Following our selfish desires instead of fulfilling our responsibilities will lead to us failing everyone in our sphere of influence...

This week, we are looking at the life of King David, who distinguished himself as perhaps the greatest king to ever lead the Jewish people. Wednesday, we looked on as King David had a plan to honor God by building Him the Temple. However, the prophet Nathan explained to David that God wanted to build a kingdom through you and your descendants. We see King David’s response in verse 18:

Then David the king went in and sat before the LORD, and he said, "Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far? "And yet this was insignificant in Your eyes, O Lord GOD, for You have spoken also of the house of Your servant concerning the distant future. And this is the custom of man, O Lord GOD. "Again what more can David say to You? For You know Your servant, O Lord GOD! "For the sake of Your word, and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to let Your servant know. "For this reason You are great, O Lord GOD; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

King David basically says “Who I am to be given this great responsibility to lead your people? I am just a shepherd from a backwater town. Who am I that you would not only give me this amazing responsibility to lead your people, but that you would promise that one of my descendants would be the Messiah who will bring the Jewish people back to You and back to prominence in the world after they rebel and reject You. Lord, just please keep your promise. Please keep this amazing promise that you have made to me and my family, that I would be a part of the family tree of the Messiah."

 And for years, King David placed his confident trust in God’s promise and embraced his responsibilities to lead the Jewish people. King David continued to establish the Jewish nation as a military and political power in the world. King David continued to fulfill the responsibilities he was given to represent the Lord as he led the Jewish people. And King David continued to gain influence and expand his impact and reputation as being a man after God’s own heart. Then, an event from history occurred that radically changed the trajectory of King David’s life. An event from history that is recorded for us in 2 Samuel 11:1:

Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

King David, the man after God’s own heart, the man who was their greatest military leader, instead of doing what he was responsible for doing and was supposed to be doing, decided to do what King David wanted to do. And what King David wanted to do was have a little fun with someone else’s wife, who was doing what King David was supposed to be doing. So, in order to do what he wanted to do, King David sent his messengers to get Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite for a late night rendezvous. 

Now when the messengers question the King about his choice in women, it is important to understand that Uriah the Hittite was one of the mighty men. In other words, Uriah was one of the thirty men that were in King David’s inner circle. These men protected the King without question and had repeatedly demonstrated their devotion and trustworthiness to him. So the messengers are basically saying “so you are going to sleep with Uriah’s wife”? Instead of fulfilling his responsibilities to represent the Lord as he led the Jewish people, King David’s selfish desires drove him to send his messengers to bring Bathsheba over for an adulterous encounter. We see what happens next in verse 5:

The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant."

What King David did not plan for, however, was that Bathsheba would become pregnant. And now, with the potential for his adulterous affair to become known, King David had to try to figure out how to get out of this horrible and embarrassing situation. We see King David’s plan, in verse 6:

Then David sent to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war. Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." And Uriah went out of the king's house, and a present from the king was sent out after him. 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. Now when they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?" Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing." Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord's servants, but he did not go down to his house.

Well that did not work out how King David planned it. Uriah was a man that seemed to possess more of a heart for God than King David did at this point. Now, imagine yourself as King David. You grand plan has not worked. How are you going to fix this mess that you have made? We see the king’s final solution recorded for us in verse 14:

Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He had written in the letter, saying, "Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die." So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David's servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.

Just when you think the story cannot get any worse, it does just a few verses later in verse 26:

Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

You think? And while King David thought his plan to cover up his selfishness and rebellion that led to a murderous affair was a success; while King David thought he was off the hook, the reality was quite different, as we see in 2 Samuel 12:1:

Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, "There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. "The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. "But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nourished; And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, And was like a daughter to him. "Now a traveler came to the rich man, And he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; Rather he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."

The Lord responded to King David’s cover up by sending the prophet Nathan with a scenario to expose his selfishness and rebellion. The scenario, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded like this: “There were two men who lived in the same town, one rich and one poor. And all the poor man had was a gift certificate for his family to go to Chili’s for a family dinner. However, when a relative from out of town came to visit the rich man, he was unwilling to spend his own money to take him to Chili’s. Instead, the rich man stole the gift certificate from the poor man and his family to take his relative to dinner. So king, what should happen to the rich man?” We see the King’s response in verse 5:

Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. "He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion."

The prophet, having set the trap for King David, now springs the trap on King David in verse 7:

Nathan then said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. 'I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! 'Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. 'Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' "Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 'Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.'"

The prophet confronts the king with his selfishness and rebellion and begins to proclaim God’s just and right response to his rebellion. Because King David chose to follow his selfish desires instead of fulfilling his responsibilities, he had despised the Lord. Now this word despised literally means to think lightly of. You see, King David’s rebellion revealed that he placed his own selfish desires over God’s desires.

And as a result of King David’s choice to follow his selfish desires instead of fulfilling his responsibilities, the prophet proclaims that King David would experience opposition from within his own family for the rest of his life. As a result of King David’s choice to follow his selfish desires instead of fulfilling his responsibilities, the prophet proclaims that what King David had done in private to Uriah would be committed against him in public. We see the king’s response in verse 13:

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.”However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die."

King David’s sin was devastating. King David’s sin, like ripples that form when a rock is dropped in a pond, had devastating consequences to his family and the nation. King David’s selfishness, sin and rebellion reveal the reality that there is not such sin as private and personal sin. Our selfishness and rebellion affects and impacts all who are in our sphere of influence.

And for King David, as a leader who represented not only the Jewish people but also represented God, his sin gave the enemies of God an opportunity to ridicule and reject God. So God’s response to David’s sin was swift and severe for David, Bathsheba, and the son that came from their relationship. While David confessed his sin and received forgiveness for his sin, he and his family would have to live with the consequences of their sin, which included the death of their son, for the rest of their lives.

And it is in this event from history that we discover a timeless truth that has the potential to powerfully impact how we live our lives today. And that timeless truth is this: Following our selfish desires instead of fulfilling our responsibilities will lead to us failing everyone in our sphere of influence. You see, just like King David, when we follow our selfish desires instead of our responsibilities, we reveal the reality that we view our desires as being more important than God’s desires.

Just like King David, when we follow our selfish desires instead of fulfilling our responsibilities, we give those who are far from God the opportunity and the ammunition to ridicule and reject God. Just like King David, when we follow our selfish desires instead of fulfilling our responsibilities, the selfishness and rebellion that flows out of those desires affects and impacts all of those who are in our sphere of influence.

And just like King David, when we follow our selfish desires instead of fulfilling our responsibilities, the consequences of our selfishness and rebellion often lead us to a very fundamental question. You see, in the wake of the consequences of our selfishness and rebellion, we can find ourselves asking “will God still keep His promises to me when I blow it?” For King David, he could not help but wonder whether or not that amazing promise that God had made to him was now null and void. David finds the answer to these questions and doubts a short while later, in 2 Samuel 12:24:

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved him and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the LORD'S sake.

The Lord answered David’s question and doubts about His promise through a son, named Solomon. And to leave no doubt, God sent the prophet Nathan, the same prophet who confronted King David with a message of justice and judgment for his sin. This time Nathan had a different message for the king; a message of grace. A message of “I am a promise maker and a promise keeper” for the sake of my name, for the sake of my plan.

You see, in spite of the reality that King David had followed his selfish desires instead of fulfilling his responsibilities in a way that led to him failing everyone in his sphere of influence, God was not done with King David. Instead God was going to fulfill His promises to King David in spite of King David’s performance, not because of King David’s performance.

Next week, we are going to see how the Lord continued to fulfill His promises through King David’s son Solomon. In the meantime, here is a question to consider: What selfish desires are you facing that are tempting you to fail to fulfill your responsibilities? How are those selfish desires impacting your ability to fulfill your responsibilities?