(Through The Bible) – 2 Samuel: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

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We could study Boaz and Ruth, which we looked at yesterday, as a picture of Christ redeeming us and making us His bride.

Now, all that is interesting, but I have not placed too much emphasis on it because the New Testament doesn’t give too much emphasis to that type of typology. A little bit is all right. Ultimately, God’s Word is given for our life and not for intellectual stimulation. It’s very important to remember that, that we can study the Bible like we study a book of chemistry, that’s not the way God wants us to study it. He wants us to study in a way that it applies to our life, that it equips us for better living and for more effective ministry. That’s what we must always keep in mind.

And we must set aside the temptation to be intellectually stimulated, because if we go into that line, gradually what will happen is, our ministry to people also will be just intellectual stimulation, and we’ll find people remain carnal, defeated by sin, even though they’re getting a lot of intellectual stimulation from Scriptures.

So let’s keep that in mind and let’s look at 2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 1.

Now, in chapter 1, we read of the death of Saul, and I want you to see something about David’s attitude when he hears about the death of Saul.

Now remember, Saul was David’s sworn enemy. More than once he tried to throw a javelin at him to kill him. He chased him all over the caves and villages of Israel to try and find him to kill him. More than once, David spared his life when Saul was at his mercy, asleep in a cave, and this is the man whom David now hears is dead. It’s something like you’re hearing that the man who was trying to kill you is finally dead. The man who once had an anointing but lost that anointing.

And it says here, a man came from the camp of Saul, (verse 2), and he told David, I have escaped, (verse 3), from the camp of Saul, and David said, ‘How do you know, (verse 5), that Saul and Jonathan are dead?’ And this man tells a lie.

Now we know that Saul committed suicide, that we already saw in 1 Samuel 31. But this man, in order to get some favor from David, tells him that I was the one who killed Saul. He says, by chance, (verse 6), I happened to be in Mount Gilboa, and Saul was leaning on his spear, and he asked me to kill him, (verse 9). He said, please stand beside me and kill me.

(Verse 10), so I stood beside him and killed him. And I took the crown and his bracelet and I brought it to you. And he expected David to say, wonderful.

But David took hold of his own clothes, (verse 11), and tore them. You see, that was the sign of weeping. When a man was in great sorrow, he would tear his clothes, and that’s what David did. And they mourned and wept and fasted from morning till evening for Saul.

And then David called this Amalekite and said to him, (verse 14), how is it that you were not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed? And David called one of the young men and said, kill him. And he killed him.

You see, David’s attitude there, and he said to him, ‘Your blood is on your head, because with your own mouth you said that you killed the Lord’s anointed.’

This is one of the things that made David a man after God’s own heart. He was a new covenant man in old covenant times. Jesus said, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hurt you and harm you, pray for them that persecute you, (Matthew 5:44) and David was one man who did it.

You see, just like I said the other day, you can be an old covenant Christian in this time, and in old covenant times there were a few men like Moses and David who lived by new covenant principles, and here was one of them. He did not hate his enemies, and particularly even if once upon a time that man was anointed, even if he has lost the anointing, he said, I will not touch him. Once his heart convicted him deeply when he even cut off a bit of Saul’s robe, and David wrote a lament, we read, and he lamented (verse 17) over Saul and Jonathan, his son, and he says such wonderful words in praise, sincerely from his heart, about a man who was a backslidden person who had lost the anointing and who had been chasing him all through his life.

Here is a lesson for us to learn, how a man of God should behave towards those who are evil towards him. And David says, (verse 19), your beauty, O Israel, is slain on your high places. And a number of times he says, how are the mighty fallen? (Verse 27)

(verse 25), how have the mighty fallen?

And he says, Jonathan — of course, Jonathan, to praise him is understandable, because Jonathan was a close friend of David’s, and he says, you have been very pleasant to me, but to praise Saul, and to call him a mighty man, and to praise him for the victories he won, and that they were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions, (verse 23), to appreciate the good that he saw in Saul, and not to speak evil. A tremendous example. There are very few people like that today, and that is why I say there are very few people who are men and women after God’s own heart.

Here is point number one that we can keep in mind. And it is such a man that God picked up and placed upon the throne of His kingdom, Israel.

Now I want you to notice here in CHAPTER 2, verse 1, it came about afterwards that David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?’

This was a habit with David. We saw that earlier when we looked at 1 Samuel 23, verse 2 and 4. We see that also in 1 Samuel 30, verse 8. Whenever he was going to battle, he said, ‘Lord, should I do this? Should I do it?’ You see it here.

You see it in 2 Sam 5, verse 19, when he goes into battle, he says, ‘Lord, shall I go up against the Philistines?’ A few days later, again he prays, another battle, 1 Sam 5:23, shall I go? And this time the Lord says, ‘Don’t go. You shall not go directly. Go behind them.’

You see, each time the Lord changed the strategy for the warfare. David was a man of war, but he got his strategy from God, and that is why he always won.

When there was a famine in the land, 2 Samuel 21:1, he again sought the Lord. There was one time when he didn’t seek the Lord, when he saw Bathsheba, he didn’t ask the Lord, ‘Lord, what shall I do?’ A warning for us.

One more time, in the last chapter of 2 Samuel 24, when he wanted to count the people to see how strong his army was, and he was depending on the strength of his army, and on the Lord, he did not seek the Lord. Joab, his commander in chief, said, don’t do it. But he didn’t seek the Lord, and that was another time that he sinned.

But whenever he sought the Lord, he said, Lord, what shall I do? And waited on Him, he always got an answer that protected him.

Here is another point. A man after God’s own heart, but his failures also encourage us, we say, there was a man who failed, and you and I have failed. If I tell you the failures I have had in my life, I’m not going to list all of them, I’ll have to take many sessions for that, it will encourage you to know that God doesn’t pick up people who never fail. We fail, we blunder, we do stupid things, but God is merciful to us.

And if you can finish with those stupid things in your younger days, at least if it becomes less, that you don’t do stupid things like some older people do, then that’s good. If you can learn lessons in your younger days, we are zealous in our youthful days, and we do things in a very unwise way, we speak in a very unwise way, but God is merciful.

And it’s a great encouragement to know that even people like David failed. But yet God calls him even in the New Testament, Acts chapter 13, a man after God’s own heart. That’s how Paul referred to him when he spoke about him.

So we see here that David inquired of the Lord, and each time the Lord told him where he should go, and this time the Lord told him to go to Hebron, and the men of Judah came there and anointed David king, 2 Sam 2:4, over the house of Judah.

Later on, he was anointed king over Israel also; we read in 2 Sam 5, verse 4 and 5, he was thirty years old. Perhaps he was seventeen or eighteen when he was anointed, but it took him twelve more years to actually become king. And another seven and a half years, before he ruled over all Israel, only the tribe of Judah accepted him initially.

So we see here that David was willing to wait patiently. Imagine, from the age of 17 to the age of 37 — twenty years before he became king over all Israel. And he recognized, as it says in chapter 5 and verse 12: David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel.

There were many times when David’s colleagues had told him, here is Saul at your mercy, kill him and take over the kingdom. One, God has anointed you. Second, the people are with you because you’re the great leader who killed Goliath. Take it.

And David said, no, I will not grab for myself. I will wait for God to give me in His own time.

Here’s another lesson. If you want to be a man after God’s own heart, or a woman after God’s own heart, learn not to grab. Jacob was a grabber, and as long as he was a grabber, he could not become Israel.

You see, a child comes into the world with its fists closed. Have you seen little children, small babies, you put your finger there, they’ll grab it. This is man’s nature: always grabbing. We spend our life grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, position, honor, money.

Jesus opened His palms on Calvary. That’s the example we are to follow, to yield. God will give us a ministry, a position, everything, if we wait for His time. And it’s far better to get it from God than having grabbed it ourselves. Jacob did not have to tell a lie and deceive his father Isaac to get the birthright. He could have waited. God would have given it to him, just like David.

It’s an expression of unbelief when I grab. Supposing you are attracted to some young man or young girl whom you feel you should marry. Here is a time when you can think, if I don’t get her quickly, somebody else will get her, or if I don’t get him quickly, somebody else will get him. That is unbelief. If you trust God, you won’t grab and say, Lord, what You have reserved for me, I will get. Nobody else will be able to get that person.

The ministry You have reserved for me in some part of the world, I will get. Learn to trust God and don’t complain about people. And if God makes you wait 20 years, wait. You’ll become a much better leader at the end of that. I told you yesterday how Saul never got this training of trial and running around trying to save his life like David had. That’s why he was a useless king.

Solomon never had that. People who are born into comfort and born into ease without trials and pressures, I feel sorry for you if your life is like that. If your parents have made life so easy for you that you’ve never faced any trials and pressures, you’ve not had spiritual battles, you’ve not faced rejection from people, you’re not fit to be a leader. You’ll be pretty useless.

It’s the one who has been through rejection, whom God has given a ministry is going to be a good king. That’s what we learn about David. Between Saul and Solomon, who were useless kings, stood David, a man after God’s own heart. So he waited for God to make him king.

But he made his mistakes in more ways than one. We read in chapter 3 and verse 2, sons were born to David at Hebron. His firstborn was through one wife and his second was through another wife. And the third was through another wife. And the fourth, (verse 4), was through another wife. And the fifth was through another wife, and the sixth, (verse 5), was through another wife. He’s a man after God’s own heart! He didn’t inquire of the Lord, shall I marry a second one? Shall I marry a third one? Shall I marry a fourth one? We can’t say it was like that in those days.

No, Isaac had only one wife, and that was long before David. Moses had only one wife, and that was long before David. We can’t say it was like that in those days. There were people who lived before David who had only one wife. As far as we know, Joshua had only one wife. Why should David have so many? Because that’s how the kings of the world were. God overlooked it.

Now, don’t think God overlooks it today. We are living in more light today. We are living under the new covenant. There are people who fall into adultery and say, well, David also fell. But that was old covenant. He did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. The Spirit of the Lord only rested upon David. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside, unlike Samson who had Him upon him.

So they could only have the Holy Spirit for ministry, but we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside like Jesus for character. So you cannot equate yourself, unless you have not received the Holy Spirit — you cannot equate yourself with David and Samson. No, I just mention that in passing, that there is where David made his mistake, and he suffered a lot because of these children that he had from so many wives.

And I want to turn to CHAPTER 4, VERSE 8. We see of a time when Ishbosheth, chapter 4, verse 1, Saul’s son, and somebody brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron and said, behold, the head of Ishbosheth. He was another man who thought he could get favor with David by killing one of Saul’s sons and said to him, thus the Lord has given my lord the king vengeance this day.

And David said, somebody once brought news to me, (verse 10), that Saul is dead and he thought he was bringing me good news and I seized him and killed him. And how much more when wicked men have killed a righteous man. And (verse 12), David commanded the young men and they killed that man too and cut off his hands and feet and hung him up.

You see, he’s steadfast there. He believed that vengeance belongs to God. And that’s a very important principle that you and I must remember. Revenge does not belong to us. Romans chapter 12:19 is very clear. ‘Vengeance belongs to Me’, says the Lord.

Now, what would you do if somebody fell down at your feet to worship you? You would do what Peter did. Lift him up and say, don’t worship me. Worship belongs to God.

Now, do you believe, that’s right — do you believe that just like worship belongs to God, vengeance also belongs to God? When you try to take revenge, it’s the same as accepting worship. No difference. Worship belongs to God; vengeance belongs to God. You have no right to take revenge on another person.

Whatever harm that person has done to you, leave it to God to deal with him in His own time. Never, never even desire evil towards that person. It’s a very important requirement.

As you serve the Lord in different places, in different ways, you will find many, many temptations to take revenge on people, even on other believers who try to destroy your ministry or speak evil of you.

You know, I’ve discovered one thing: You cannot serve the Lord in any effective way without having lots and lots of people speaking evil of you, speaking false stories about you, accusing you of teaching false doctrine and so many things. And if you try to take revenge on them, you’ll go astray. Leave them to God. They cannot destroy your ministry. Your ministry comes from heaven, and all the people accused Jesus, and they accused Paul of being false teachers and casting out demons with the prince of the devils and all that. Jesus never wasted His time answering them. Those who were to be led astray went astray, but those who did not listen to all them followed Jesus and got blessed. It’ll be like that.

So don’t worry about people who try to harm you, whether believers or unbelievers or anyone. Leave it to God to take vengeance on them. It’s very, very important. Most Christians don’t follow that. We read even in 1 Corinthians 6 of believers who take other believers to court. What for? To take revenge? What else? They are doing what God should be doing.

Has somebody done something wrong to you? Don’t you think God sees that? Don’t you think God can deal with that? That’s what David learned.

Now we turn to CHAPTER 6.

David had a great desire to bring the ark of God, (verse 2), up to Jerusalem, but he did not do it in God’s way. In the early chapters of Samuel, 1 Samuel 4, I think it is, we read that when the Philistines had captured the ark and they got into a lot of problems because of that, they put it on a bullock cart and sent it back.

And that news had spread around and David had heard it as a young man, that the Philistines sent the ark on a bullock cart. So he knew that the law of Moses said the ark must be carried by the Levites, the sons of Levi. And not only that, there was a law in Numbers 4, verse 15, which said that even the sons of Levi were not supposed to touch the ark. The ark was to be covered and there were poles. They were to carry it on poles. God was teaching them the sacredness of that, of His name, of His presence. They were not to touch it, that which is in the most holy place. This was a law.

But David said, well, that’s okay for short distances, but we got to go to long distance and I think the Philistine method is better: Put it on a bullock cart. And that’s what caused all the problems. That when they put it on the bullock cart and as they stumbled on the rough roads, the ark began to shake and Uzzah, one of the sons of Abinadab, reached out his hand, (verse 6), to hold the ark because the oxen nearly upset it and the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah and God struck him down there for his irreverence and he died there.

You see, he did it with a good motive. You can do things with a good motive, but if it’s a violation of God’s laws, you still suffer. Motive is not enough. Motive is very important. But it’s wrong to do a good thing with a bad motive, and it’s wrong to do a bad thing with a good motive. That’s also wrong.

And here was something God had forbidden. Whatever your reasons, if God has forbidden it, it’s forbidden. And that’s what Uzzah had to learn. First of all, he was not a Levite. Secondly, even those Levites were not supposed to touch the ark.

But who was the cause of all this? David. Because he followed this worldly method of a bullock cart instead of God’s method of carrying it on the shoulder. And you and I face that problem today in churches when we decide to spread the gospel, the question is, how are you going to do it? God’s way or man’s way? The Holy Spirit’s way or the multinational company’s way of advertising? Is your dependence on money or on the Holy Spirit?

Today a lot of people say, well, we don’t have money to do evangelism. What you should say is, we don’t have the Holy Spirit’s power. If you have the Holy Spirit’s power, whether you have money or not, God’s work will be done.

Companies in the world cannot survive without money; they can survive without the Holy Spirit. Every company in the world can survive — Pepsi, Coca-Cola — they all survive without the Holy Spirit. They can’t survive without money.

When the church comes to the place where we say, if we have money, we’ll go on, but we can go on without the Holy Spirit, the church has come to the level of these companies.

You read the Acts of the Apostles, then you find hardly any emphasis on money at all. Occasionally they would send money for the poor people, poor believers. That’s about all. They were not worried and praying to God for money, money, money, money, money all the time, like so many people do today. They were praying for the Holy Spirit all the time, and that’s the difference.

The methods of the world — the bullock cart — has replaced God’s method, and that’s why there’s death. That’s why there was death there, and there’s death in a lot of churches today. We need to listen to that. We need to understand what God is trying to say to us through this.

And that was a lesson that later on we read that David did it the proper way. In the rest of that chapter, he brought the ark finally on the shoulders of the Levites, and this time he was so full of happiness, CHAPTER 6, VERSE 14, he was dancing before the Lord with all his might. That was the way they expressed their worship and praise to God. They clapped, they raised their hands, they shouted, they danced, they used musical instruments, and they praised God with all their heart. David was a worshiper.

But it says here that as he was coming, his wife, (verse 16), the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw David dancing like this and was very upset, and she despised him in her heart. Despised an anointed servant of God who was worshipping in a way that she did not like.

There may be people worshipping God in a way that you don’t like. You don’t have to imitate them, but don’t despise them. The Bible never said that Michal also should start jumping and dancing. No, but she was not to despise another. Don’t think that the way you do it is right.

You see, this is the trouble with a lot of Christian groups. The way we do it is right. Everybody must do it the way we do it. You have some groups, when they have Sunday worship meeting, everybody sits quiet, like in a funeral service, and they worship the Lord. Okay?

I don’t want to do it that way. To me, Jesus has risen from the dead. For these people, He is still in the grave. So I don’t despise them. If they want to do it that way, let them do it.

Then there are other people who are the other extreme who, they say you shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and shout and then the Holy Spirit comes. Only then the Holy Spirit comes. The Holy Spirit doesn’t come when you raise the volume on your amplifier. I wish it were so easy, but it’s not so easy. You’ve got to have a clear conscience. Whether the amplifier inside your sound system inside or outside, the Holy Spirit is not dependent on these things.

But I don’t despise them. I say, brother, if you want to do it that way, do it. But leave me free to do it the way I want to do it. I say, if you want to raise your hands, raise your hands. I do it. If you want to clap, clap, I do it. But I’m not going to force you to do it. That’s the lesson we learn from here.

Don’t despise the way another person worships and don’t think the way you worship is the only right way. Give freedom. God looks at the heart. And so David wanted to dance, I say fine. Don’t despise the person who does it and don’t compel a person to do it. And the result was that when David says in (verse 20), look at this verse: David returned to bless his household. What a beautiful verse!

I wish servants of God, after they’ve gone out to ministry, and they’re tired, and particularly if you’ve danced a lot on the streets for many miles, you’re pretty tired, would come back to bless their homes. That’s how we should be. A man who wants to come to bless his home and unfortunately he’s got this nagging wife at home. As soon as he enters the door, she yells at him. Some servants of God have got wives like that, what to do? But he still comes to bless her and she treats him like that. And he says, that’s okay.

‘The Lord appointed me as ruler and I will celebrate before the Lord and I’m not going to listen to you, dear wife’ (verse 21), and the Lord judged Michal, (verse 23), that she never had any children.

In CHAPTER 7, we read about David’s desire to build a temple for the Lord. And I really see something wonderful there. His heart, nobody told him. He’s thought in his heart, see 2 Sam 7:2. I dwell in a beautiful house, but the ark of God is in tents.

Oh, I wish that there were many people like that. Lord, look at what a comfortable house I have built for myself. How much money I have spent on my house, my clothes, my food. And how little I have given for Your work. How little I’m concerned about Your work.

Today we know that God’s house is not a physical building, but God’s work requires money. And God is looking for people who say, Lord, I’ve spent so much on myself through these years. Can’t I spend a little bit for You? I’ve lived so many years doing things in the world, can’t I spend my life doing things for You?

In the world they work overtime, late through the night, to please their companies and to make profit for their companies. Can’t God’s servants work overtime? And they don’t get any extra pay for that. Can’t God’s servants work overtime without complaining?

David was a man after God’s own heart. He was concerned about God’s house. He says, Lord, look at my house and where’s Your house?

I want to say to you, my brothers and sisters, have that heart always till the end of your life, where you think about God’s house more than your house. God will take care of your house.

Many years ago I said to the Lord, I said, Lord, I have a house and You have a house. Give me grace to look after Your house and You look after mine. I made a little exchange with the Lord. And I want to say God’s been more faithful in looking after my house than I have been in looking after God’s.

But have a concern in your heart for God’s house. That’s the thing I’d like you to see.

But God said to him, no, you can’t build this house. That’s the reason he tells in 1 Chronicles 28 verse 3, that you have been a man of war and only a man of rest must build God’s house. There’s a principle there. A man of war cannot build God’s house. We have to go beyond the war to rest.

The war is necessary. David did his job by defeating the enemies, clearing the ground for Solomon, producing all the gold and silver required for the temple and giving it and Solomon built it. Can you do that? Can you do all the hard work and let somebody else get the honor for doing the work? Or do you want the honor yourself? David did not say, no, no, no, I want to build it.

Here is a man after God’s own heart who was willing to do all the work in the background to help it and make it easier for another man to build the church, build the house and get honor.

There’s a little verse in chapter 8 verse 15 which I want you to notice. It says here, David administered justice and righteousness for all his people. The Living Bible says he was fair to all the people, to everyone. A leader must be fair to everyone. That’s just in passing.

In CHAPTER 9 we see of his kindness to another son of descendant of Saul, a son of Jonathan called Mephibosheth. There was a son of Jonathan called Mephibosheth who was lame, being crippled and we see there David’s kindness to him and saying that Mephibosheth will, (verse 10), will eat at my table regularly. It’s a picture of grace.

Mephibosheth felt that now my grandfather is dead and he even said in (verse 8), I mean, what is your servant that you should regard a dead dog like me? He felt he was like a dead dog and David said, no, you’re not a dead dog. You’re going to sit at my table and eat with me. It’s a picture of grace, a picture of Christ lifting us up like we were like dead dogs, lifting us up and saying ‘you’re going to sit with Me at My table.’

Now we come to CHAPTER 11 where we find David’s great sin. There again we can learn some lessons to see how he fell. That first verse in chapter 11 is very, very important.

It happened in the spring. That means, you know, the kings did not go to battle in the winter when it was cold and raining. They went to battle in the springtime. And in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, every time when there was a battle, David led the armies of Israel. Kings used to lead the armies of Israel in those days. They used to go right out in front, not like today.

But this time, David decided to relax. You know, it’s when you stop fighting the battles that you start sinning. It’s when you are not in the place where God wants you to be that you fall into sin. David’s place was on the battlefield. Instead of being in the battlefield, he was sleeping in the palace.

If he was in the battlefield, this story would never have been there. It’s when you begin to relax because things have gone very well with you. And now you say, I send my juniors to do the Lord’s work. And I sit at home like the Maharaja who is sending the juniors to do the Lord’s work, the hard work in the fields. Those juniors will be all right. The Maharaja sitting at home is going to have problems.

You see, you’re not like that. Today you’re all juniors, most of you anyway, and you’re okay. But wait till the day comes when you think you have now become a little senior and you’re going to appoint all the juniors to do the work. I say, God, please save me from that day. I always want to be a junior till the end of my life.

I want to be out in the fields working for the Lord when I’m 85 years old. Sure. I want to be on the battlefield for the Lord right till the end of my life. And I hope you also want to be there, on the battlefield for the Lord. There’s no danger on the battlefield. The danger is in the palace.

David was perfectly safe as long as he was on the battlefield. He was in danger in the palace. It’s the opposite of what people think. People think the danger is in the battlefield. Physical danger, yes, but spiritual danger is more in the palace. It’s when you have comfort.

Think of the times, some of you who are older, when have you fallen into sin? Was it in the days of trial and pressure and sickness in your home and problems and financial difficulties? No. It’s when things became good and you had plenty of money and your business prospered and your work was okay and everything’s going well and nobody’s sick at home. That’s the time you sin. And that’s the time we must be more alert.

David stayed at home, stayed at Jerusalem, (verse 1). And not only stayed at Jerusalem, at least if he stayed at Jerusalem and he was like Moses, praying. Moses prayed when Joshua was fighting. If David had been praying for Joab, who was fighting in the battle, then at least he would have been safe even then. But he wasn’t praying. He was sleeping.

It says in the evening, David rose from his bed. I don’t know whether he slept the whole day or just in the afternoon, but he was just, he was a big king now. He relaxed and he was asleep. And he got up from his bed and he had no time to pray now. He got up from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house and he saw this pretty woman and he was tempted.

You see, all the stages that led to that temptation and if you, like they say, nip it in the bud, stop it at an earlier stage, he would never have got to the final stage. And even when he looked, he had said, oh, that’s dangerous. And when he inquired and said, who is that? Somebody said, that’s the wife of Uriah the Hittite. That should have been, (verse 3), a warning saying, oh, somebody else’s wife. Then I’ve got nothing to do. God bless him.

But no, he was powerful. Somebody else’s wife, so what? I’m going to lust after her. Is it only David? Do you look and admire the beauty of somebody else’s wife? You may not be a king, powerful enough to grab her, but nobody can stop you from looking and lusting. You can’t be a servant of God. That failure of David, the whole world has known about it for 3,000 years.

Yeah, it’s very sad that there was such an incident in his life, but it need not have happened. And then after he sinned with her and she became pregnant, he didn’t know what to do. So he had to cover it up now. And to cover it up, he calls back her husband from the battlefield and tells him to go and stay at night in his home so that at least he’ll get the blame for the child. And he is such a godly man. He doesn’t go to his house. And the next morning he’s sleeping at the king’s door.

And the king said, hey, why didn’t you go to your house?

He said, my colleagues are fighting in the battlefield and can I go and sleep with my wife?

That man was a better man than David at that time. That junior worker is sometimes a better and a more godly man than the mission director. That’s a sad thing very often. We see that in Christendom, unfortunately.

And David didn’t know what to do. So his mind schemes. You know, when you sin, you have to do so many other things to cover up that sin. And if he had honestly gone to Uriah and said, listen, I’ve got to apologize to you for something. I commit adultery with your wife. Would you please forgive me?

Instead of doing that, he schemes and wants to protect his reputation, sends him back to the battlefield and tells Joab, put him right up in front where the battle is the hottest and let him die, withdraw so that he’s killed. What an evil thing to do! Is this a man after God’s own heart?

To do such a terrible thing? To commit adultery with a man’s wife and then kill him? I thank God that Scripture is absolutely honest. And as you and I look into the corruption of our own flesh, we will discover we are no better than him.

I wouldn’t judge David. I hope you don’t. We are all made of the same flesh, capable of the same sins. God has had mercy on us. And thank God there was one brave prophet there, Nathan.

You know, it’s a very dangerous thing in those days to confront a king and tell him about his sin. Even today, how many preachers are there who would get up in their pulpit and point out the sin of the rich people sitting in their congregations? It’s very difficult to find such prophets today who couldn’t care less for the face of the rich.

Take an example from Nathan, a fearless prophet, 2 SAMUEL 12. He came to David and he told him a story. He said there were two men in the city, one rich and poor. The rich man had great flocks and herds. The poor man had only one little lamb. And when a visitor came to the rich man’s house, the rich man wanted to make a lamb curry for him and he did not take from the multitudes of his own flock. He went and took that one poor man’s lamb and killed it to make a curry for this traveler. That poor man lost the one little lamb he had.

And David’s (verse 5), anger burned greatly. You know, sometimes our anger burns greatly at the sins of other people. Till Nathan said, you are the man. You are the one who took that poor Uriah’s little lamb. He had only one. You had so many wives.

And David suddenly realizes the truth. But do you know what David said? He said — he was so angry, he said, as the Lord lives, (verse 5) that man deserves to die.

Now, the Lord did not say that a man should be killed for stealing another person’s lamb. But David was so strict. We can become so strict at the sins of other people and not realize grosser sins in our own life.

And he says, in (verse 6), he must make restitution four times. For one lamb he took, he must give four back. How many? Four.

Do you know how many of David’s sons died? The baby born to Bathsheba, Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah… killed. Exactly like David said from his own mouth, fourfold.

We say something with our mouth, God says, your judgment will be according to what you have said. The way you have judged other people, you will be judged yourself. Remember that. Be careful not to judge other people. You will be judged exactly as it was said.

Nathan said, you are the man. I anointed you king over Israel. Why have you despised the word of the Lord? (verse 9)

Therefore, (verse 10), the sword will never depart from your house. I will raise up evil from your own household, (verse 11).

And David, here you see the man after God’s own heart coming into his own again. He says to Nathan, I have sinned.

Against the Lord, and he wrote that wonderful psalm, Psalm 51, where he says, Lord, I have sinned against You. Have mercy on me. Please don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me. He doesn’t try to cover up his sin like Saul. Saul said, please honor me. Don’t let anybody know my sin. He told Samuel, but David never sought that. He didn’t tell Nathan, don’t tell anybody about it. He wrote a psalm and told everybody about it.

See, that’s a wonderful thing we see about David. He didn’t pretend to be a spiritual person when he was not; when he sinned, he admitted it.

And I want to say to you, my brothers and sisters, however great you may be before the Lord one day, when somebody points out to you something wrong in your life, admit it. Don’t become so big that nobody can correct you. Don’t become so great that nobody can come up to you and say you’re wrong or you need to change in this area.

I say, Lord, till the end of my life, I want to hear, I want to listen to any man who can come up to me, maybe much younger than me, and come up to me and say, and make me more Christ-like. Thank God for all those who can correct us.

David took it in the right way, but the Lord struck the child — Uriah’s widow — and the widow’s child in verse 15. And David fasted and prayed, but the child died.

See, God deals with us in grace, forgiving us, but He also deals with us in government. That means making us reap what we sow. For example, think of a man who has filled his mind with pornographic, filthy literature through many years, and then he asks God to forgive him. God will forgive him.

But all through his life, he will be plagued in his thoughts and his dreams with those images that he saw in those filthy magazines in his younger days. Why doesn’t God take away those images? Is it because he is not forgiven? He is forgiven totally. But He doesn’t take away those images to warn you, don’t do it again. Be careful.

And if you’re faithful and fight and fight and fight against those dirty thoughts, one day those images will gradually, it won’t disappear, it will sink to the bottom like files. More files come on top of the Word of God and this one sinks to the bottom and it doesn’t trouble your dreams anymore like it did in your younger days. Okay?

We read in CHAPTER 13 about one of David’s sons raping his sister, stepsister, and Absalom killing that son because that girl was Absalom’s sister.

In CHAPTER 15, we read about David’s son Absalom starting a conspiracy against David. Absalom wanted to be the king and he won the hearts of people. He stood in the gate, chapter 15, verse 2, and told people who were coming with some problems, yeah, your case is right, he said, your claims are good and right, chapter 15, verse 3, but then nobody listens to you. The king has not appointed anybody and he turned.

There’s a verse here which says, in this way, (verse 6), Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel towards him. You see that sometimes in Christian circles, that somebody who steals the hearts of people away from the leader because he wants to be the leader. It’s happening today.

Paul said to the elders in Ephesus, I know after my departure some of you will draw disciples after yourself. Absalom did it, but it didn’t go well with Absalom.

And David had to leave his throne and flee and God brought something good out of that. You know what? I don’t have time to show you: Psalm 39, Psalm 41, Psalm 55, Psalm 61, and Psalm 63. All those psalms we would never have had in the Bible if Absalom had not chased David out.

The trials that God takes us through are the means by which God gives us a ministry. You read those psalms. Those are wonderful psalms. Let me just show you one verse in one of those psalms. In Psalm 55 it says, in verse 22, ‘Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you.’ That’s what he did when Absalom chased him. He learned something from experience and he wrote that psalm.

And I want to encourage you not to be afraid of trial. God uses it to bring out a ministry from you. And finally, Absalom was killed and David came back to the throne.

God knows how long He should let you go through a trial. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability. Ahithophel was the counselor for Absalom. Ahithophel was originally David’s counselor. You read about him in chapter 16 verse 21.

And you know who Ahithophel was? Ahithophel was Bathsheba’s grandfather. And he said, this is the opportunity to get a little revenge on David for the way he treated my granddaughter Bathsheba. And so he schemes with Absalom to destroy David. But God brought the counsel of Ahithophel to confusion. He was like a Judas Iscariot of the Old Testament who betrayed David.

And just like Judas Iscariot, we read in CHAPTER 17 VERSE 23, Ahithophel also hanged himself.

But I want to show you one thing here in David. When he was running away, there was a man called Shimei, Chapter 16 Verse 5, who came out cursing David. He was a relative of Saul. And he was waiting for a chance to get at David. And he couldn’t do anything when David was on the throne. Now David was running away. He came out cursing (verse 6), he threw stones at David. (Verse 7), he said, get out you worthless fellow, you good for nothing. The Lord has returned to you all the bloodshed you shed on the house of Saul (verse 8), and one of David’s soldiers said, let me go and chop off that man’s head. And David said, no.

(Verse 11), ‘If the Lord has told him to curse me, why should I fight against the Lord?’ Look at David’s understanding of the sovereignty of God. Nobody can curse me without God’s permission.

Now the sad thing I want to tell you is that at the end of David’s life, he forgot to be merciful. I’ll come to that later in another session. But here we see that when Absalom died, 2 Sam 18:33, we find that David weeps, ‘Oh Absalom, my son, my son, I wish I had died in your place!’ This is the Spirit of Christ. Those who rebelled against him, he wished he had died for them. He was a new covenant man.

With all his failings, there were some glorious things in his character. He did not have hatred even for his son who tried to kill him.

I want to turn now to the last chapter. There are a few things in between. You see a song of David in 2 Samuel 22, which is repeated in Psalm 18. Read it sometime, it’s a beautiful picture of salvation.

You see that he was a great leader. He describes how a good leader should be in 2 Samuel 23, verses 1 to 7. And he must rule in the fear of God. There are many qualities he describes there of how a godly leader should be.

He did not work alone. We read in 2 Samuel 23, verses 8 to 39. He had mighty men. He was a man who knew how to delegate responsibility to good men who could lead Israel forward.

And we see finally in 2 Samuel 24, his last sin. One day he decided to count the number of people, either to see over how many people he is king or to see how strong his army is.

And Joab said, please don’t do it, (2 Sam 24:3) let the Lord add as many people as He likes, but don’t do it. But he went ahead and did it. And God punished him that 70,000 people were killed in Israel in (verse 15).

God said, you didn’t trust Me there. It’s a failure of faith.

And David finally repents, and he makes an altar to the Lord in verse 18 onwards. That last part of that book, chapter 24:18-25, is very beautiful. He goes to offer a sacrifice at the threshold of Araunah the Jebusite, just like God told him to. And Araunah says, oh, lord, my king, you have come. please take the bullocks for the sacrifice, free. Please take the wood, free.

And David says, no, I will pay a price. I will buy it from you, (verse 24), because — this is the verse I want you to notice — I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing, a verse that all of you should remember all through your life.

I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. And on that site, the same place you read in 2 Chronicles 3, verse 1, the temple was built.

The temple was built in a place where a man said, I will never give to God that which costs me nothing. Christendom is full of people who give to God that which costs them nothing.

What has it cost you to serve the Lord? What has it cost you to live for God? Don’t ever offer to God that which costs you nothing. If you are like that, the house of God will be built through you even today.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we shall learn lessons from the life of David, the good lessons and the warnings, to follow him in the areas where he was an example and to take a warning from the places where he failed. Help us each one, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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