2 Samuel 11
Arthur Pink · Citado em PreceptAustin
2 Samuel 11
Pink points out "How fickle is poor human nature. David’s heart smote him when he cut off Saul’s skirt, yet later he deliberately planned murder of Uriah!....Behold how callous the heart will become once the strivings of conscience are discarded." Matthew
2 Samuel 11
Pink - “In conclusion let us point out some of the solemn lessons which we learned from this sad incident: 1. Beware of the beginnings of sin. Who would imagine that taking his ease when he should have been at the post of duty on the battlefield had led to adultery and ended in murder. 2. See how refusal to put one serious wrong right; preferring concealment to confession gives Satan the great advantage over us to lead us into yet worse evil. 3. Learn therefrom that there is no security in years and that no past communion with God will safeguard us against temptations when we are careless in the present. 4. How fickle is poor human nature. David’s heart smote him when he cut off Saul’s skirt, yet later he deliberately planned murder of Uriah. 5. Mark what fearful lengths pride will go to in order to maintain a reputation before men. 6. Behold how callous the heart will become once the strivings of conscience are discarded. 7. Though we may succeed in escaping the wrath of our fellows, sin always meets with the displeasure of the Lord. (Life of David) DAVID'S GREAT SIN Sidlow Baxter (Explore the Book) As we have said, David's great sin, recorded in chapter 11, marks a sorrowful turning-point. It is well to emphasise certain considerations which should be borne in mind whenever we think of it. Critics have seized upon it as being the evidence of the moral corruptness of one whom the Bible holds up as a hero. "There!" they exclaim - "there is your great Bible hero! What a fine specimen he is!" It has been repeatedly asked, also, how we can reconcile this shameful fall of David with the Bible statement that God Himself declared David to be "a man after Mine own heart" (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22). Now the answer to such criticism and questioning is that in all honesty and fairness we must take into account the full facts of the case. 1. We must view David's life as a whole. It is not fair or honest so to emphasise this blot on David's record as to make it appear the biggest thing in his life. Critics should remember that were it not for the strict honesty of the Bible itself, this black episode could easily have been withheld from us, and we would have known nothing about it. Therefore, we must in fairness judge David by the whole of the Biblical account. We must see his faith and obedience toward God through many years, his general uprightness and generous-heartedness, the high-principled conduct and ardent spiritual aspirings which largely characterise him throughout his career. 2. We must take David's repentance into account. Never was a man more stricken and abased by self-condemnation and godly contrition than was David after this sin "Beyond all question," says Ellicott, "Ps 51 is the expression of his penitence after the visit of Nathan" to rebuke him. Who, then, can read that Psalm of sobs without realising that David's sin was the exception to, and not the expression of his habitual aim and desire? The sin was committed in a spasm of weakness. The repentance shows the true attitude of the man to such sin - and it is God's attitude. 3. We must judge David's character in the light of his own times. The Christian Gospel and the New Testament ethic were not at that time given to men. Judged by the moral standards of his own day, David rises head and shoulders above his fellows. Especially when we compare him with the kings of that age does he excel. The extravagant sensual indulgence of ancient eastern kings is notorious. Their power over the life and property of their subjects was often absolute. They appropriated women-folk at will, with little regard to crimes which lay in the way of such appropriation. Compare David with such kings, and the comparison reveals the contrast. 4. We must see David's inner life, as revealed in the Davidic Psalms. In the books of Samuel and the Chronicles we see David's life outwardly. In the Davidic Psalms we see his life as it was inwardly. Here the man's very heart is laid bare; and, as we see it thus, we can only come to one honest conclusion. Many of those who have criticized David and the Bible would be glad if their own hearts could be laid bare in such goodly terms. These Psalms, so moving in their evident sincerity, furnish proof positive that David was a good man - that he was, indeed, as the Scripture says, a man after God's own heart. In warfare, a general may lose a battle and yet win a campaign. Although one or several battles may be lost, and lost badly, the result of the whole campaign may be victory. This is true of men in a moral sense; and, in the case of David, the full account of his life, supported by the noble testimony of his Psalms, shows decisively that though there were defeats, and one outstandingly grievous fall, the final result is such as to justify the pronouncement that he was a man after God's own heart. In our own judgment, any one of the foregoing considerations is enough to justify the Bible estimate of David; and when taken together they become conclusive. But see also the note about David at the beginning of this present study. Should critics still object, however, we may fall back on the fact that when David was declared to be a man after God's own heart he was then merely in his early twenties. Surely, however, no honest appraisal of David could require us to limit the words to his youth: and, as for ourselves, we will not do so. With the full facts before us, we gladly subscribe to the verdict that in David we have one of the godliest men of all the pre-Christian era. As Augustine said, David's fall should put upon their guard all who have not fallen, and save from despair all those who have fallen. Salient Lessons And now mark some of the salient lessons connected with David's sin. First, note the honesty and faithfulness of the Scriptures in recording such a dark incident. Had the writing of the Bible been left merely in human hands, it would have contained no such chapter. David's guilt is here exposed without the slightest effort to extenuate it, much less excuse it. There is a severe truthfulness about the way in which the Bible deals with human characters. Dr. Edersheim says: "It need scarcely be pointed out how this truthful account of the sins of Biblical heroes evinces the authenticity and credibility of the Scriptural narratives. Far different are the legendary accounts which seek to palliate the sins of Biblical personages, or even to deny their guilt. Thus the Talmud denies the adultery of David on the ground that every warrior had, before going to the field, to give his wife a divorce; so that Bathsheba was free." Note, too, that David's fall occurred when he was in prosperous ease. All his foes were crushed. The pressure of dangers that had kept him prayerful was now removed. He had not thought it worth troubling himself to go personally with his armies to reduce the last citadel of the Ammonites, but had sent Joab at their head (see 11:1). We little realize what we owe to those seemingly hard circumstances from which we long to get free, but which are God's means of keeping us prayerful. Prosperity and ease are always perilous; and we are never so exposed to temptation as when we are idle. Note further that David's sin was the culmination of a process. As a rule, falls so violent as that of David do not occur without being preceded by a weakening process. David had given way to the flesh in accumulating many wives (2 Sam 5:13), a thing expressly forbidden to Israel's kings, in Deut 17:17. David, by nature a man of strong passions, had indulged the flesh; and now the tragic culmination is reached. How we need to guard against the beginnings of sin! See James 1:14,15. Again, see how David's sin led on to even worse sin. He vainly endeavoured to hide his crime. Uriah, the wronged husband of Bathsheba, was intoxicated so that under its influence he might become irresponsible enough for it afterwards to be said that the child born to Bathsheba was his son (2 Sam 11); but this shameful trick failed through the valorous behaviour of Uriah, who, besides being one of David's "mighty men" (2 Sam 23:39), was one of David's most upright and loyal supporters. Thereupon David - who had been shocked when Joab slew Abnermade Joab his accomplice in sin, and brought about the death of Uriah! Oh, the ugly chain that one sin can forge! If we do fall into sin, the one safe measure is confession and restitution. Once again, note that David's sin resulted in years of suffering. Incest, fratricide, rebellion, civil war, intrigue, revolt - all these are traceable to David's sin. What a sorry harvest sin brings! David's wrong was forgiven, but its consequences were not thereby obliterated: and the Divine sentence upon David, in chapter 12:11, "Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house," furnishes the key to David's following history, which was as troubled and adverse as his earlier reign had been happy and successful. We must now leave the student to make independent study of the remaining chapters in 2 Samuel. In the main they are sad, but are not without touches of beauty and cheer here and there: and they are full of profitable lessons. As we think of David's awful sin, his prostrating remorse, his heart-breaking penitence which brought him absolution from the guilt of his sin but could not obliterate its consequences, we are reminded of words written, years ago now, by that remarkable British padre of the First World War, the late Studdart Kennedy. In an article on the sin of Judas, he writes: "Why did I do it? How could I have done it? These can be the bitterest and most tragic questions men and women ask themselves. Something done that cannot be undone, something final and irrevocable, and a man looks at it, and cannot recognise it as his own act, cannot see himself in it, and yet he knows that it is his, and must be his forever. "So Judas must have looked on Christ, As from the judgment hall He went In bonds, the blood still wet upon His back. Why did I do it? How Could I have done it? I loved Him, Yet I sold Him. How can that be? Which am I - traitor - lover - friend Or fiend incarnate? Am I mad? Aye mad - stark mad - my reason rocks. These coins are bloody - Jesus help I did not mean to do it. Bloody - Wet and bloody - and they burn - hot. Hot as hell. I cannot bear it. I am not I. I am some damned And dreadful thing spewed out of hell. I am - and I must kill it - now. I cannot live - it must go back To hell - I must - and never see Him - never - Jesus Mercy! Death - I must find death. "Remorse and repentance are human facts, peculiarly human facts. Of no other creature could that scene be true, but only of a man. It might be true of you or me. Quite ordinary people can feel like that, and do. I have seen them, sat with them, tried to comfort them. I have heard them muttering over and over again: how could I have done it? How could I have done it? "A man cannot be really free unless he surrenders himself utterly and without reserve to the service of the highest. The real tyrants which cramp and cabin man are his own undisciplined and unorganized desires. He cannot be free except through the inner union of his passions, without that the only freedom he possesses is freedom to hang himself. However much rope you give him that is what he must use it for in the end, unless he has some great aim and purpose which gives meaning and unity to his life. If he has that aim and purpose, and his desires are organised and disciplined about it, then when he acts against that aim and purpose, when he forgets it, and follows some wayward and rebellious passion, there comes to him the sense of sin. He knows that there is something awful, something deadly, about the word or deed. It is not merely a piece of folly, a mistake, a sin against himself or his neighbour, it is a denial of the whole meaning of the world. It is a sin against his God."