thing that we can learn from David is that forgiveness frees us to worship and praise God with joy rather than fear, with sincerity rather than uncertainty. As forgive people of God, let us also echo the words of Psalm 51 where David says, "Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise." Amen.