WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.480 All right, well, we're continuing in the Life of David series. 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:09.880 We've been looking at the story of David on Sunday nights, and we've come now to this 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:15.000 very famous story, this story that is the low point of David's life, and that's the story 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.640 of he and Bathsheba. 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:19.440 And there's a lot of text. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:20.679 We read a lot of text. 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:21.879 We didn't even read the whole story. 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:23.679 We left a little bit off at the end. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:24.920 It's very dense. 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:30.200 There's so many details that we cannot talk about tonight, because we don't have the time 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:34.280 to spend that we could on the fullness of all that's here. 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.520 But let's see three things that I think are really important. 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:40.240 The first is the fallen king. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:45.280 The second is the faithful servant, and finally the Passover. 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.000 So first, let's look at the fallen king. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.799 The writer of the book of Samuel, which was originally actually one book. 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.879 We split it into two just because of the way it was transmitted. 00:00:56.879 --> 00:01:02.319 But in the book of Samuel, the one writer, he's been setting all of us up for this story 00:01:02.319 --> 00:01:05.239 actually for a few chapters now. 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:09.840 And it's really clear to see the flow actually, even if you go back to first Samuel, you can 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.799 see how it's been coming to this moment. 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:16.479 Because in first Samuel, the contrast we constantly talked about when we were working through that 00:01:16.479 --> 00:01:21.280 section was the difference in David and Saul, and how God had chosen David and rejected 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:24.439 Saul, and it comes all throughout the stories. 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:27.799 Saul is tall, and David is short. 00:01:27.799 --> 00:01:32.519 And Saul is a visible man of power, and David's not. 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:37.879 And Saul is the people's choice, and David was the youngest of a family, and he was only 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:39.760 God's choice, and nobody else. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:45.040 So there's this constant antithesis, this constant balance between the power that people 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:48.400 want to grab for, and then the man that God chose. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:51.520 And he's a commoner, and he's low, and he's small. 00:01:51.520 --> 00:01:54.440 And he's not the man that you would think would be the king. 00:01:54.440 --> 00:01:59.280 And that means that there's a principle that starts to shine through the story of Samuel, 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:01.440 the book of Samuel, the story of David. 00:02:01.440 --> 00:02:09.719 And that's that in the Bible, ideally, God's king always comes to take on servant form. 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:15.400 That a true covenant king, the type of king that God wants to be on the throne for his 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:22.439 people is going to be a man clothed in humility, and not really one that fits the power structures, 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:27.879 the way the world understands power, and the way that the pagan peoples understand power. 00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:30.560 That true strength is actually humility for a king. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:34.840 And that shines through the entire narrative, and then you get to 2 Samuel, and right before 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:40.040 2 Samuel 11, there's 2 Samuel 10, and 9, 8, 7. 00:02:40.040 --> 00:02:41.040 All the way back to 7. 00:02:41.040 --> 00:02:43.360 7 to 10, they come before 11. 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:51.520 That's basic math, and that's important, because when you go back to 7 to 10, you'll 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:55.440 remember that when we looked at 2 Samuel 7, it was all about God coming down and making 00:02:55.440 --> 00:02:56.440 a covenant with David. 00:02:56.440 --> 00:03:01.000 And David said, God said, David, I'm going to make your house eternal. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.360 There will always be one of your sons on the throne. 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:11.240 And that, we said, was the great display of God's love for human beings and for David 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:16.120 in particular, and the word that we latched onto that week that we looked at it was the 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:24.360 word in Hebrew, hessed, God's unique covenant love for sinful people. 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:31.879 And in 2 Samuel 9, right after the covenant story, 2 Samuel 9, what Derek looked at last 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:39.480 week, verses 1 to 3, we learned that David showed, quote, kindness, the word there, hessed 00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:41.439 to Mephibosheth. 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:47.519 And 2 Samuel 10, if you look at just the first couple verses, it says, David said, verse 00:03:47.519 --> 00:03:51.759 2, I will deal loyally, and I don't know why they translate it like that, because it's 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:52.759 hessed. 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:59.039 I will deal with covenant love with Hanun, the son of Nahesh. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:04.919 You see, 2 Samuel 9 and 10, David turns and he looks like God. 00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:09.959 God made the covenant, God said, this is my hessed, my covenant love for you, David. 00:04:09.959 --> 00:04:14.359 David, the next two stories turns around and says, well, let me pour that forth. 00:04:14.359 --> 00:04:16.800 Let me show my hessed, because I want to be like God. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:18.479 I want to be the covenant king. 00:04:18.479 --> 00:04:22.159 I want to look like the God who made me covenant king. 00:04:22.159 --> 00:04:26.959 And so David displays covenant love, and then you flip the page, and you've got chapter 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:28.199 11. 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:34.360 And that means that chapter 11, the story of David and Bathsheba, is David's false story. 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:41.360 The false stories are actually a consistent storyline that runs throughout the Bible. 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:47.199 Every time there's a covenant in the Bible, there's a false story pretty soon after it. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:51.720 And that is a mimic, in other words, of Genesis 1 to 3, when God comes and he makes a covenant 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:56.520 with humanity, Adam and Eve, and then we've got Genesis 3, the false story. 00:04:56.520 --> 00:04:58.000 And that happens over and over again. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:03.000 Remember Noah, God comes and makes a covenant with Noah, and then all of a sudden Noah's 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.120 nakedness is exposed. 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:06.620 He falls. 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:09.000 And who else's nakedness was exposed? 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:10.000 Adam and Eve. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:11.399 Genesis 3 all over again. 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:15.360 And you come to Abraham, and Abraham gets a covenant, and he's told, you're going to 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:19.240 be the great man, the man who's going to bring redemption to the world. 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:27.079 And Abraham goes and gives his wife, the woman who's going to bring forth hope to two pagan 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:28.079 kings. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:30.920 He literally gives his wife to them. 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:34.360 And you know who else gave his wife to an evil king? 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:36.360 Adam, in the Garden of Eden. 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:39.720 He let her die under the temptation of Satan. 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:46.040 And you see, every time there's a covenant, there's a false story that follows after that. 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.560 And this is David's false story, and it's got many layers. 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.560 And I just want to show you two of them in this first point. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:56.560 And this is our longer point, and then we'll have two very brief points, points two and 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:57.560 three. 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:02.800 There's lots of layers to the sin here, because sin is complex. 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:05.000 And that's one of the underlying ideas of the passage. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:06.079 It's deep. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:07.079 Sin goes all the way down. 00:06:07.079 --> 00:06:08.720 And so let me show you two things here. 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:14.399 The first is actually in the very first few verses of chapter 11, verses two to five. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:16.439 And it's all about the verbs. 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:17.439 Okay. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:24.519 And you see, David is laying on his couch on his roof of the palace, and he sees Bathsheba 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:27.160 on another roof, bathing. 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:35.080 And the verbs, it says, are he sees her, and then it said that he thought she was beautiful, 00:06:35.080 --> 00:06:39.600 but actually the Hebrew word there is the word good. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:44.000 It says literally he saw that she was good. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.800 And then it says, so he took her. 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:53.200 And these are the same three verbs in order that show up in Genesis chapter three, when 00:06:53.199 --> 00:07:00.719 it says Eve saw and she said it was good, quote, the text translated, a delight to the 00:07:00.719 --> 00:07:06.480 eyes, literally good to the eyes, the exact same phrase that David says of Bathsheba. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:11.599 And so Eve took and she gave to Adam and he took. 00:07:11.599 --> 00:07:18.680 And there's the exact same three verbs in order that appear here as David sees that 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:22.519 she is good for the taking and so he takes. 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:27.519 And this is what Walter Bruggeman, one famous Old Testament commentator says, the action 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:31.959 is quick, the verbs rush as the passion of David rushed. 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:35.439 The royal deed of self-indulgence does not take long. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:37.639 The action is so stark. 00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:39.359 There's no conversation. 00:07:39.359 --> 00:07:42.719 There's no hint of caring or affection or love. 00:07:42.719 --> 00:07:44.799 There's only lust. 00:07:44.799 --> 00:07:46.359 David does not call her by name. 00:07:46.359 --> 00:07:48.479 He doesn't speak to her. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:54.080 At the end of the encounter, she is only, quote, verse five, the woman. 00:07:54.080 --> 00:07:57.879 But the telling verb is that he took. 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:04.319 And Bruggeman notes that it reminds us of when a certain someone took and ate at the 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.160 very beginning of human history. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:12.640 And you see, what this is trying to say is David, David is just like Adam. 00:08:12.640 --> 00:08:15.560 And God came and made a covenant with Adam and God came and made a covenant with Noah 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:20.680 and Abraham and Moses and David and every single one of them did the same thing. 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:26.480 They saw what was evil and they called it good and they took and they ate of it. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:28.720 And that's exactly how the text talks to us here. 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:33.440 You see, at the end, we're told in verse five that she is, quote, the woman. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:37.480 And Nathan comes in the very next chapter and says, and you are the man. 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:40.840 And that's exactly the same thing that God says to Adam and Eve. 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:42.080 You are the man. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:43.279 You are the woman. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:46.399 Man and woman from the very beginning of time, it's the same story. 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:53.079 And so the point that the writer is trying to subtly help us to see through those hints, 00:08:53.079 --> 00:08:56.600 because in Israelite, a Hebrew reader would have seen these things. 00:08:56.600 --> 00:09:01.959 They would have connected the dots back to Genesis three very easily in their own time. 00:09:01.959 --> 00:09:09.240 And the covetousness that begins this sin pattern, the lust, the adultery, and what 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:11.720 I think is also rape here. 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:15.160 All of it is set by the writer in a context. 00:09:15.160 --> 00:09:21.160 And that context is David is the failed covenant king. 00:09:21.160 --> 00:09:28.120 He looked like God's hesed and now he looks like Adam in the garden. 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:30.560 He's failed just like Adam did all over again. 00:09:30.560 --> 00:09:32.720 There's no hope in David. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:34.720 He's a failed covenant king. 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:38.200 And this is highlighted especially in verse one. 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:42.680 In verse one it says, this is the time when kings go out to battle. 00:09:42.680 --> 00:09:43.680 Kings go out to war. 00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:44.680 That's springtime. 00:09:44.680 --> 00:09:48.120 That's the normal time when wars would be raged in the ancient Near East. 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:50.480 The best time to go out and fight. 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:54.600 And then the very next verse, David is laying on his couch on his roof. 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:57.920 So in the season that kings go out to war, where's David? 00:09:57.920 --> 00:10:00.000 He's laying on the couch. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:01.000 And you see what it's saying? 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:07.480 It's saying, David, the real, the sin, the contextual sin that underlies the whole pattern 00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:11.279 of sins here is abdication. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:13.879 It's the failure of being the king. 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:17.879 It's the failure of what a true covenant king should really look like. 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:23.159 It's trying to scream at us, you should be hoping and longing for a different king than 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:26.560 what this king is, King David here. 00:10:26.560 --> 00:10:27.560 And the Israelites knew it. 00:10:27.560 --> 00:10:32.399 The Israelites knew that actually at the very beginning of time, Adam was called to be king, 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:38.559 but he was God's royal steward of creation, and that part of his kingship was to guard 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:42.159 and to protect his wife, Eve. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:47.600 And here we've got a story all over again where passivity is the great issue that the 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:48.759 man called to be king. 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:54.279 The man called to guard and to protect God's true woman, who is all Israel, has now the 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:58.279 man who's laying on his couch on the roof in the time of war. 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:03.199 He's failed covenant kingship and it's produced a situation where there's a whole string of 00:11:03.199 --> 00:11:07.360 sins that follow on, he's failed his office. 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:12.480 Now the second layer of the sin, to just highlight it a little more, and we'll come back in just 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:16.159 a moment to the murder of Uriah and the other men. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:21.720 But the real key to understand what's going on in this passage is when Nathan comes to 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:23.039 David in chapter 12. 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:27.559 And the reason we know it's the key is because it says that this is what the Lord said to 00:11:27.559 --> 00:11:29.159 say to David. 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:32.159 And so when Nathan speaks, it's the Lord's mouth. 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:36.119 And so this is what the Lord, how the Lord interprets the sin. 00:11:36.119 --> 00:11:38.479 It's through this parable. 00:11:38.479 --> 00:11:44.799 Now when Nathan comes to David, it looks like a parable at first, almost like you're supposed 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:49.399 to take all the characters and map them out onto the situation. 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:54.799 You've got the rich man and the poor man, the Ulam and the traveler. 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:57.679 But if you try to do that, it doesn't actually really work very well. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:01.599 And one of the reasons for that is because this isn't technically a parable. 00:12:01.599 --> 00:12:04.559 Instead what it is is a judicial case. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:09.359 And the reason for this is because David is the king in the ancient Near East. 00:12:09.359 --> 00:12:13.779 And as a king in the ancient Near East, you are also the judge. 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:17.599 So all the cases, we see this all across the Bible. 00:12:17.599 --> 00:12:23.159 When there's a case, a prophet or a middle man in the kingdom comes and brings it to 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:24.159 the king. 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:26.079 And the king has to be the judge. 00:12:26.079 --> 00:12:28.360 He has to decide what's going to happen. 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:33.439 We see this in the Solomon story in just a few chapters later on down the road in First 00:12:33.439 --> 00:12:34.439 Kings. 00:12:34.439 --> 00:12:36.839 And that's what's happening here. 00:12:36.839 --> 00:12:40.120 David, Nathan is bringing a case to David. 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:46.039 David literally thinks that he's sitting on the judicial seat trying a case that had really 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:47.959 happened in his kingdom. 00:12:47.959 --> 00:12:49.120 It's not a parable. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:50.879 It's a case study. 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:53.759 And so this is the details of the case. 00:12:53.759 --> 00:13:00.439 And it says this, the traveler has come for the feast and there's a rich man and a poor 00:13:00.439 --> 00:13:01.439 man. 00:13:01.439 --> 00:13:06.840 And when a traveler comes into a city, the wealthiest man in the ancient world is expected 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:10.080 to show that traveler hospitality. 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:15.480 And so the rich man in this situation is being coerced essentially by custom and tradition 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:17.960 that he must host the traveler. 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:24.240 And so when it comes time to host the traveler, the rich man will not lose his possessions. 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:29.240 So the rich man says, look, if I'm going to have to host a banquet and be hospitaled 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:33.600 with this guy, I'm not using my stuff for this. 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:39.000 I'm not using my, he doesn't want to give himself or his possessions. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:46.200 And so he goes to this poor man and he takes away what we're called as the poor man's beloved. 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:53.040 And it's a little bit of Ulam and it's not just a Ulam, it's a female Ulam, we're told. 00:13:53.040 --> 00:13:58.080 And it's so important to him that the poor man calls it his daughter. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:03.840 So he calls this little lamb like his own daughter, but the rich man takes this man's 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:10.640 daughter and slaughters her because he's not willing to give his own self away. 00:14:10.640 --> 00:14:13.440 He's not willing to give his possessions away. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:20.520 And you see what it's saying, it's saying that the rich man is selfish and power hungry. 00:14:20.520 --> 00:14:24.640 And he breaks the back of the poor. 00:14:24.640 --> 00:14:32.920 And the key, the key in all of it is that the poor man's little daughter, this lamb, 00:14:32.920 --> 00:14:38.960 she stands not just for Bathsheba, she stands actually here for all of Israel. 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:44.639 And it's saying that in other words, the sin underneath all the sins, underneath the covetousness, 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:52.240 lust, rape, murder, and multiple homicide is that David is selfish and power hungry and 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:58.120 has essentially abdicated his office, that he doesn't look like a true king. 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:02.720 And the reason that we know that this little Ulam stands in for all of Israel is because 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.519 Bathsheba stands in for all of Israel. 00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:13.360 You see the name Bathsheba, Bath in Hebrew means daughter, and Sheba in Hebrew means 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:14.799 oath or covenant. 00:15:14.799 --> 00:15:16.840 It's another word for covenant. 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:22.559 And you see Bathsheba's name is daughter of the covenant. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:28.519 And so God is coming and saying, David, you're like a rich man that went to a poor man and 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:31.840 you slaughtered the daughter of the covenant. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:32.840 Who is that? 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:35.840 And God is saying, it's my people. 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:37.340 You've abdicated. 00:15:37.340 --> 00:15:44.620 When you raped Bathsheba and you murdered my men, it's like you killed the entirety of 00:15:44.620 --> 00:15:47.759 Israel in your power hunger. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:52.540 And the point here is that David now has become a pagan king. 00:15:52.540 --> 00:15:53.620 It's all topsy-turvy. 00:15:53.620 --> 00:15:55.320 He was called to be the covenant king. 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:57.720 Now he's the pagan king. 00:15:57.720 --> 00:15:59.300 And he's got an idolatry of power. 00:15:59.300 --> 00:16:00.920 He looks like the kings of the nations. 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:04.279 He'll sleep with who he wants to, he'll kill who he wants to. 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:06.439 He's completely upside down. 00:16:06.439 --> 00:16:13.559 And God says, God is saying in this parable, this case, that a true king, a true king, 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:20.759 a true rich man would protect, not abuse the daughter, the daughters of my people. 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:22.879 That's what God is saying. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:27.899 And that means that the sin that undergirds all this is pride, selfishness, and idolatry 00:16:27.899 --> 00:16:30.959 of power and the abuse of kingship. 00:16:30.959 --> 00:16:37.879 Now the final proof, before we move on to two very brief points, it's this, Joab's 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:44.639 letter, David, remember, sends Uriah with his own death certificate to Joab. 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:47.360 And Joab actually changes the game plan. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:52.439 He realizes that if I just pull the men back off the front line, that all these men are 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:58.080 going to know that there was a plan to kill Uriah, and David's going to get caught. 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:03.600 And so instead he sends Uriah with a group of men up to siege a castle wall. 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:07.799 And anybody who does that on the front line is going to be the first to die. 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:12.360 And so actually it's not just Uriah that dies, but a whole host of Israel's men that 00:17:12.360 --> 00:17:13.360 die. 00:17:13.360 --> 00:17:14.360 It's multiple homicide. 00:17:14.360 --> 00:17:16.759 Many murders happen at David's hand here. 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:22.680 And Joab sends a letter back, and in the letter we learn that David's policy was to 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:27.400 never risk the lives of men needlessly. 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:30.319 And David responds by saying, it's okay. 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:33.240 Tell Joab, look, it's war. 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:34.480 It happens. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:35.480 People die. 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:36.599 Don't worry about it. 00:17:36.599 --> 00:17:38.240 Somebody's got to siege the wall. 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:40.920 Somebody's got to die. 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:43.480 And do you see the irony in the point? 00:17:43.480 --> 00:17:53.279 It's this that true kingship, true covenant kingship, is when the king would give his 00:17:53.279 --> 00:18:01.319 life and his stuff to save and to protect the many. 00:18:01.319 --> 00:18:09.240 And David has become a man where the many will give their lives to protect the one. 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:11.400 And it's completely topsy turvy. 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.560 The covenant king has become a pagan king. 00:18:14.560 --> 00:18:16.560 Everything's been flipped on its head. 00:18:16.560 --> 00:18:25.560 And the Bible is screaming here, I think, God's people, God's people need a king who 00:18:25.560 --> 00:18:32.240 would give himself for them and not them for himself. 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:37.120 Now a brief application about that, about this. 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:42.279 David, this man, this is the man who had hesed love, who had covenant love. 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:45.519 And this is the man who wrote most of the Psalms. 00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:50.559 And this is the man who meant what he wrote in the Psalms. 00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:58.079 And that is a call to each of us tonight to realize the power of sin. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:02.919 And we learn here that sin can get ahold of you. 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:13.400 And it can take pride and selfishness and turn it into covetousness, lust, rape, murder. 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:18.720 And if you come to a passage like this tonight and you say, look, this shocks me, how could 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:24.000 David, the writer of all the Psalms, and the man of hesed love in the previous chapters, 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:25.960 become this man? 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:30.519 And look, let me just gently say that all of us need to hear this. 00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:35.440 If that's you, if you're saying, you know, this is shocking to me, then that's a modern, 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:37.480 that's a modern way of thinking. 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:44.960 It's a way of saying there are 99% good people in the world and 1% really bad people. 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:49.559 And those people do the rapes and the murders and everybody else are basically okay. 00:19:49.559 --> 00:19:52.200 And the Bible comes and says, no, no, no. 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:58.700 And if anything, the 20th century has shown us that civilized, well-educated people can 00:19:58.700 --> 00:20:01.440 pour the most blood of anybody. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:06.039 And Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his great three volume, the Gulag Archipelago, he said it 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:11.519 in the introduction so well that the fallacy of the modern mind is to say this, it can't 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:16.160 happen here, it can't happen to me. 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:19.920 And that's what they said in the Jim Crow South and in Nazi Germany and all of their 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:23.440 places in the Gulags before they happen. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:29.600 And the Bible comes and it says, yes, the Bible comes and says, the Bible's coming 00:20:29.600 --> 00:20:34.120 tonight and saying, listen to John Owen, the great English Puritan. 00:20:34.120 --> 00:20:38.559 And this is what John Owen says, to put it in a brief, kill your sin before it kills 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:40.880 you. 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:46.080 And that's the application, kill your sin and face it and destroy the, ask yourself 00:20:46.080 --> 00:20:51.480 tonight, what are the little sins in my life that I tolerate? 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:57.400 Because it's much easier to put out a campfire than it is to put out a forest fire. 00:20:57.400 --> 00:21:01.240 And the second very quick thing, simply this, we need Nathan's. 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:03.000 We need Nathan's in our lives. 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:07.200 We need, you know, I think there's a call here for every single one of us to be a Nathan, 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:10.599 to somebody else and to search for a Nathan. 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:14.240 A person that will come to you and tell you, you've got to put this out before it gets 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:16.640 any worse. 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:19.079 We've got to have that spiritual friend in our lives. 00:21:19.079 --> 00:21:24.439 All right, second and very, very briefly, the faithful servant. 00:21:24.439 --> 00:21:27.759 There's another way to read this passage and that's to look at it through the lens of all 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:28.759 the little ironies. 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:29.759 And there's a ton of them. 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:35.679 And I can't mention them all now, but one of them that usually is not touched on is 00:21:35.679 --> 00:21:37.439 in verse four. 00:21:37.439 --> 00:21:42.480 It says that when David took Bathsheba, that she was in the time of her uncleanliness. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:46.240 This is ritual cleansing after her menstrual cycle. 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:49.120 And that's part of, that's mentioned for a very specific reason. 00:21:49.120 --> 00:21:51.359 It's mentioned to point out an irony. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:57.720 And the irony is that Bathsheba is ritually, ceremonially unclean before the temple, before 00:21:57.720 --> 00:21:58.920 the law. 00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:03.640 But David, David is the one who's morally unclean. 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:05.039 You see, it's pointing out a little irony. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:07.960 There's 10 of these throughout the passage that do it like that. 00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:11.759 But let me point out to you what I think is the one that is most important. 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:13.319 And it's in verse 11. 00:22:13.319 --> 00:22:21.359 And that's when David brings Uriah to himself and tries his best to get Uriah to go home 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:23.079 to lay with his wife. 00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:26.439 And this is what Uriah says in verse 11. 00:22:26.439 --> 00:22:32.599 He says, the ark in Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my Lord, Joab and the servants 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:34.879 of my Lord are camping in the open field. 00:22:34.879 --> 00:22:39.079 Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? 00:22:39.079 --> 00:22:42.480 As you live and as your soul lives, I will not. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:49.319 And you see, the great irony of the passage is Uriah is the servant of David, and David 00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:51.160 is the sovereign. 00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:53.599 And did you hear how he talked to David? 00:22:53.599 --> 00:23:00.799 He said, David, I swear by your life, I will not obey you. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:02.319 And Uriah knew it was up. 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:05.400 He knew a lot more than we, I think we think he knows here. 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:08.880 And he said, David, I don't care who you are. 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:13.680 The ark of God, the sacrament of God's presence is an exile. 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:16.800 I will not go feast. 00:23:16.800 --> 00:23:22.720 And the great irony of the passage is that Uriah, Uriah looks, well, he looks like a covenant 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:24.840 king. 00:23:24.840 --> 00:23:26.080 David looks like a pagan Uriah. 00:23:26.080 --> 00:23:28.520 It looks like what David should be. 00:23:28.520 --> 00:23:34.320 And it's even more because if you think back to 2 Samuel 7, you might remember, David says 00:23:34.320 --> 00:23:38.720 to God, God, I'm going to build a house for you, a palace, a temple for you. 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:41.279 And God says, no, you won't. 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:45.839 And God says, the reason that you cannot build a temple for me, the reason I've never asked 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:50.799 anybody to build a temple for me is he says, my people have always been in exile. 00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:51.799 Remember this line? 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:54.000 They've always been out in tents. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:59.799 And God says, I will not dwell in a palace while my people are living in tents. 00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:05.120 And we learn there that God's covenant love means God's covenant presence, where God says, 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:09.679 look, if my people are poor, I'm poor, I'm with them. 00:24:09.679 --> 00:24:11.759 And what does Uriah say to David? 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:18.799 David says, the ark of the covenants in a tent, David, God is in exile with the people. 00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:23.559 And the people are in exile and you want me to go feast? 00:24:23.559 --> 00:24:27.039 And you see, the great irony is that's hested love. 00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:31.479 It's like Uriah understands the covenant love of God, the covenant presence of God. 00:24:31.479 --> 00:24:34.839 I won't do it while God's ark. 00:24:34.839 --> 00:24:38.799 The presence of God is not even in Jerusalem. 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:44.000 And look, there's a third level to the irony and this is the end of it. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.799 If you notice throughout the passage, Uriah is not just named Uriah. 00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:50.639 What is he called? 00:24:50.639 --> 00:24:54.679 Uriah the Hittite. 00:24:54.679 --> 00:24:56.480 And what is a Hittite? 00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:03.679 A Hittite is one of the nations that Joshua was sent to destroy. 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:09.320 Uriah is a part of one of the peoples, the pagan peoples that are idolaters in the land. 00:25:09.320 --> 00:25:15.840 And he, you see that, it's saying, David, the covenant king of Israel who God has said, 00:25:15.840 --> 00:25:17.640 your son will sit him out there forever. 00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:19.920 He looks like a pagan. 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:24.240 And this man who comes from pagans looks like the covenant king. 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:25.920 He's the true servant. 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:27.720 He's the true example. 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:35.480 And the passage is saying not only the people of God need a king who would give himself 00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:39.559 for the many and not the many for himself. 00:25:39.559 --> 00:25:46.839 And the people of God need the type of king that says, even if it costs me my life, I 00:25:46.839 --> 00:25:50.160 will not disobey. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:55.519 Even if the ark of God is in the wilderness, I'm going to the ark. 00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:57.360 He carried his own letter to the front line. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:58.719 He knew. 00:25:58.719 --> 00:26:00.279 He knew that David was up to something. 00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:03.399 He knew David was about to kill him, I think. 00:26:03.399 --> 00:26:09.519 And he said, David, I don't care if you're the king, you can kill me, but I'm not disobeying. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:12.039 And that's the nature of true kingship. 00:26:12.039 --> 00:26:17.139 Now thirdly and finally, and also very briefly, the very end of this passage, and we can only 00:26:17.139 --> 00:26:18.139 touch on it. 00:26:18.139 --> 00:26:22.799 There's so much here and we would need several sermons to unpack chapter 12. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:30.079 So, point three is the Passover and at the very end of this passage, after all of this, 00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:39.119 God comes to punish David and we learn that God goes for forgiveness. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:44.079 And if there's one thing that is scandalous in this passage to the Israelite reader, I 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:50.639 think it's actually this chapter, more than even the heinous sins of David. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:54.080 And that's because every single person who would have read this in the ancient world 00:26:54.080 --> 00:27:01.120 knew very well that the law says adultery and murder are capital crimes. 00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:06.160 And that goes from the top of the ladder all the way to the bottom in Israel's law. 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:11.160 And so when we come to chapter 12, we expect one thing and that's David has to die. 00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:14.240 He has to be punished unto death. 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:17.840 And that's the great scandal of the passage that after adultery and murder and multiple 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:21.240 murders, he should die and he doesn't. 00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:27.519 And David even says, you know, Nathan, the rich man, he needs to die. 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:30.519 He needs a four-fold punishment. 00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:33.759 And if you look closely through the text, you can see that God actually gives David 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:39.720 a four-fold curse, but he does not die. 00:27:39.720 --> 00:27:44.559 Now I just want to close by only touching on this. 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:51.839 And that's to say, it almost strikes our sense of justice to say, how could God let 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:56.319 him live after all this? 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:02.559 And there's a tension in the Old Testament that follows this, and that's when God forgives, 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:05.519 God is maximally glorified. 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:06.919 And we see it all over the Old Testament. 00:28:06.919 --> 00:28:09.759 He loves to forgive. 00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:17.680 And at the same time, the tension is that when God forgives, it's never costless, because 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:20.960 there's no such thing as costless forgiveness. 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:23.000 Costless forgiveness is oxymoronic. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:26.359 It doesn't work because it would not be justice. 00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:29.879 That justice always demands punishment. 00:28:29.879 --> 00:28:35.960 And so God loves to forgive all across the Old Testament radically, but that forgiveness 00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:37.160 is not costless. 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:39.160 It's costly. 00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:43.800 And every single person, even modern people who don't have a notion of justice that requires 00:28:43.800 --> 00:28:51.040 punishment for all sins, look, when you forgive somebody, if somebody sins against you and 00:28:51.040 --> 00:28:59.000 sins against you grievously, and you decide to forgive them, you know, it's never costless. 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:02.560 Forgiveness never just is this thing where, okay, it's fine. 00:29:02.560 --> 00:29:07.880 What happens to the sin whenever you forgive somebody of something they've done to you? 00:29:07.880 --> 00:29:09.640 You eat it. 00:29:09.640 --> 00:29:13.280 You swallow it, and it burns as it goes down. 00:29:13.280 --> 00:29:16.320 It's like a little death inside of your stomach. 00:29:16.320 --> 00:29:19.360 And then you forgive them, but a death has occurred. 00:29:19.360 --> 00:29:23.240 And you've swallowed that death and taken that punishment onto yourself, and you're 00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:29.440 going to hold it, and it hurts, and it breaks you, but then you extend forgiveness. 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:33.440 And that's because sin always costs something. 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:39.840 Now Eugene Peterson points out about this passage, he says that this passage, when Nathan 00:29:39.840 --> 00:29:45.880 comes to accuse David, is like the inverse of another passage in the Bible. 00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:51.799 And that's when Pilate brings Jesus Christ before his courtroom. 00:29:51.799 --> 00:29:53.240 You just think about it. 00:29:53.240 --> 00:30:02.680 Nathan comes to the king who is now the judge, and this King, David, is sitting in the judge's 00:30:02.680 --> 00:30:04.720 seat. 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:09.920 And Nathan says, I know you're the judge, but you're the guilty. 00:30:09.920 --> 00:30:15.960 You should be sitting in the dock, not on the judge's bench. 00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:24.720 And in the New Testament, the king, who is the true judge of history, comes and stands 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:27.759 before a pagan judge. 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:32.759 And the pagan judge says, what did Nathan say? 00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:33.759 He said, you're the man, and what does Pilate say? 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.160 He says, behold, the man. 00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:44.680 And Jesus sits on the dock, the man who deserves to be the judge, who is the king. 00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:48.519 He sits in the dock, accused while innocent. 00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:54.039 David sits in the judge's seat, guilty, and he's the man. 00:30:54.039 --> 00:30:58.000 And look, it's all upside down. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:04.359 History is upside down, just like David's kingship is upside down. 00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:12.079 And you can ask, how could God come here and do this and forgive this man? 00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:19.639 And the answer is that the son, David's great son, Jesus Christ, the true judge and king, 00:31:19.640 --> 00:31:26.480 he stood before Pontius Pilate, accused while innocent, and he swallowed in his death his 00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:32.120 grandfathers covenant, covetousness, lust, rape, and murder. 00:31:32.120 --> 00:31:33.520 He swallowed it. 00:31:33.520 --> 00:31:37.040 He went to the cross and he ate it. 00:31:37.040 --> 00:31:39.680 And he did it all for David. 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:46.160 And David is passed over here because of his own son's death. 00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:58.920 And that kind of forgiveness for sins that are that grievous, you can be forgiven and 00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:08.720 are forgiven in Jesus Christ by the very same gospel that can save David from that. 00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:17.759 And Jesus Christ, you see, is the king we didn't deserve who eats the justice that we did deserve. 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:21.120 And let me just close by saying two things in just a couple sentences. 00:32:21.120 --> 00:32:28.279 And one is this, Peter in Acts chapter two comes and says to the world, you crucified 00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:29.279 him. 00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:32.799 And Peter wasn't just talking to the people that really nailed him. 00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:38.960 Peter comes and says, all of you, if you can hear me in all of history, you crucified him. 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:45.599 And you know, the reason David is saved is because of the gospel and because he repented. 00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:53.000 And Peter comes and says that true faith and repentance gets very personal. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:33:01.159 It comes and says, I actually recognize that I put him on the cross. 00:33:01.160 --> 00:33:04.120 That's true repentance is that existential. 00:33:04.120 --> 00:33:07.960 It's to say, my sins put him there. 00:33:07.960 --> 00:33:12.680 And David had to say, my sins are going to put him there. 00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:16.880 The grandson that he knew was coming, but he didn't know how. 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:18.759 That's the nature of true repentance. 00:33:18.759 --> 00:33:22.720 And exactly what happened to David here is what can happen to us. 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:29.800 And that's that David gets up and he puts on new clothes and he enters into the presence 00:33:29.800 --> 00:33:30.800 of God. 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:34.639 He puts on a new robe of righteousness and he goes and stands before the presence of 00:33:34.639 --> 00:33:39.879 God, the one whom he should have died before, and then he eats a meal. 00:33:39.879 --> 00:33:42.279 And it sounds a lot like the New Testament. 00:33:42.279 --> 00:33:46.119 You put on a robe of righteousness, you come into the presence of God and he breaks bread 00:33:46.119 --> 00:33:47.639 with you. 00:33:47.639 --> 00:33:49.119 And that's the power of repentance. 00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:56.720 And lastly, and the last word is this, just listen to the power of Christ's cross here. 00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:04.279 Listen, whatever you've done in your life, whatever you've done in your life, David was 00:34:04.279 --> 00:34:07.799 worse. 00:34:07.799 --> 00:34:11.559 It's probably not like this. 00:34:11.559 --> 00:34:17.159 And you've got to see in that how far God will go to forgive you. 00:34:17.159 --> 00:34:19.960 And I'll just give the Westminster Confession the last word. 00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.599 This is a paraphrase from our confession. 00:34:22.599 --> 00:34:28.559 And this is what it says, every sin, even so small, deserves judgment. 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:38.319 But there is no sin so great that it can bring ultimate judgment upon those who truly repent. 00:34:38.319 --> 00:34:43.719 There's no sin so great that can bring ultimate judgment upon you if you repent. 00:34:43.719 --> 00:34:48.519 And so that's an invitation to kneel before the cross of Christ. 00:34:48.519 --> 00:34:49.519 Let's pray. 00:34:49.519 --> 00:34:56.480 And we ask that you would help us to see that when Nathan says you are the man, that that's 00:34:56.480 --> 00:34:58.679 me and that's us. 00:34:58.679 --> 00:35:07.519 And so we cast our covetousness and our lust and our greed and our anger. 00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:13.440 And you say, Lord, that wanting to kill our brothers and sisters in the heart is equal 00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:15.960 to killing. 00:35:15.960 --> 00:35:16.960 It's great sin. 00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:20.880 We take it all and we put it before your feet, Christ. 00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:23.720 And we give thanks that Jesus, you died for those sins. 00:35:23.720 --> 00:35:29.400 And so we know that because you deserve to live, you rose from the dead and that those 00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:34.240 sins have been buried forever, cast as far as the east is from the west. 00:35:34.240 --> 00:35:40.240 We ask tonight, Lord, that you would help us to lean in and believe and that we would 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:48.599 know the personal cost of death to the Son of God, that it was truly for me, for us, 00:35:48.599 --> 00:35:51.799 for David, that we could say that in our hearts tonight. 00:35:51.799 --> 00:35:52.959 We pray for that spirit. 00:35:52.960 --> 00:36:11.639 In Jesus' name, amen.