Hiding from an Omniscient God

2 Samuel chapter 11.

This is the word of the Lord. And David said, So David sent messengers and took her.

And she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.

So David sent word to Joab, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war was going.

Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king.

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. When they told David, 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 dwell in booths, 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 drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.

Then David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day, and the next, and David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk.

And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

In the letter he wrote, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.

And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.

Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger, When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, Why do you go so near the city to fight?

Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, son of Jerubasheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall?

Then you shall say, Your servant, Uriah the Hittite, is dead also. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.

The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back from the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall.

Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another.

strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it, and encourage him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband.

And when the 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 the Lord. Let's pray together. Father, we know this passage of Scripture, and it is, especially with a study like this, when we're studying it chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and see how hard hitting it, and just how much it hits so hard.

the great sin that happened here, the great, terrible sins that have been committed by this great servant of yours. Father, I pray that we take this lesson tonight, and we apply it to our lives, and realizing that we are all sinners, and we all fall short of your glory.

And we're all capable of doing even vile things. So, Father, we pray that we can take this message, and we can go about this week.

And we are wanting to please you in all things, and do your will. We pray for all this in Jesus' name. Amen. A few years back, in contemporary Christian music, a group called Casting Crowns released a song called Slow Fade.

It made some of the charts, and they did well with the song, and they continue to, because it's a great song. And this, the chorus, I think, really relates. It says this, It's a slow fade when you give yourself away.

It's a slow fade when black and white are turned to gray, and thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid when you give yourself away. People never crumble in a day.

It's a slow fade. Now, it's pretty ambiguous, and that's typical of contemporary Christian music this day, unfortunately. But it really does say something very true, especially about moral failure.

And we've seen this time and time again in the news of well-known people, some not so well-known teachers, preachers, priests, all over the place, run the gamut, of people that are trusted, and especially trusted with children at times, and yet they tend to fall into great sin.

I have two guys that I knew in my life, early on in my life, that are now in prison because of sexual immorality. And they were both full-time ministers before they were arrested.

So, it really hits home, and I think it hits all of us to see some terrible situations happening. And yet, these things don't happen overnight.

And, you know, lives do not fall apart in a moment, at least when it relates to moral failure. Habits change, things that you're doing well, maybe guarding your heart, that kind of thing.

These guards are dropped. We heard this passage of Scripture this morning from Brother Gentry, Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and petition, but in everything in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, shall guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

We need that peace of God. We need to be guarded. Our heart, our mind, the center of our lives, our thinking capabilities, everything needs to be guarded by Jesus Christ.

And it's something that can affect us all, moral failure. You know, we may tend to have wrong actions and words and thoughts and behavior, and we start justifying that.

And maybe we start justifying even more and more and more so, and our compass, our moral compass starts to shift a bit, and we get away from what is good.

We get away from Scripture and that standard and start following something else, and all of a sudden, we're doing something that is quite regrettable and quite sinful and terrible.

And you may wonder what a song like this, like Slow Fade, or this idea, has to do about this story. I mean, this change, especially as we're studying it chapter by chapter, verse by verse, this change seems to be about as slow and gradual as a tidal wave.

It's just like, it just kind of jumps out at you. But there is some evidence in Scripture throughout, really, 2 Samuel, you don't have to go much further than that, to realize that this is not really quite as shocking and abrupt of a U-turn as it seems.

Now, there are definitely some things that are quite shocking. I talked about one last week, the idea of hesed, the covenant loyalty that he made through Mephibosheth on behalf of Jonathan and at least attempted to make for Hanun on behalf of Nahash of Ammon, and that's why they're in a war now.

So, going from that and not being able to give that same treatment to men who are his allies, his confidants, loyal to him in great ways.

And so, it's amazing that he doesn't do the same thing, and we'll see that all throughout this passage. But nonetheless, there are some definite signs that there have been a gradual, slippery slope of increasing sin in his life.

I want to describe it in this way. There are two different paths one must take, and for King David, it is either this, following the Lord's commands, and of course, if you're going to follow the Lord's commands, you're going to have to follow the Lord's commands.

I mean, it's like it was this morning. You can't, it's not a cafeteria, you can't pick and choose. And then also, another side that I'm going to relate to a cheesy TV show from the 1980s, starring a guy with a really bad English accent, Lifestyles of the Rich and Royal.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Royal. Now, the rich and royal during that time, it's about 1000 BC, but really, you can almost put any time in this because this particular element is pretty much true throughout, especially with royalty.

They want to get as rich as possible, they want to be as strong as possible militarily, and they will form political alliances with other kingdoms to keep and to gain their riches and power.

The alliances were often sealed by the marriage of a king's daughter with a member of the other kingdom's royal family. So, these marriages were marriages for advantage.

But, what does the Lord say about this? What is the Lord's commands? Well, we find that in Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses 14 through 20. Verse 15 says, the king, this is about whenever they come up with a future king, this is an interesting thought because this law came 400 years before David, and so about 300 something years before Saul and before the people of Israel just demanded for a king.

So, it's interesting that the law actually did place when you have a king, or if you have a king, they know it was going to happen, because, like we say, God is definitely, he knows all.

So, but verse 15, this king in the Israel must be an Israelite, cannot be a foreigner. In verse 16, he doesn't need to acquire many horses, by horses, war horses. He doesn't need to be strong militarily, at least not reliant on that.

He can be strong but not reliant on that. He needs to rely on God. Verse 17, not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. So, that's the idea of political maneuvers and alliances via marriage for advantage.

So, don't rely on that, rely on God. Another one in verse 17, not acquire much silver and gold. They can be wealthy, but not get so filthy rich that they don't have to deal with anything beyond their filthy riches, so they don't have to rely on God.

No, they don't rely on their riches, they rely on God. The love of money is the root of all evil. It's not just a New Testament thought, it's a universal thought, even before the New Testament came around. So, most importantly though, because they need to rely on the Lord and not all these other things, they need to take this law and they need to have a copy of this law in their palace or in their place where they live and they have to have it read to them or read it themselves every single day so they can remember and be reminded every single day to obey every word of this law.

And so, because why? Because God is the true king, not them. They are the under king to God who is the true king and they have to obey how much of it?

All of it. Okay, so let's see how David did. Well, if you went back to chapter 8 of 2 Samuel which we talked about several weeks ago, you know that he at one point caught a lot of the war horses from one of the battles up in the north in Syria and he hamstrung those horses.

What that means is that they were no longer able to be ready for battle. I mean, they could be used for other purposes like agriculture and such, but they're not really battle ready anymore, so they were hamstrung.

And then verse 7 of that same chapter, he did, you know, this could have definitely been worse, he did collect plenty of wealth. He took a lot of gold, he took a lot of bronze and it was dedicated to the temple, but initially it was David, so maybe B plus there.

But there was something else that happened. It's not chapter 8, but even before that, he did have a, it says right there in verse 17 of Deuteronomy 17, not to acquire many wives for himself.

Well, that's more than one, many means more than one in this case, and he did have more than one wife. Actually, it was quite impressive of a harem that he had. And so if you look throughout 2 Samuel, the first part of 2 Samuel, you'll see several places, chapter 3, for instance, you'll see that in verse 1 it says that David grows stronger, weaker, while the house of Saul grows weaker.

But then the next verses, verses 2 and following, talks about his harem, talks about the wives and the sons that he had while in Hebron, or before that.

And so six sons to six wives. As a matter of fact, one of those sons, and one of those wives, was from a marriage for advantage. It was the daughter of the king of Gesher, which is in Syria, and she was the mother of Absalom, which we'll hear about quite a bit in later chapters.

And so there's the harem report after David growing stronger, and then in chapter 5 they do something very similar again. David's power grows as God strengthens him in verse 10 and 12.

And then also after that, another harem report. 12 more sons and more wives, concubines all over. It doesn't say how many, but 12 more sons to these wives and these concubines, and that includes Bathsheba.

So it was all the ones in Jerusalem while he was there. And so that kind of measures it out in that way. So it would be pretty safe to say that these last few chapters in this chapter and following chapter could simply be about the same thing.

You know, chapters 8, through 10, David's power continues to grow and Israel becomes wealthier and more secure. But then chapters 11 and 12 is just a simple harem report again. And so it's interesting that as we see this great power and as we've been amazed by the great things that God has done through his servant, David, we also see that there is this gradual slippery slope of increased sin.

And the fact is, well, this is what everyone else does. All of the other kings have multiple lives. All of the other kings gain all these other things. And even David's not gaining all the things that the other kings gain.

He trusts in God, at least somewhat. Should be good enough, right? No. And so we come to this passage of scripture, which I'm entitling, Hiding from an omniscient God.

Okay. Another title could be Who's Got the Power? I like them both, but I decide on what. All right, so the outline that we're going to look at is really a sentence, and I'm going to break it down.

But the sentence is this, and I'll read it a couple times if anybody's writing it down. The mighty king has fallen, but covers up the fall, and pretends nothing has happened, but God knows.

Let me read that again. The mighty king has fallen, but covers up the fall, and pretends nothing has happened, but God knows.

So let's talk about the mighty king has fallen, verses 1 through 5. And this is a progressive fall. The mighty king has fallen. There are several different things that David has committed, sins that has committed, and things that have gone on in this passage.

One commentary I studied from J. Vernon McGee, great commentary, he titled this, David's Two Great Sins. David's Two Great Sins. And that's interesting, because I'll read you two great sins that he committed here, laziness and lust.

Those aren't really the great sins we're thinking of when we read that, but those are definitely some great sins that are going on there. Of course, we all know what he's talking about, and he even knows that this happened as well.

But the first one is laziness, and it did happen. He was idle. If you look at verses 1 and in the first half of 2, you notice that hey, there's a war going on.

We already knew that. It's from chapter 10. It's the war that continues to come in chapter 10. Winter came. They couldn't hold their field after defeating the Syrians, and of course, they really didn't have a fight with the Syrians anymore anyway, at least not for this purpose.

But there was something that happened in Ammon. Remember that one thing, David wanting to bring covenant loyalty to the king that had just died and wish his son well?

Well, his son didn't see it that way and chose to do something that was quite embarrassing and was quite a mistake for him, but nonetheless, it was a slap in the face to David.

It was a slap in the face to David's integrity. It was a slap in the face to David's dignity because that was his ambassadors that they did it to. Might as well have done it to David himself. And so, there's a reason for a war, and there's a reason for a battle, and there's a reason for a king to go lead his entire army and go wipe those people out.

But what does David do? He's in Jerusalem. Where does he need to be? And war in Ammon, Rabba, take them out. And Rabba's the capital city, by the way, so if they take Rabba, they take Ammon, pretty much.

At least they take a major portion of it. But David, again, remained in Jerusalem. And then, just to make things even further, you go to verse 2, and it says that he is, late one afternoon, he decides to rise from his couch, his bed.

Late afternoon, well, you know, a typical nap during this time, very similar to many other cultures today, a siesta, if you want to call it that, is going to be after lunch, you know, for an hour or two, that kind of thing.

But, you know, it doesn't go to late afternoon. It goes to about midpoint of the afternoon, kind of to take in, you know, the heat of the day to rest during that time. So, it made sense to do that, but it was a little bit longer than he needed to be.

And then he went on the roof of the house to take in the afternoon air and such. And so, yeah, I mean, there was definitely a laziness thing that is going on there.

And so, but nonetheless, I mean, there are definitely things we need to look at here. You know, whether the king leads the army to battle or not is quite in the prerogative of who?

The king himself. He can't be told what to do necessarily. So, he can send his commander to do that work. He can send the army. He can do whatever he needs to. And there could be lots of reasons to not go either.

His health may be failing. There's administrative reasons. There's age to be dealt with. But, you know, those obviously didn't necessarily apply. At least, it's not said in the text.

So, we have to understand that he may be getting his rest right now and enjoying that rest in the middle of the afternoon.

Well, there's another job going on in Ammon with a whole army of people over there. You think they're getting a siesta?

Of course not. All right. So, that's one. The second one is lust. And I think we can all see this coming. He was looking and inquiring.

If you go to the second part of the second verse, he saw a woman. Now, there are other places in the Old Testament where this phrase is said.

There's two other places, actually. And they're both in the book of Judges. And they both refer to Samson. Now, I'll be, oh, no. You don't want to be compared to Samson, at least in that way.

Oh, no. But nonetheless, it's really what happened. So, he saw this woman. And, of course, he continued to see this woman because he noticed that she was very beautiful as she was bathing.

And so, definitely in a state where she doesn't need to be. And, or at least where, you know, she doesn't need to be seen by someone other than her husband. And then, and then the fact that he just kept looking at her.

Now, you know, if there is a beautiful woman that comes in your side or a beautiful man or whatever, it may be for ladies, handsome guy, you know, hey, that happens.

It happens. People walk by, that kind of thing. But when you look and you continue to look and all that, that's really when it becomes a problem. So, there's a temptation going on. And guess what?

When you're tempted, sometimes we fall into sin and sometimes we don't fall into sin. And the reason we don't fall into sin is because that, you know, we are following a standard that keeps us from doing that.

Christ showed that in Matthew chapter 4 by scripture. As it is written, man does not live by bread alone. And then quoting scripture to Satan at that time, that's a great example that we can have.

And yet, we follow a standard that we need to rely on. And most of all, we need to be trusting in God's grace through Jesus Christ through all of it as well.

And so, these are major standards that we have to think about when we fall into that because guess what? We're going to be tempted. And David here was tempted. But, before the adultery happened, he already fell into sin.

I mean, he already had an opportunity to go to the tabernacle and to fall before the altar at the tabernacle and repent. And he especially had this opportunity after he started inquiring because when he found out who this lady actually was, she was the daughter of Eliam.

I'll probably say that name a few different ways throughout this. Eliam and then the wife of Uriah the Hittite, not just one, but both of these men were mighty men, officers in his army, mercenary officers in his army, very loyal subjects to David.

And not only that, but Eliam's father, Bathsheba's grandfather is a guy named Ahithophel, and he was a counselor. Let me read this real quick to make sure I get it right.

It says, he was a highly trusted man, and it says in 2 Samuel 16, 23, as if his words were as if one consulted the word of God.

That's how trusted he was. And actually that verse says that both David and Absalom trusted in Ahithophel and what he had to say. So that was an interesting thought there because those two guys didn't get along after a while.

And so there was another reason right there. There's like, oh man, I just lusted after the wife and the daughter and the granddaughter of these extremely trusted, loyal people in my army and a counselor and people I really look up to.

I need to go repent of this. They already had a reason to do that. The adultery and the murder didn't have to happen at all. He could have repented right there, right then and there.

And it would have been a really short chapter. Matter of fact, two chapters would have been one short chapter. That would have been nice. And a lot of other things probably wouldn't have happened either. So this is really a turning point in a big way.

So what's going on here? Okay. Do not covet your neighbor's wife is one thing it says in the Ten Commandments. That would be part of the Ten Commandment.

Do not commit adultery. Oh, that's coming later, right? Is that right? No, in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Now, he doesn't have to just, well, I've already committed adultery, so I might as well just go ahead and go all the way. No. No, it doesn't work that way. It's a continual sin and sin. You need to repent.

It's a good time to repent. It's a good time to repent, not to allow the sin to follow another sin and follow another sin and follow another sin and follow another sin because that's how sin works, right? That's how it works in our lives.

And we have to sin in order to hide this other sin and in order to cover up and that kind of thing. And that's exactly what's going on here. And let's not forget also about the next verse after Matthew 5, 28, 5, 29.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. Now, this is not about mutilation, of course. It's about the need for dealing with sin drastically and intentionally.

And we do need to do that. And then finally, in this particular passage, verses 4 and 5, the act of infidelity itself.

He sent messengers in verse 4. And you'll see that word a lot, sent. He sent Joab and the army to the battlefield.

He sent and inquired about her. And now he's sending messengers. Very powerful person he is. He had other people to do his work for him. Sent his messengers. He took her.

And she came to him. And he lay with her. And then she returned to her home. This is intentional act on both. Really, on David's part. And it's evidence, though, of consent for both parties.

And I say it this way, because it says in Leviticus 20, verse 10, if a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

So that should be creating some fear right there. Now, you're not going to be committed to death for, you know, lusting after someone necessarily, even though even Christ says it's committing adultery in their heart.

You've got to remember, that's the New Testament anyway. It wasn't really what was going on here. But nonetheless, I mean, this is more than just lusting. This is, you know, going through the whole thing.

And then it says in Deuteronomy 22, 24, about this same man and woman who committed adultery, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones.

The young woman, because she did not cry for help, though she was in the city. And the man, because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Now, there wasn't a greater city in Israel at the time than Jerusalem. So I'm pretty sure Bathsheba would have been heard and probably not ignored. But that's a speculation situation.

And then she even said, to make matters, you know, more public, she finally actually had to send it to David with a message, I am pregnant.

The only words she actually says in this entire chapter, in this entire event, the only words Bathsheba says. And those are only two words in the Hebrew. So a frightening statement to hear.

And not just frightening because it's generally frightening, but frightening because they can be put to death for this. Even the king can be put to death for this because no one is above this law.

No one. Even the king can be put to death. All right, so nobody wants to be put to death, so what happens? Cover up.

The mighty king has fallen, but covers up the fall. He makes a few attempts to do this. He doesn't, he's not successful the first time.

The first attempt happens in verses 6 through 11. What does he do? Sends for Uriah the Hittite, who is a foreigner, but is obviously a Jewish person and a convert to Judaism and somebody who is quite loyal to David and by all means, in many ways, the best Jew in this entire story.

Really, he is. So Uriah came to him. Now, by the way, Uriah is not really a messenger, so this is already odd that why in the world are you taking this warrior away from the battlefield when he is needed in the battlefield?

Asks how everything is going on and all that. Of course, that's just a ploy to really get him to do what he needs to do. And then what he's asking him to do. Go wash your feet.

Go home and go wash your feet. Now that's the euphemism. Or I'm sure you can guess. Go be with your wife. And so, all this happens.

Take a break. Go get your afternoon siesta in. Even send a gift to help them out with that. If you have the King James Bible, pretty much a hunk of meat is really what it says.

Like a mess of meat. Something like that. A mess of meat. A hunk of meat. I mean, it's good stuff. Doubt's pork. All right. But what happens with Uriah?

Well, he's not a puppet. He sleeps out where the servants sleep. And it's said several times in this situation.

you look at it. It said that he slept. The narrator says that in verse 9. He slept at the door of the king's house. It says in verse 10 that the people came to David.

His servants came to David. So, some gossip going on. You know, Uriah slipped out at the king's gate. And then David questions him with the same thing. So, like three different times he slipped out at the king's gate.

And it's said three different times. I mean, boy, it's already frustrating to David at this point. He's not getting his way. And then there was a total direct refusal from Uriah the Hittite to David.

If you look in verse 11, again, these are the only words that Uriah says in this whole thing. But nonetheless, they are very powerful words. And let's read them again.

It's in verse 11. Uriah said to David, The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths. 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?

As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. He couldn't do it. And it really wasn't necessarily a... I mean, he was definitely... not following a direct order.

I mean, you can certainly say that. But he wasn't being disrespectful to David. I mean, there were two things that honestly should have hit David hard. It honestly should have hit David hard about in the same place that he hit Goliath.

I mean, this was a serious situation. What's going on? Two stinging parts of this rebuke. See, Uriah disobeys the king's command. But through his disobedience to the king, he was obeying God.

I mean, this is loyalty to the Lord became apparent. And his cause, the Lord's cause in this situation with the battle of Ammon, it superseded David's authority.

And so, he was disloyal to David at this point, but he was loyal to God and God's cause in this situation. And that's where David should have been too.

So that already should show that David is not where God is in this situation. David's will is not God's will. That should tear him up. And then another one, Uriah considers it wrong to sleep with his wife while the army is engaged in war.

But David doesn't have a problem with it. He even sleeps with Uriah's wife. I mean, this is a terrible situation. So a foreigner refuses to do what is legitimate for him, sleeping with his own wife.

You can do that. You know, that happens. That's Genesis 2. You can do that. While the king is happy to do what is illegitimate. One of the best Israelites ever wants to do what is illegitimate.

And some foreigner who comes in understands that it's not the best time to do that because he needs to be elsewhere. This should be tearing David apart.

But what does he do? It doesn't look like he's being torn apart at all. Verse 12, remain here today, also in tomorrow, and I will send you back. He just keeps going with the plan.

He just has to keep coming up with a plan. And that kind of thing. And that's where we come up with the second attempt. Okay, comes back. Still sleeps at the king's gate that evening.

David brings him in. Have a party. Get some drunk. Well, you know what happens when you're drunk.

You lose your self-discipline. And he's hoping to get that done so he can go home, be with his wife, and it's going to all be settled.

Be off the hook. Finally. But you know what? Even a drunk Uriah is not a puppet. Oh, man.

So a third and successful cover-up. Verses 14 through 17. At least, David thinks this is successful. Gives a letter to Uriah to be delivered to Joab.

And the letter says, kill Uriah the Hittite. In short. Matter of fact, it says something even crazier than that.

It says, take him out to a fierce battle and then just everyone step away while Uriah is out there in the middle of this horrible situation.

And of course, he'll be struck down about as quickly as quickly gets. That sounds like somebody.

Back in 1 Samuel, I'm trying to think of his name. He was trying to kill someone that became an important character in 2 Samuel. And Saul.

That sounds like what Saul wanted to do to David. Now David's doing that to Uriah. And he's going to be successful at it. He's going to kill the guy. Wow.

Full circle. All right. So, Joab also follows his orders. Matter of fact, Joab does a better job. We'll talk about that a little later when we get to it.

But Deuteronomy 27, 24 says something. It says, cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret. And then Leviticus 24, 17. Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.

Now, I'm sure none of us are surprised if you're put to death for committing adultery. You will be put to death for committing murder. Makes sense to me. Maybe not to liberals, but to me.

And to you. To us. So, David commits a crime worthy enough of execution. Two crimes worthy enough of execution. Joab conspires with him, the commander, and is also deserving of death.

Of course, Joab's been deserving of death for a lot of years now. And so, anyway. But I want to read a passage of scripture, and this is an interesting passage of scripture because it was written by David.

It's Psalm 140. And see what it has to say and if it applies at all to this passage at all. It says, deliver me, O Lord, from evil men.

Preserve me from violent men who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and under their lips is the venom of asps.

Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from violent men who have planned to trip up my feet. The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net.

Beside the way they have set snares for me. I say to the Lord, You are my God. Give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O Lord.

And then verse 9. As for the head of those who surround me, let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them. Let burning coals fall upon them.

Let them be cast into fire, into miry pits, no more to rise. Let not the slanderer be established in the land. Let evil hunt down the violent man speedily.

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy. That sounds like, I mean, this was written by David himself.

I don't know when, necessarily. But that sounds like David right now. He's the wicked man. He's the evil man. And he's even saying he's deserving of death.

He's even saying he's deserving of complete justice for God, in verse 12, to execute justice for the needy, and to condemn this violent man.

It's a terrible thing. So, the mighty king has fallen, but covers up his fall, and pretends that nothing has happened.

So, let's see what it, it's just a regular day. There was a sexual infidelity.

There was a murder. All of these things happened. David has committed great sin, but there's nothing to see here.

It's just a regular day. You can move on. So, he just simply gets a message from his commander, as usual.

He gets regular messages, especially when he's away. Remember, in chapter 10, he was also away once as well. Those things happen. And so, Joab commanded some men to fight the Ammonites close to the wall.

Now, actually, what happens, David asked for Uriah the Hittite to be in the battlefield, and everybody come away there. Well, actually, what happened is that there were men from Ammon who came out from the city gate and, you know, probed the Israelite army and then had to run off when they were overpowered.

And they ran off, and then this company that Uriah the Hittite was with was given the command, go to the wall. Okay.

Military Tactics 101 from the 1000 BC. That's a stupid thing to do. Matter of fact, even David, well, this is actually Joab saying this while David was, like, David being angry, you know, this kind of thing.

It's probably something they talk about all the time. Remember Abimelech, son of, the other guy that's talking about, I forget the name, but actually it's Gideon. He had another name.

Let me look at it. I should look at it. Jerubasheth. Jerubasheth. You can remember Jerubasheth. Gideon. Well, back in Judges chapter 9, after Gideon died, he had, like, a lot of kids, way more kids than I do, like 50 or something.

And Abimelech was one of these children, and Abimelech simply means my daddy is king. So, these are judges, not kings. So, that's already a problem there anyway. Gideon had way too big of pants for himself at the end of his life, unfortunately.

And Abimelech followed through with that. Well, anyway, there was a rise and fall of Abimelech pretty much in one chapter. And at the end of that life, he went, they were fighting, and some lady, and actually the text says a certain woman took an upper millstone and dropped it on his head and he died.

And even David, or I guess Joab, is saying this on behalf of David, saying he's going to say that. I mean, you don't do that kind of thing. I mean, they're already trained, you know, military tactics 101, you don't do that.

You don't go to the wall because anything can happen. I mean, these are archers that are going to be on the top of the wall. And if you've seen Braveheart, if you've seen one of the Robin Hood cheesy movies from the 90s, you notice that those archers are deadly from hundreds of yards away.

You think how deadly they're going to be from just a few yards away, just however tall their building is. And so it's just, when you're right there, they can get you right there.

So even David would be upset about this, or at least Joab on behalf of David. And even this, let's go back to, let me look at that.

It's verses 20 and 21. It says, then if the king's anger arises, this is Joab speaking to the messenger to deliver this message to David.

If he says to you, why did you go so near the city to fight? And all of this, what is said. This is chiasm, we've talked about chiasm before, and simply it's an outline that points to a particular thing.

I mean, so it's like an A, B, C, B' A' B' would be like B and A' would be like A. And it's pointing to the one thing, and whatever that center letter is, is the main point of this text.

So in this particular outline, it says, why did you go so near the city to fight? Well, let me walk you through it. Maybe he said it something like this, why did you go to the city to fight?

And then he says something along the lines of, I mean, they're archers, they're going to shoot you right from the wall, they're going to kill you. Do you remember who killed Abimelech? Remember, it was just some woman out there, some random woman that took an upper millstone and dropped it on his head, and he died, and he was snuffed out like that?

Don't you remember that? So why did you go near the wall? Do you see that? All that pointing to what? Who killed Abimelech? Who really killed Abimelech?

I mean, you know, the text says that, and it's a different story, and that's another lesson to be said, but nonetheless, who killed Uriah the Hittite? Who really killed Uriah the Hittite?

Yes, the Yamanites archers probably were the ones that actually killed him, but who really killed Uriah the Hittite? It's even pointing to that at the same time, so it's interesting that even the author of 2 Samuel is even using poetry to allude to the realities of this.

And then the messenger came, he told David, things went a little bit differently than Joab, thought it would go, and he was able to tell him, Uriah the Hittite is dead, and David took that message remarkably well.

Gee, I wonder why. And he says something here that will haunt him months later. He says, the sword devours now one and now another.

It's true. When you're in war, casualties happen. The sword devours one, now one, and now another. Of course, this whole thing was plotted, and that doesn't really apply here, and he should be saying something else.

You know, like, you know, drop dead, that kind of thing. But it's going to haunt him in a really horrific way.

And if you know anything about chapter 12, you know what that is. We'll get to that next week. And we come to this idea.

Let me read that sentence again. The mighty king has fallen. But he covers up the fall and pretends that nothing has happened.

God knows. And it says at the end of this passage, this chapter, the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

And Psalm 139 says this about God.

also written by David. For you formed me in my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them. The days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them.

Search me O God and know my heart and try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is God. This is God who knows our hearts. This is God who searches our minds. This is God. Nothing comes in surprise for him.

He knows even the little one. He knows the one who's conceived. He knows the one who's conceived before he's conceived. She's conceived. Nothing surprises him.

And this is an omniscient God. He knows all. He sees all. He hears all. And yet, how many times are we like David?

How many times do we want to hide things from this omniscient God? How many times do we want to be like Jonah and don't go where God is sending us? How many times are we committing these sins?

Whether they're in our minds and we don't think anybody knows and that kind of thing. Or whatever it might be. I told about earlier that this king of Ammon and why they were fighting this war to begin with is that what he did to David's emissaries, his ambassadors, they did to David.

And they were cutting his integrity and they were cutting his dignity. And here we are in chapter 11 and David is, why does he need help?

He's doing it himself. But this is God. God knows all. God sees all.

Hebrews 4, 12-13, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. And we will give account.

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