The Gospel according to David: David's Repentance

And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him." Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord , to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 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 out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.'" David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord ." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord , the child who is born to you shall die." Then Nathan went to his house. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. - 2 Samuel 12:1‭-‬15 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

The man after God's own heart fell into lust, adultery, and murder. This should give us pause. No one of us should say, I would never do that. Like we can do any better. This is the man after God's own heart.

But even so, God did not turn away. Through David, we have the lineage of Jesus. God continues his work. God's grace is greater than any of our sins.

In the last chapter, David was the active party. He sent for Bathsheba. He sent for Uriah. He sent Uriah to his death. This chapter sees God act. God sends Nathan, the prophet, to David. Sin is deceptive. It appears life-giving, but it is life-threatening. From giving into anger, unhealthy relationships, and disordered priorities for success, comfort, & things other than God... They all can feel so right, but are killing us.

The things that need to change are the things we see the least. The arrogant person does not think they are being prideful. They are just "being truthful." David was deceived. He thought he was okay, until Nathan came. God sent the prophet to wound, so that David could be healed.

True repentance

Worldly repentance has sorrow and shame, but never moves on from there. Self centered repentance only focuses on our image before others. We were caught.

True repentance is God centered. When we break the first commandment, we break the rest. Our relationship with God first breaks before the other commands. We fail to keep God first and everything breaks down from there. God's judgement is right and true.

We see not just that sin, but rather we grasp that we are sinners. Therefore we, Christians, must live our lives in perpetual repentance. How does this look? To turn and go back in God's direction. Some are like a pedestrian turning around, others are like bicyclists turning around, finally since sins are like oil tankers slowing to a stop and turning around... It can take forever.

Repentance comes to change our understanding and perception of sin, to change our understanding of ourselves, and to change our understanding of God. We will learn to recognize and stop sinning. We will know that we are sinners to be in perpetual repentance. We will know that God is gracious and just. How? Jesus is God incarnate. He was just, but He also hung out with the dregs of society, tax collectors & prostitutes. Radically holy and radically gracious.

David sinned, but his son died. The baby was innocent. But remember that God too lost a son. A son who was innocent.

Repentance comes from God's kindness. The grace of God seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This is what drives us to change. The love of God seen in the one who sacrificed it all for us. That is what will drive us to change from our sin and filth.

The Gospel According to David: David's Fall

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 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 to 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 did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? 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 to 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 displease 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. - 2 Samuel 11:1‭-‬27 ESV

Rev. Dan Whang

We think that our politicians are bad. David is no better. He has a huge moral failure. There is no human hero worship.

David is not where he should be. It is the time of war. Kings customarily go out to war during this time. But David stayed at home. He sent Joab in his place.

  David is laying on his couch and decides to go for a walk. He goes out on his roof. He isn't looking for sin and temptation. But we need to remember, sin and temptation does not take a vacation. David does not remember his integrity and forgets God. When sin comes to tempt, Satan does not make God evil, he makes us forget God. He makes us feel that we are justified in sinning.

  David sees this beautiful woman. And he sends messengers. They tell him, this is the wife of one of his men. He sends his men to go get her. And he sleeps with her. He goes from lazing about to actively seeking out the desire of his flesh. He actively seeks it out.

  David has been in control this whole time. Not any more. Things are out of David's control. Bathsheba becomes pregnant. David sends for her husband. Uriah comes and the king talks nicely to him. David tries to send him home to sleep with his wife. But Uriah won't cooperate. So he gets him drunk. But Uriah has more integrity drunk than king David. David doesn't repent. He plots murder. David sends Uriah with a note to the commander that was his death warrant.

  Uriah was one of his mighty men. A close comrade who fought for the David.  The king who invited the descendent of Saul to his table also murdered and stole the wife of a close friend and brother in arms. David is a monster. The man after God's own heart has become a murdering adulterer.

Application

Close your eyes (to sin)

Sin attacks with a visual attack. Not the first look, but the lingering second look. The first is a temptation. What happens after is where we can fall to sin.

Divine silence

After all these things, we see no reference to God. Until the very end. Then we hear that God was displeased. Not that God rejected or withdrew from David, but that God saw David's sin. David did all these things out of fear of man. He wanted to hide and cover over his sin in the eyes of men, but God sees.

"Be killing sin or sin will be killing you."

The Gospel According to David: You Won't Build Me a House, I Will Build You a House

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent." And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you." But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord : Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"' Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'" In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, "Who am I, O Lord God , and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God . You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God ! And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God ! Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore 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. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord , became their God. And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. And your name will be magnified forever, saying, 'The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,' and the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord God , you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God , have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever." - 2 Samuel 7:1‭-‬29 ESV

Rev. Charles Han

David has come a long way from a shepherd boy. He was a warrior, musician, fugitive, rival for the throne, to finally ruler over all of Israel. And finally, David comes upon a period of peace.

The God of all grace

David is in a house of cedar. He is in a peaceful and good place. But David is discontent, the ark and tabernacle sits in a tent. He goes to the prophet, Nathan, and proposes that a temple be built for God. Nathan says yes, absolutely. But God says no. God says David will not build him a house. God chose the tent over the temple. This is to show that God stoops to serve us. He is among us and with us.

God serves us. We are commanded to serve Him. But God doesn't need our service. Pagan gods of that day needed a temple. Building a house for one of these gods will allow is to curry their favor. God is not like one of these. He is not like the other gods. He operates on grace, not karma.

The God of covenant promise

God makes a promise to David. Most covenants if this time are mutually agreed. But God does not, he does it unconditionally, no matter what.

What kind of promise is being made here? God will raise up David's lineage as kings. He will deal with his progeny as sons. His kingdom will last forever. Not hyperbole, but literally forever. It is like hitting the jackpot. Out of nowhere, God promises such great things. But what is this to us? This promise refers to Jesus. Those who have faith in Jesus as saviour and Lord, have claim to this promise.

As followers of Christ, we are treated as sons and daughters of God. Death will not keep us down. We will be a part of this kingdom that will last into eternity.

God lives in a tent, sure. But how sure can we be of God as Emmanuel, God with us? Jesus came and became one of us. He was homeless and experienced all the suffering that we encounter in this life. This should bring us peace and contentment.

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. - Luke 12:32‭-‬33 ESV

We can rest knowing that God is giving us the kingdom. He is giving us an ultimate home. A place that absolutely fits and suits us. This does not exist on this side of eternity. We can find inns and hotels that give some measure of this feeling, but with no permanence. We will stay unsatisfied until heaven comes. A kingdom and home is what God is making for us... in heaven. That is our inheritance.

Our response

David reacts to God's response with a long prayer. He is marveled by the grace of God. He is without words. This king is the one who wrote so many songs of praise in Psalms. This is the heart of gratitude for a debt that cannot be repaid. We should be gripped by a gratefulness that we cannot even put into words. The proper response is repentance and worship.