Bible Study - GOD'S Own Heart (5) - Honor Marriage - Exodus 20:14; 2 Samuel 11:1-5 - October 4, 2020

 

Bible Study – GOD’S Own Heart (5) – Honor Marriage – October 4, 2020

This is lesson five (5) in our series entitled “After GOD’S Own Heart: A Fresh Look at the Ten Commandments.”

Our focus scripture is Exodus 20:14; 2 Samuel 11:1-5.

Physical intimacy is reserved for one man and woman within the covenant of marriage.

King David “A man after GOD’S own heart.” Spirit-born Christian man or woman NEVER think that sexual sin cannot happen to you. If you do, then you are most vulnerable. Mid-life crisis has brought many Christians down, including pastors, deacons, Bible teachers, etc. Will GOD forgive when confessed? Yes, but the scar will last a lifetime as well as the consequence of sin.

A former pastor/counselor realized that he was experiencing symptoms of mid-life crisis. He went home that day and he told his wife what was happening and asked her to be at his side as he went through this time in his life. It is very wise to let your spouse know when your mind begins to entertain thoughts contrary to your GODLY thoughts.

JESUS took adultery to another level as recorded in Matthew 5:27-28:

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery.^[k] 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

In today’s world this would include same sex lusting and other deviations. The point being anything that comes between you and GOD is sin. The lust of the flesh is real and must be brought under the authority of GOD, as a Christian. It may take time and the person facing such needs to have much prayer and counsel.

Let’s explore!

Let’s read Exodus 20:14:

¹⁴ Do not commit adultery.

GOD does not want any barriers between HIM and HIS Child or Children. When we choose to have a relationship outside of marriage, it becomes a barrier. Why? It is because the flesh is ruling our lives.

Once, we realize that fellowship with GOD has been broken, then we are to confess it and ask for forgiveness. But by the time we come to that realization, much damage may have been done. With GOD’S help, we can attempt to put the pieces together.

In our lesson this week, we get to see David, a man after GOD’S own heart, let the lust of the flesh lead him into sin. David had a number of wives. Some Bible scholars say he did not have concubines, others say he did. The point being he had opportunities for sex but ----

Let’s read 2 Samuel 11:1-3a:

11 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab (David’s nephew) and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

I can only speculate but here is an “I think.” King David should have been going out with his troops to battle but he stayed home. HUM!!! Had he already devised a plan? Did he know that his prize warrior, Uriah, lived in the house that he could see from his roof top? I think so. Had David been watching a beautiful woman on the roof top. So, did he develop his plan. I will send my troops out in the spring as normal but I will hang back and invite this beautiful neighbor over for a social visit when her husband is off to war. Do I know that for certain, no!

² Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. ³ So David sent and inquired about the woman.

Lust of the flesh took over when David “arose from his bed and walked out on the roof” and he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” David went to the next level, he “sent and inquired about the woman.”

Let’s read 2 Samuel 11:3b-5:

3b. And someone said, “Is this not ^[a]Bathsheba, the daughter of ^[b]Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” ⁴ Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. ⁵ And the woman conceived; so, she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”

Oh my! A person would not refuse the invitation of the king to come visit him. We read that the messengers David sent “took her.” The words give the impression she was reluctant to go but when the king asks, it is a command performance.

Their first encounter was driven by the lust of David’s flesh but there are consequences. In this event, it was that Bathsheba got pregnant. How did she know it was David’s child? The reason she was bathing was that she had completed her monthly cycle. Coaches tell male players not to have sex before a big game. Uriah was going to war and he was a dedicated soldier and wanted to be fit and ready for battle.

This was an “Oh my” moment for David.

Let’s go to the scripture to see what sin can lead one to do as we read on --------

Let’s read 2 Samuel 5-27:

⁶ Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. ⁸ And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So, Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” (Uriah was a loyal soldier or was Uriah tipped off that his wife had visited the king? The walls talk.)

¹¹ And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”

¹² Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So, Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵ And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the ^[c]hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” ¹⁶ So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷ Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, ¹⁹ and charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, ²⁰ if it happens that the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you: ‘Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? ²¹ Who struck Abimelech the son of ^[d]Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

²² So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him. ²³ And the messenger said to David, “Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”

²⁵ Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing ^[e]displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So, encourage him.”

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. ²⁷ And when her 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^[f] the Lord.

Okay, all is well that ends well or does it? Did King David think “Wow, I escaped an embarrassing moment as king.” Or did he?

David discovered that GOD knows all that goes on around us as well as in our hearts. GOD could have intervened but HE allows us to go through the things of life to teach us and for us and others to learn the consequences for our actions.

So how did GOD expose David’s deed? Let’s read the rest of the story as recorded in 2 Samuel 12:

12 So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him:

There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had very large flocks and herds, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. ⁴ Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.^[a]

⁵ David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶ Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”

⁷ Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul. ⁸ I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms,^[b] and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. ⁹ Why then have you despised the Lord’s command by doing what I consider^[c] evil? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. ¹⁰ Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.’

¹¹ “This is what the Lord says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another^[d] before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them in broad daylight.^[e] 12 You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’”^[f]

¹³ David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Then Nathan replied to David, “And the Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die. ¹⁴ However, because you treated^[g] the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went home.

David repented for his sin, as expressed in Psalm 51 and his expression of thanksgiving for his forgiveness was expressed in Psalm 32. Yes, GOD’S chosen can sin mightily. Where does sin take its root? Sin begins in our thought life, in our hearts and minds as recorded in Matthew 5:27-28, Proverbs 23:7 and faithfulness and purity also begin in our hearts as well as recorded in Matthew 5:8. Dwell upon the things that are pure and seek the power from the LORD to overcome the desires of the heart.

The Death of Bathsheba’s Son

The Lord struck the baby that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became deathly ill. ¹⁶ David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground. ¹⁷ The elders of his house stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.

¹⁸ On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”

¹⁹ When David saw that his servants were whispering to each other, he guessed that the baby was dead. So, he asked his servants, “Is the baby dead?”

“He is dead,” they replied.

²⁰ Then David got up from the ground. He washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes, went to the Lord’s house, and worshiped. Then he went home and requested something to eat. So, they served him food, and he ate.

²¹ His servants asked him, “Why have you done this? While the baby was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate food.”

²² He answered, “While the baby was alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let him live.’ ²³ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I’ll go to him, but he will never return to me.”

Sin has its consequences. This was the beginning of many consequences for David. GOD forgave David and blessed him and Bathsheba with Solomon. It is though the ancestral line of David that GOD sent JESUS to come to earth to live as HIS Only SON JESUS.

When you look at the human ancestral lineage of JESUS, HE was loaded with all sorts of ancestral baggage.

All of us are loaded with human and ancestral baggage that is why every person must be Spiritual born by GOD through faith in JESUS into GOD’S Family. It is GOD’S design for us to have a radicle makeover from the inside out. Ask JESUS to forgive you for your sins and for JESUS to come into your heart and create within you a new heart and to give you the strength to live in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Radical!

Blessings!!!