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2 Samuel
Chapter Eleven
2 Samuel 11
Chapter Contents
David's adultery. (1-5) He tries to conceal his crime.
(6-13) Uriah murdered. (14-27)
Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:1-5
(Read 2 Samuel 11:1-5)
Observe the occasions of David's sin; what led to it. 1.
Neglect of his business. He tarried at Jerusalem. When we are out of the way of
our duty, we are in temptation. 2. Love of ease: idleness gives great advantage
to the tempter. 3. A wandering eye. He had not, like Job, made a covenant with
his eyes, or, at this time, he had forgotten it. And observe the steps of the
sin. See how the way of sin is down-hill; when men begin to do evil, they
cannot soon stop. Observe the aggravations of the sin. How could David rebuke
or punish that in others, of which he was conscious that he himself was guilty?
Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:6-13
(Read 2 Samuel 11:6-13)
Giving way to sin hardens the heart, and provokes the
departure of the Holy Spirit. Robbing a man of his reason, is worse than
robbing him of his money; and drawing him into sin, is worse than drawing him
into any wordly trouble whatever.
Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:14-27
(Read 2 Samuel 11:14-27)
Adulteries often occasion murders, and one wickedness is
sought to be covered by another. The beginnings of sin are much to be dreaded;
for who knows where they will end? Can a real believer ever tread this path?
Can such a person be indeed a child of God? Though grace be not lost in such an
awful case, the assurance and consolation of it must be suspended. All David's
life, spirituality, and comfort in religion, we may be sure were lost. No man
in such a case can have evidence to be satisfied that he is a believer. The
higher a man's confidence is, who has sunk in wickedness, the greater his
presumption and hypocrisy. Let not any one who resembles David in nothing but
his transgressions, bolster up his confidence with this example. Let him follow
David in his humiliation, repentance, and his other eminent graces, before he
thinks himself only a backslider, and not a hypocrite. Let no opposer of the
truth say, These are the fruits of faith! No; they are the effects of corrupt
nature. Let us all watch against the beginnings of self-indulgence, and keep at
the utmost distance from all evil. But with the Lord there is mercy and
plenteous redemption. He will cast out no humble, penitent believer; nor will
he suffer Satan to pluck his sheep out of his hand. Yet the Lord will recover his
people, in such a way as will mark his abhorrence of their crimes, to hinder
all who regard his word from abusing the encouragements of his mercy.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Samuel》
2 Samuel 11
Verse 1
[1] And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the
time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with
him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged
Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
After — When that year ended, and the next begun, which was in
the spring time.
When kings — Which is, when the ground is fit
for the march of soldiers, and brings forth provision for man and beast.
Tarried at Jerusalem — Had he been now in
his post, at the head of his forces be had been out of the way of temptation.
Verse 2
[2] And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose
from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the
roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look
upon.
Arose from off his bed — Where he had lain,
and slept for some time. And the bed of sloth often proves the bed of lust.
Washing herself — In a bath, which was in her
garden. Probably from some ceremonial pollution.
Verse 3
[3] And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one
said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?
He inquired — Instead of suppressing that
desire which the sight of his eyes had kindled, he seeks rather to feed it; and
first enquires who she was; that if she were unmarried, he might make her
either his wife or his concubine.
Verse 4
[4] And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in
unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and
she returned unto her house.
Took her — From her own house into his palace, not by force, but
by persuasion.
Lay with her — See how all the way to sin is
down hill! When men begin, they cannot soon stop themselves.
Verse 8
[8] And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash
thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a
mess of meat from the king.
Go down — Not doubting but he would there converse with his
wife, and so cover their sin and shame.
Verse 9
[9] But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all
the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
The servants — With the king's guard. This he
did, by the secret direction of God's wise providence, who would bring David's
sin to light.
Verse 10
[10] And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not
down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey?
why then didst thou not go down unto thine house?
Camest — Wearied with hard service and travel, nor did I expect
or desire that thou shouldest now attend upon my person, or keep the watch.
Verse 11
[11] And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and
Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are
encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to
drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will
not do this thing.
The ark — This it seems, was now carried with them for their
encouragement and direction, as was usual.
Fields — In tents which are in the fields. His meaning is, now,
when God's people are in a doubtful and dangerous condition, it becomes me to
sympathize with them, and to abstain even from lawful delights.
Verse 15
[15] And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the
forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be
smitten, and die.
He arose — So far is David from repenting, that he seeks to cover
one sin with another. How are the beginnings of sin to be dreaded! For who
knows where it will end? David hath sinned, therefore Uriah must die! That
innocent, valiant, gallant man, who was ready to die for his prince's honour,
must die by his prince's hand! See how fleshly lusts war against the soul, and
what devastations they make in that war! How they blind the eyes, fear the
conscience, harden the heart, and destroy all sense of honour and justice!
Verse 27
[27] And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched
her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing
that David had done displeased the LORD.
The mourning — Which was seven days. Nor could
the nature of the thing admit of longer delay, lest the too early birth of the
child might discover David's sin.
Bare a son — By which it appears, That David
continued in the state of impenitency for divers months together; and this
notwithstanding his frequent attendance upon God's ordinances. Which is an
eminent instance of the corruption of man's nature, of the deceitfulness of
sin, and of the tremendous judgment of God in punishing one sin, by delivering
a man up to another.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2
Samuel》
11 Chapter 11
Verses 1-27
Verse 1
The year was expired.
The end of the old year: a help to begin the new one
I. The end of the
year presents a fit opportunity to enquire how we regard the Divine government.
God governs the world according to natural and moral laws, through the medium
of the Gospel, and by the arrangements of His providence. Let us try ourselves
in relation to each.
1. Natural law, as seen in the works of His hands. That is not
religion, but fanaticism, which pours contempt on these works. Every man should
seek them out, and find pleasure in them. His eternal power and Godhead are
declared thereby. The whole year, by night and by day, has been teaching you;
“day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.” If you
have been an attentive student of these great works, you have bowed with
lowlier reverence at His footstool, confessing, “In wisdom hast Thou made them
all.” If you have not, then go and learn with the little child.
2. Moral law. There was a law given from Sinai which has since been
repealed; but that which substantially is understood by the moral law never has
been, and never can be, abrogated. It is the law of this and all other
worlds--the law for angels and men--the law of love. “Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart, and soul, and strength; and thy neighbour as
thyself.”
3. The Gospel. First, the Gospel is free. You need nothing to qualify
you to receive its blessings; you may receive them freely, as you are. “All
things are ready.” The second thing is, the Gospel is full. You need nothing
else. “My God shall supply all your need out of His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus.”
4. God governs the world by the arrangements of His providence. These
try and determine the temper of our mind very decidedly.
5. But there are other arrangements of God’s providence which
surround us as individuals, and which try us more accurately.
II. The end of the
year suggests, the importance of trying our moral condition.
1. If we are going to heaven, we are nearer there than ever; and this
night reminds us how very soon we shall pass the portals of glory. Are we
better prepared than at the commencement of the sear for the employment of
heaven?
2. Has the experience of the year taught us our weakness and
worthlessness, and humbled us to repentance? “Wherefore I abhor myself, and
repent.” “Unprofitable servants!”
3. Are we distinctly conscious of pardon for the past?
4. Are we sure there is within us a disposition opposed to all sin?
Can we say with the holy Mr. Corbett, “Upon the best judgment that I can make
of the nature of sin, and the frame of my own heart, and course of life, I know
no sin lying upon me which doth not consist with habitual repentance, and with
the hatred of sin, and with an unfeigned consent that God should be my Saviour
and Sanctifier, and with the loving of God above all.”
5. Has the year left us earnestly and sinerely desiring the
accomplishment of all good in us and by us?
III. The end of the
year suggests the propriety of examining and revising our plans for the
employment of our time.
1. As to our devotional habits.
2. As to our walking with God.
3. As to our work. Are all our talents employed for God? “Occupy till
I come.” “The time is short.” Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do--do it.”
4. As to our amusements. “Use no recreation or delight of sense, but
thou canst at that very time desire of God, that it may be sanctified to
spiritual ends.”
IV. And lastly, the
end of the year reminds us of the “end of all things,” and bids us prepare for
it.
1. Look forward to death.
2. Anticipate the coming of the Lord and the future judgment. (T.
E. Thoresby.)
The flight of time
When Michael Faraday, the celebrated man of science, was a poor
apprentice, he used every spare moment for making experiments. In a letter to a
boy friend, after telling one of these experiments, he added: “Time is all I
require. Oh, that I could purchase at a cheap rate some of our modern gents’
spare hours--nay, days! I think it would be a-good bargain, both for them and
for me.” The youth had learned the first secret of success--not to waste time;
not to throw it away on useless persons or useless pursuits. The frivolous
think of nothing but pastimes and modes of “killing time;” but a day will come
to even the most frivolous when they will value time as much as our own
impetuous Queen Elizabeth did when she exclaimed on her death-bed, “My kingdom
for a moment.” (Quiver.)
The time when kings go
forth to battle.
A summons to battle
There seems to have been in the olden times, among the petty
sovereigns of the East, regular seasons for warfare; perhaps they marched forth
in the spring, when the grass would afford food for their horses, or possibly
in the autumn, when the troops could forage upon the standing crops. These
sovereigns of small territories were little better than the captains of hordes
of robbers, and their revenues were rather derived from plunder than from
legitimate taxation. We may thank God that we live in a happier era, for the
miseries of nations were then beyond imagination. Desolating as war now is, its
evils are comparatively little compared with those days of perpetual plunder.
But I am not about to talk of kings. I must transfer the text to some other and more practical use.
There is a time in our hearts when the inner warfare rages with unusual
violence. At certain seasons our corruptions break forth with extreme violence; and if
for awhile they appear to have formed a truce with us, or to have lost their
power, we suddenly find them full of vigour, fierce, and terrible; and hard
will be the struggle for us, by prayer and holy watchfulness, to keep ourselves
from becoming slaves to our inward enemies. I thought of using the text in
reference to Christian activities. There are times when Christians, all of whom
are kings unto God, should go forth to battle in a special sense.
I. The time for
the kings to go forth to battle is come. The special time for Christian
activities is just now. In some senses nay, in the highest sense, believers
ought to be always active. There should never be an idle day, or a wasted hour,
or even a barren moment to a servant of God.
1. The time for kings to go forth to battle will be always when the
king’s troops are fit for battle; I mean, the time for spiritual work is when
the worker is especially fit for it.
2. Another season of especial work should be, when discerning
Christian men feel the motions of the Spirit of God calling them to unusual
service. “When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry
trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself,” said God to David, and then David did
bestir himself, and the Philistines were smitten. Do you not, some of you, hear
the sound of the going in the tops of the mulberry trees?
3. One other mark of the time for kings to go forth to battle is
surely when the Lord Himself works. The presence of good men with us is
encouraging, but oh, the presence of the God of good men should much more stimulate
us. Mahomet in one of his first famous battles, stimulated his soldiers to the
fight by declaring that he could hear the neighing of the horses of the angels
as they rode to the conflict to win the victory for the faithful. We speak not
so, but surely the horses of fire and the chariots of fire are round about the
faithful servant of God, and faith’s discerning eye can see the God of
providence moving heaven and earth to help his church, if his church will but
arise from the dust and put on her beautiful garments, and resolve to conquer
in her Master’s name.
II. Since the time
for battle has come, it behoves every soldier now to go to the wars.
1. All believers belong to Christ. You are His bond servants, you
bear in your bodies His brand, the marks of the Lord Christ, for “ye are not
your own, ye are bought with a price,”
2. I will add, all of you believers love Christ. Your belonging to
Him has wrought in you a true affection for Him.
3. Moreover, let me remind you that there is strength promised for
each of you. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” Shall I say that there is
work for all of us to do which lies very close to hand? The preacher will never
be without his. God will take care to furnish all His servants with sufficiency
of work. I remember to have read in Cotton Mather’s book upon plans of
usefulness, that he remarks that sometimes at the expense of a shilling, under
God’s blessing, a soul has been converted. Such books as Alleyne’s “Alarm,”
Baxter’s “Call to the Unconverted,” and Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress,” have
wrought wonders in years gone by; and at this hour you may have for a penny or
less, truths so set forth as to ensure the reader’s attention. Mr. Cecil says
he had to be very grateful to God for his mother, not so much because she
pressed him to read good books, as that she took care to put good books where
he was likely to take them up.
III. There are great
motives to excite us to fight earnestly for Christ. The motives gather round
five points.
1. The first is our King.
2. Remember next the banner under which we fight--the banner of the
truth, of the atoning blood.
3. Remember, next, another word--the captives whom it is your hope by
the Holy Spirit’s power to redeem from the slavery of sin. How our soldiers of
the Indian mutiny advanced like lions against the mutineers when they
remembered Cawnpore and all the cruelties to which their brethren had been
exposed! How unweariedly they marched, how sternly they fought when they were
within sight of the foe! After this sort should we fight with those who have
enslaved and injured our brethren.
4. Remember, again, and this word ought to stimulate us to fight
well, the enemy, the black and cruel enemy.
5. Yet one more encouragement, and that is our reward. “They that
turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.”
IV. The highest
encouragements readily present themselves to induce you to join the warring
armies.
1. It is quite certain that God has an elect people still upon the
earth; then see ye not that it is hopeful work to find out these elect ones by
the preaching of the word?
2. Remember, also, that God has never failed a true worker yet.
3. Remember, too, that if you did not see any souls converted, yet
God would he glorified by your exaltation of Christ, and your talking of
Christ, and your earnest prayers and tears for the good of others.
IV. The solemn
danger of inaction. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Glad response to the battle call
Even the most disagreeable duty, if done in love, may be a
means of blessing. When we come really to believe this great truth we shall
seek for no other reward for our service than Christ’s glad presence at the
goal. We shall go to every task with eager joy, because Christ will await us in
it. We shall grow to be like that English soldier in India. The doctor was
inspecting the troops to see who were fit to join in the attack of Delhi, and
passed by this youth, who looked sick. “Don’t say I am unfit for duty,”
exclaimed the young hero; “it’s only a touch of fever, and the sound of the
bugle will make me well.” Such is the ardour with which we Christians should
leap forward at Christ’s summons.
The Divine presence an incentive
“As soldiers fight best in their general’s presence, and scholars
ply their books most attentively when under their master’s eye, so, by living
always in the sight of God, we are the more studious to please him. The oftener
we consider the Lord, the more we see that no service can be holy enough or
good enough for such a God as He is.” This needs no comment, but it needs to be
realised. See, soldier of the cross, the eye of the Captain of our salvation is
fixed upon thee! Jesus cries,, “I know thy works.” Will not this incite thee to
valorous deeds, and make heroes of them? If not, what will? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 2-24
And it came to pass in an eventide.
The fall and punishment of David illustrated
I. The
circumstances of David previous to His fall. For several years he had been in a
state of great trouble: But it was not in this state of trial and affliction
that he offended. During this period we see him exercising, in a remarkable
degree, the faith, the resignation, the humility, the patience, the meekness of
the servant of God. But now God had brought his troubles to a close. For some
years he had been the most powerful monarch in that quarter of the world. These
were his circumstances when he fell.
II. Consider the
peculiar temptation which is suffered to present itself to David, and the way
in which he encountered it. The temptation arose, a temptation sudden and
great. He gives way to the seduction. He calmly descends from his palace with a
determination to bring the evil of his heart into act, and to perpetrate the
crime which the tempter had suggested to him. This we may conceive to have been
the turning point in David’s career. Oh! had David paused but for one moment;
had he retired a while to deliberate upon his Conduct; had he put up one prayer
for Divine help; had he passed on even to the duties of his kingly office so as
to divert his thoughts into a different channel; the snare might have been
broken, and he have escaped. But, alas! David is left a melancholy monument of
what the best man may become when he forsakes his God, and when his God, in
consequence, abandons him.
III. The state of
David after his first sin, and his progress to new offences. What must David
have felt after the perpetration of the first crime? Immediately the sense of
the Divine presence, the inspiring hope of Divine favour and eternal glory,
would withdraw from him. The consequences of his crime were becoming visible,
and the once noble and generous David now resorts to low artifices to conceal
his guilt. He sends for the injured husband. He treats him with a subtlety
unworthy both of himself and of his loyal subject, endeavouring to impose upon
him a spurious offspring. When deceit, however, would not prevail on Uriah, a
fresh crime must compel him. Crime leads on to crime. David, therefore, urged
by a dread of detection, determines to add murder to adultery.
IV. The criminal
schemes of David had now taken effect, and Uriah could no more disturb the bed
of his seducer and murderer. But when there remained no obstacle to enjoyment,
the Divine Hand suddenly arrested him in his guilty career. God sent Nathan the
Prophet to convince him in his guilt.
V. The dreadful
consequence of this transgression. Where God forgives, He does not always
wholly spare. He may so pardon the sin as not to inflict upon the sinner
eternal condemnation, and yet punish him severely. And such was the case of
David. Besides the wound his soul had sustained, and which, perhaps, might
never afterwards be entirely healed, we find the remainder of David’s life
harassed by perpetual sorrows.
1. It may teach us to guard against declension in grace, and watch
against temptation. If temptation is urgent flee from it and think of the fall
of David.
2. Charity and tenderness in judging of those who fall. Call them
not, as the world are too apt to call them, hypocrites. David was no
hypocrite--but David fell.
3. Finally, let us beware of employing the fall of David as a plea
for sin, and of presuming that such a restoration as his to favour and holiness
will be granted to ourselves. Before we can build upon the hope of a
restoration such as his our circumstances must be those of David. (J. Venn,
M. A.)
David’s great trespass
How ardently would most, if not all readers of David’s life have
wished that the first verse of this chapter had been--“And David died, and was
gathered unto his fathers; and his son reigned in his stead.” The golden era of
his life has passed away; his sun has begun to go down; and what remains of his
life is chequered with records of crime and chastisement, of sin and sorrow.
What we now encounter is not like a spot but an eclipse; it is not a mere
pimple that slightly disfigures a comely face, but a tumour that distorts the
countenance and drains the whole body; of its vigour. There is something quite
remarkable in the fearless way in which the Bible unveils the guilt of David;
it is set forth in all its enormity, without an attempt to excuse or palliate
it; and the only statement introduced in the whole narrative to characterise his
proceedings are these quiet but terribly expressive words with which the
chapter ends--“But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” In the
bold and fearless march of Providence, we often see the hand of God. What mere
man, framing the character of one designed to be a pattern of excellence, and
to bear the designation “the man after God’s own heart”--would have dared to
ascribe to him such wickedness as this? The truth is, that though David’s
reputation would have been far brighter, if he had died at this point of his
career; the moral of his life, so to speak, would have been less complete. In
some way that we cannot rightly explain, he does not appear to have been duty
sensible either of the guilt or of the danger of this tendency. He does not
appear to have watched against it as against other sins, nor to have taken the
same pains, through grace, to subdue it. In the passage now before us we find a
catastrophe, resulting from this state of things, which was truly the beginning
of sorrows. The king of Israel becomes familiar with sorrows and trials,
compared to which any that he had suffered when flying and biding from Saul
were light indeed. The lust which he has spared and indulged, re-appearing in
his children, introduces incest and murder into the bosom of his family; it
violates the sanctity of his home; and in place of the comely order, and the
sweet tranquility of brothers and sisters dwelling together in unity, his
palace becomes an abode of brutal appetites and murderous passions--the stain
and horror of which time can neither lessen nor remove. Such a fall as David’s
could not have been altogether instantaneous. It must have been preceded by a
spiritual declension, probably of considerable duration. The likelihood is that
the great prosperity that was now flowing in upon David in every direction had
had an unfavourable effect upon his soul. For a long period the very
extremities of his situation had driven him to dependence on God--necessity was
laid upon him; but now that necessity was removed. Add to this the fact
mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, and so mentioned as to imply that
it is a significant one--that at the time when kings go forth to battle, David
allowed his army to go without him, and “tarried still at Jerusalem.” This
seems to imply that the king had fallen into a luxurious, self-indulging mood;
that he was disposed to sit still and enjoy himself rather than accompany his
brave soldiers to the self-denying labours and dangers of the field. Next, let
us notice the manner in which David was led on from step to step of sin. His
first sin was--suffering himself to be arrested by the sight of the woman; his
fall began with a sin of the heart; had he made a covenant with his eyes, like
Job, he would have nipped the temptation in the bud; he would have been saved a
world of agony and sin. Let us try to gather up briefly, first, the principal
kinds of sin of which David was guilty on this occasion; and then, their chief
aggravations.
The aggravations of these sins were great.
Transgression: its progress and, consummation
I. The origin of
David’s transgressions. Seldom, if ever, is it the case that crime, to any
enormous extent, is perpetrated by men even of the common Stamp, upon sudden
and momentary impulse. There is almost invariably to be observed a regular
gradation in sin, until it towers in all the fierce and frightful ascendancy of
open guilt. Thus was it here. Despise not the fear of extreme iniquity, as if
you were incapable of such a thing. If David fell, who once stood so high and
‘holy in Christian character, to what a depth may we yet fall, we who have
never yet attained to any thing like his early piety:, his primitive godliness.
II. The progress of
sin now opens before us. Indolence and sensuality worked out their regular and
invariable effect upon the erring monarch. He rises from his bed in the evening
time--the bed of luxury, every passion pampered, every avenue to sin wide open,
nothing further necessary to bring about his ruin than some external object to move
the overt act of evil. The wife of Uriah, one of his principal and most
faithful generals, becomes the object of temptation. The temptation triumphs,
and the first work of iniquity is accomplished. Sin now becomes compulsory; the
fear of detection and infamy, perhaps of personal danger from the just wrath of
Uriah, drives the royal culprit to every mean and despicable expedient in order
to conceal his transgression. Sin now drives on the soul to violence; and with
cold and unfeeling treachery Uriah is made the innocent messenger of his own
destruction. What a series of close-linked iniquities--indolence, luxury, lust
adultery, hypocrisy, falsehood, treachery, murder! And this is not all; we have
here but the single series of crimes; there is a complication likewise which we
must not overlook if we would read off the history in all its forcible and
solemn instructiveness. Bathsheba is made an accomplice in sin, a moral victim
to the guilty passion of the king, while her husband is sacrifced to his fears.
Here are souls and bodies of men, precious lives, sported away under the
hellish dominion of triumphant guilt! What complicated crime! What an awful
history!
III. The
consummation of evil. All that we have hitherto looked at belongs only to
substantial guilt; guilt branded, it is true, with atrocity, but the
consummation of evil still remains for our reflections. Many months had elapsed
since the commencement of this wretched business, and a long period of time,
too, had intervened between the death of Uriah and the visit of Nathan, to
awaken the royal transgressor to repentance. Throughout this whole interval,
there was no movement of remorse towards heaven in the heart of the king; he
feared the reproof of man, and the wrath of man, as we have seen, and laboured
by murderous efforts to avoid them; but there was yet no remorse towards God,
no recognition of his turpitude, as viewed by the Most High, no fear of Divine
censure, of Divine indignation, no effort to arrest or even deprecate the wrath
of Jehovah. Thus, then, David had fallen into practical infidelity; every
active consideration of God’s existence, omniscience, and justice had vanished
away. What a mystery is sin; it possesses us to self-destruction, while it
diminishes nothing of our sagacity or skill in arraying and condemning the
guilt of others. It is enough for satanic malice and purpose, if the soul be
filled with every holy sentiment, and wisdom, and quality for external
occupation, provided it remain dead to its own interests, unmoved by its own
guilt! This prostration of judgment, this death of conscience, consummated the
spiritual misery of the fallen monarch. How long should such a state have
lasted, if God had not specially recalled the sinner to repentance? For ever!
There was no human power, no natural remedy left for his restoration. To
reclaim him, fear had failed, and conscience had failed, and memory of past
obedience had failed. Reason was stupified, and stupified for ever, if God had
not, in his faithfulness and mercy, sent a special waffling to his soul,
calling forth repentance. Let us pause here one short moment, while we collect
together the admonition, which may be adduced from what we have now perused.
1. And first, as we saw the steady, onward progress of sin, from the
almost imperceptible germ of indolence and luxury, to the actual crime of
murder, and the utter infatuation of all spiritual sense and judgment, let us
hence, I say, beware of the least compliance with iniquity. We often trifle
with sins of small account, set limitations to our compliance with the follies
or luxuries, or harmless indulgences of the world, as they are termed.
2. Reflect with horror on the complication of sin. For our
self-gratification alone it is that we are led on to crime at first; that
gratification must have victims; aye, if the besetting evil within us be but
pride or covetousness, it must have victims. Some must suffer for our
indulgence, many will become hardened by our example in guilt; for often the
man who is called, in the false language of the world, his own enemy alone,
will have to answer, perhaps, for the eternal death of others.
3. Trust nothing to your own shrewdness of discernment between good
and evil your own spiritual-mindedness and holiness, about the external objects
and other men. Our profession is worth nothing, our spiritual attainments no
proof of personal approbation with God, of personal holiness, while they range
beyond self. We must deal with self, prove self, pass judgment on self, and
live in communion, secret union with Christ, or our religion is but sounding
brass and tinkling cymbal.
IV. The return to
virtue. Mark the proof; here is a king, with all the powers of life and death
over his subjects, in his own will, in his own hands. He is confronted by a man
of humble state, of lowly lot, a man devoid of ally earthly influence. By this
man he is accused of a grievous murder, and that, too in broad noon day, before
his courtiers and counsellors, on his very throne of judgment; and so far from
yielding to resentment at so daring an intrusion, or expressing the least
displeasure at the abrupt and public accusation with which he is so assailed,
he sinks at once into contrition, and confesses his iniquity--“I have sinned
against the Lord.” This is what we need, a thorough conviction of our sins now;
we shall have it certainly in the world to come, if it be not here attained.
But conviction there is too late for anything but eternal torment; we must have
it here, that under a thorough sense of our lost condition, we may apply to the
rich mercies of the Redeemer for pardon.
V. Pardon I And
may pardon be had for such iniquities as adultery and murder--for such extremes
of crime? Yes, for all transgressions; the vilest may hope; this history is for
our encouragement, to seek that grace which never was denied to suppliant
man--“Christ is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.”
VI. No
encouragement to careless sin, and fruitless admission of criminality, with the
secret or avowed purpose of continuance in crime. That from which nature
shrinks with more alarm than all the threatenings of eternal misery can inspire
is present suffering; that was inflicted, in all its severity, upon David. (C.
M. Fleury, A. M.)
Sloth and sin
I. David at this
time enjoyed great prosperity. The promises made in adversity have not been
forgotten. His devotion to God is fervid and growing. There were no rebellions
at home. The land was quiet. The great wish of his heart had been formed into
an avenue through which the service could be rendered to God.
1. Prosperity enervated him. Prosperity is a danger to men of David’s
mould. Contrast the readiness with which he went forth in the old days when
Saul hunted him as a bird! He was standing in high places! He needed clinging
grace.
2. Prosperity induced sloth. Our inner life is very responsive to our
outward condition.
II. When
opportunity and temptation meet there is struggle. Without reserve the Bible
tells the shameful story--shows how one sin drags after it another until it
compels you to write against the name of the man (not free from the weakness of
human imperfections, yet sincere and upright)--to write against that man the
horrible list of crimes, deception, adultery, injustice, treachery, and murder.
III. The influences
which sapped the wall of his will. You feel instinctively such a fall could not
have been instantaneous--fifty years old, a devoted, upright man of God to so
fall. The tempest has not strength in it to snap such an oak if the heart of
the tree is sound. The sacred narrative shows the weakness, reveals the secret
decay.
1. Close the doors of imagination against carnal imagery; make a
covenant with your eves and keep it. There was a “prepared plate” in the camera
of David’s mind, or the beauty of Bathsheba had been as nought to him. Take
heed where you go for your recreations. Idle strolling may in some moods lead
to pitfalls. He concealed when he should have confessed. Better to have crept
to the mercy-seat covered with his filth than, as he did, wait in the palace
with his sin. (H. E. Stone.)
David and Bathsheba
After so many splendid victories achieved by David, after
such frequent triumphs over his enemies, nothing remained but the subjugation
of those passions that are excited by prosperity and wealth: but these were
enemies more difficult to subdue than the Philistines and the other powerful
nations whom this valiant warrior had vanquished. “He that ruleth his spirit is
stronger than he that taketh a city.” David was smitten with the charms of
Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, a brave and generous soldier, who was at that
time fighting the battles of his country, and engaged at the siege of Rabbah.
Contrary to the laws of God, to every sentiment of honour, and every dictate of
generosity, he led her to violate her nuptial engagements. What shall we say to
this conduct? Shall we with some well-intentioned but injudicious commentators
extenuate the crimes of David? No; he himself, when his eyes were opened to
behold the depth of the abyss into which he was fallen, would not attempt to
diminish the horror of his transgressions. He was guilty of crimes than which
none more enormous are to be found in the black list of sins.
1. Are there any who are ready to justify their enormities from the
example of David? Who are saying to themselves, “If David, notwithstanding
these enormous crimes, was a saint of God, and obtained pardon, I am safe?” Let
such consider his habitual conduct, his splendid virtues, and his deep
repentance. In examining his habitual conduct, we behold a heart devoted to
God. He fell into acts of the greatest wickedness; but these were not
permanent, but diametrically opposite to his general walk and conversation.
Justice requires also that we should contrast his murder and adultery with the
splendid actions of his life. “David,” says the sacred historian (1 Kings 15:5) “did that which was
right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he
commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the
Hittite.” Think of his confidence in God; of his trust in the everlasting
covenant; of the magnanimity and clemency that he so often displayed; of his
zeal for the glory of God; of his humility; of his acquiescence in the severest
dispensations of providence; of the pious emotions which glow in his psalms,
and were felt in his heart; and after taking this general review of his life,
say if there are many who from the bed of death can look back to more numerous
or more splendid monuments of piety and virtue. Consider, too, the depth of his
repentance. Behold him prostrate in the dust, dissolved in tears, pleading for
the life of his soul; looking back with unutterable anguish to his conduce;
bearing the agonised remembrance of it to the grave; never palliating his
crimes; fleeing for pardon to unmerited grace.
2. This subject teaches us that one sin gradually leads us to
another; that he who enters upon a criminal course knows not where he shall
stop in his course; that he who indulges impetuous passions and inordinate
appetites will shortly be deprived of the power of saying to them, “Hitherto
shall ye come and no farther;” and that, therefore, our only safety is to be
found in resisting the first approaches to crime, and “abstaining from all
appearance of evil.” Oppose, then, the beginnings of evil; beware of cherishing
one sinful thought; you know not to what lengths of guilt and shame it may
carry you; you cannot tell where its destructive consequences will end.
3. This subject addresses those who, like David, have departed from
the ways of the Lord; have violated their engagements; have wounded their
consciences; have grieved the Spirit of God and His saints. There is a
sacrifice which has sufficient virtue to expiate all your accumulated guilt. By
the application of the blood of Jesus, and the communication of his Spirit, you
shall obtain the restoration of peace with God, and strength to serve Him in
time to come; like David and like Peter recovered from your falls, you shall
again participate of his favour and love.
4. In reviewing this history, we are naturally led to ask, Why did
Providence permit this shameful fall in David? or, to extend the question, Why
does God allow sin to remain, and sometimes to break out forcibly in his
regenerate children? This question cannot easily be answered. It is not for
want of power to prevent it; for He could perfectly sanctify them. It is not
for want of hatred to their sin; it appears as odious, more odious in them than
in others. It is not for want of love to them; he regards them as his friends
and his children. Why, then, does he not render them immaculately holy? The
following are, perhaps, some of the reasons of this dispensation. These do not
at all justify the offender, though they vindicate the providence of God, and
show its omnipotence in educing good from evil itself.
David’s fall
What led to David’s great sin? He did by another what he ought to
have done himself. Notice verse l, “When kings go forth;” “David sent Joab;”
“David tarried still.”
1. The indulgence of the flesh in a little thing led to indulgence in
a greater. (Romans 13:12-14; Romans 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16.)
2. One sin leads to another, or requires another to cover it.
3. See the hardening effect of sin! The tender-hearted David becomes a
monster of cruelty! (Read, after 2 Samuel 11:26; 2 Samuel 12:26 to end.)
4. The degradation of sin! Joab taken into counsel.
5. The Lord’s unseen contemplation of man’s actions. (Verse 27. Hebrews 4:13; Proverbs 15:11.) I, the great onus of the
crime. For Christians the terrible ingredient of wilful sin is this: They
crucify Christ afresh. They cause His name to be blasphemed. (Romans 2:24.) This makes our
responsibility; hence 1 Peter 2:12; 2 Corinthians 6:3.
II. David’s
repentance. Notice immediate confession on conviction of his sin. His
confession brief, heartfelt, going to the root of the matter. (R. E.
Faulkner.)
David’s dark days
If the heart is lifted up, if pride and self-conceit take the
place of humility and manly self-forgetfulness, the soul is likely to lose its
hold upon God and its close communion with Him, and there is danger of
temptation prevailing over high principle, danger of the “natural man” usurping
the place of the “spiritual man,” danger of a fall. So it was with David. The
height of his success and the splendour of his triumph may have thrown him off
his guard. He was a strong man with a passionate nature, and through his
passions he fell. It was a true instance of St. James’s awful statement. He was
“drawn away of his lust, and enticed;” and when lust had conceived it brought
forth sin; and sin, when it was finished, brought forth death. One deliberate
sin has this terrible property about it, that, unless checked at once, by
honest confession and return to God, it is sure to lead on to other sins. Such
was the case with David. He tried to cover up the crime he had committed by
various efforts to deceive Uriah, and make it impossible for the dark secret to
be known.
2. A year had passed away since David’s fall. He had returned to Jerusalem
in triumph. The dead Uriah was probably forgotten. The child of guilt was burn,
and loved by David with a passionate tenderness. The dreadful story, however,
was not, we maybe quite certain, all forgotten by the king himself. However
much the commission of the crimes of adultery and murder had injured or blinded
his conscience--as wilful sin always does--still, “the man after God’s own
heart,” the man who had shown through many temptations “an honest and good
heart,” the man who had loved and trusted God so faithfully, could not have
rested quite at his ease under the terrible memory that he had allowed base
passion to conquer his better self.
3. God was looking in mercy upon His servant, and Nathan was sent to
him to bring him to the fulness of a sincere repentance, and to restore trim to
peace with God. Nathan did his duty fearlessly and completely. Whatever sorrows
there are and must be to penitents who have deeply fallen, still “God is the
God of comfort,” and He comforted David. Bathsheba was now his wife. Another
child was born to them and David--with the sense of restored peace with
God--called him Solomon, “the peaceful.” (W. J. Knox Little, M. A.)
David’s downfall
This chapter holds out the history of David’s soul downfall from
the very pinnacle of the highest prosperity to which God raised him. David’s
downfall was double, into two sins (without repentance), namely, the sin of
adultery and the sin of murder.
I. Remarks upon
the concomitant circumstances Are:--
1. The time of David’s adultery. This has a three-fold description,
as
2. The place of David’s sin: it was his own palace where he was
indulging himself to ease and pleasure, when he should have been fighting the
Lord’s battles in the field with his army against the Ammonites. While he kept
abroad in the wars in his own person he was safe enough. It was at evening tide
when David should have been at his devotion, as had been his custom (Psalms 55:17), seeing he would not be in
the field to fight.
3. Upon the third circumstance, the person, the sight whereof was the
occasion of David’s soul fall. She is described here divers ways:
II. Let us turn
aside with Moses to take a little prospect of this, a great wonder,
1. As to David, “A man after God’s own heart,” yet his unbridled lust
had metamorphosed him into a beast, He might now well say in the words of
Asaph, “So foolish was I and ignorant, and even as a beast before Thee.” (Psalms 73:23.) This teacheth us, that the
best of men are but men at the best; and who art thou, O man, that thinkst thou
art safe and secure enough from acts Of sin? “Surely thou knowest not the
plague of thine own heart” (1 Kings 8:38.)
2. As to Bathsheba, some do say she was not free from faultiness upon
several accounts.
III. David’s adding
murder to his adultery, instead of repenting for his sin.
1. First, David’s contrivement to congeal his sin from the eyes of
men, in the meantime not regarding the all-seeing eye of God, etc.
2. The last, but worst link of that doleful chain of David’s lust: So
far was David still from repenting of his sin that, seeing his craft (for
concealing his adultery he failed him in all the other fair means he contrived,
now) resolveth upon cruelty in the use of foul methods to get this good Uriah
cut off insensibly, and so to cover his adultery with murder, that so he might
not live to accuse the adulteress.
Susceptibility to sin
Professor George Lincoln Goodale, speaking of the cultivation of
plants, said: “It is impossible for us to ignore the fact that there appear to
be occasions in the life of a species when it seems to be peculiarly
susceptible to the influences of its surroundings. A species, like a carefully
laden ship, represents a balancing of forces within and without. Disturbances
may come through variation from within, as from a shifting cargo, or in some
cases from without. We may suppose both forces to be active in producing
variation, a change in the internal condition rendering the plant more
susceptible to any change in its surroundings. “Under the influence of any
marked disturbance a state of unstable equilibrium may be brought about, at
which times the species as such is easily acted upon by very slight agencies.”
Analogous to the learned scientist’s observation of growing plants is the
experience of every growing human life. We cannot pass over its ever-repeated
evidence that there are occasions when character, to use Dr. Goodale’s phrase,
“seems to be peculiarly susceptible to, the influence of its surroundings;” and
disturbances, whether from within or without, produce such a state of “unstable
equilibrium,” that the character is “easily acted upon by any very slight
agencies.” Then is it that, by the merest little only, life’s important steps
are taken, and lead to either success or failure. (Homiletic Review.)
A man’s weak hours
A man is weak, not by the power that assails, but by the want of
defensive power. It made no difference where the assault was made at Gettysburg
on the third day, by the adversary that attempted to pierce the centre of the
lines; and it made no difference that they came after a perfect whirlwind of
cannonading; for the resisting power was greater than the attacking power. That
is an hour of weakness when the resisting power is weak. Now, nothing is weaker
than the conscience when it is paralysed by the touch of avarice. There is such
an appetite in some natures for gold that, although at times they are manly and
good in a thousand respects, at other times, when avarice dominates, their
moral sentiments are paralysed by it; and those are their weak hours. There are
some men whose weak hour is connected with their passions. There are some men
whose weak hour is in the lower grade of pleasures. There are some men whose
weak hour is in eating. There are other men whose weak hour is in drinking. Oh,
how many noble men have been girdled, how many men of genius have been utterly
destroyed, how many persons of hope and promise have been completely
overthrown, by intemperance! (H. W. Beecher.)
Watchfulness against riotous appetites imperative
The fleshly passions are like mutinous sailors, to be kept below
deck. “Never allow your lower nature anything better than a steerage passage.
Let watchfulness wall: the decks as an armed sentinel and shoot down with great
promptness anything like a mutiny of riotous appetites.” Says the apostle:
“Mortify--literally, kill your members which are upon the earth.” (E. P.
Thwing.)
Sin, a malicious guest;
“Sin is an ill guest,” says Manton, “for it always sets its
lodgings on fire.” Entertained within the human breast, and cherished and
fondled, it makes its host no return but an evil one. It places the burning
coals of evil desire within the soul with evident intent to fire the whole man
with fierce passions. Let these passions be suffered to rage, and the flame
will burn even to the lowest hell. Who would not shut his door on such a guest?
Or, if he be known to be lurking within, who would not drag him out? How
foolish are these who find delight in such an enemy, and treat him with more
care than their best friend. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Looking at a wrong thing perilous
Weak dallying with forbidden desires is sure to end in wicked
clutching at them. Young men, take care! You stand upon the beetling edge of a
great precipice, when you look over, from your fancied security, at a wrong
thing; and to strain too far, and to look too friendly, leads to a perilous
danger of toppling over and being lost. If you know that a thing cannot be won
without transgression do not tamper with hankering for it. Keep away from the
edge, and shut your eyes from beholding vanity. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Satan ever near the idle
David’s giving himself to ease and pleasure was the root of all
his wretchedness. Standing waters gather filth. Flies settle upon the sweetest
perfumes when cold, and corrupt them. As the crab-fish seizeth upon the oyster
gaping, so doth Satan upon the idle. No moss sticketh to the rolling stone:
which if it lay still would be overgrown. The rankest weeds grow out of the
fattest soil. The water that hath been heated soonest freezeth; the most active
spirit soonest tireth with slacking. The earth standeth still, and is all
dregs; the heavens ever move and are pure. Beware of ease and idleness: here
began David’s downfall. Say not of this, as Lot did of Zoar, “Is it not a
little one?” The parvity of a sin taketh not away the pravity of it: and a less
maketh way for a greater, as wedges do in wood-cleaving. Pompey desired that
all his soldiers might come into a certain city; when that was denied he said,
“Let nay weak and wounded soldiers come in;” they did, and then soon opened the
gates to all the army. (J. Trapp.)
Verse 13
And when David had called him he made him drunk.
The sinfulness of causing drunkenness
It is a very wicked thing, under any design whatsoever, to make a
person drunk. Woe to him that does so (Habakkuk 2:15-16.) God will put a cup of
trembling into the hands of those who put into the hands of others the cup of
drunkenness. Robbing a man of Ins reason is worse than robbing him of his
money, and drawing him into sin worse than drawing him into any trouble
whatsoever. (M. Henry.)
Verse 14
David wrote a letter to Joab.
--So in the Greek story, Proetus sent Bellerophon to Jobates with his own death
warrant. (Cp. Hom. II. 6:168, 169.) “Slay him he would not, that his soul
abhorred; but to the father of his wife, the King of Lycia, sent him forth,
with tokens charged of dire import, on folded tablets traced, poisoning, the
monarch’s mind to work his death.” (A. F. Kirkpatrick, M. A.)
Verse 27
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
The universal insecurity of religious perseverance
The transaction is recorded at length in the chapter which
contains the text; and the conclusions which we may draw from a review of it are
numerous.
1. The first, and by no means the least important of these, is the
proof which hence arises that none of us can lay claim to any constraining
grace, which, in despite of ourselves, shall compel us to holiness and to
salvation. That David enjoyed the grace of God in a very especial degree, is
what no Christian can deny: and few, it is to be expected, Will suppose
themselves to be more highly favoured than he was in this particular. Yet here
we have a melancholy, but still a most positive and salutary proof that no
portion of the grace of God, however considerable, will protect man from the
most fearful enormities, unless he will employ it when given him. Our faith is
not to be confidence that we shall be saved, but confidence that, if we obey. God
to the best of our power, we shall be saved: and our hope must be that we may
render that obedience which may be accepted through Christ; while our lives
must be such as are worthy of such an hope; we must prove that we have this
hope in us, by purifying ourselves, even as He is pure.
2. The next consideration which forces itself on our attention is the
difference of David’s circumstances at the time of his fall from those in which
he is placed, when he had the best of all testimonies, that “the Lord was with
him.” We now see that, however prosperity and leisure are in themselves
desirable, they have dangers, which to resist, requires all the strength which
God has put at our disposal. David was not a novice to their blandishments. For
ten years he had been in undisputed possession of the splendour and luxuries of
the kingdom of all Israel. All this period had been as remarkable as the
darkest days of his adversity for the most religious fulfilment of the two
great comprehensive duties, the love of God and the love of his neighbour.
Offensive, therefore, as the thought may be to him who feels himself secure in
his own righteousness, or who imagines himself to be so firmly in the hand of
the Lord that nothing can pluck him thence, it is, nevertheless, the inevitable
conclusion from the melancholy truth now under consideration that no man,
whatever his real holiness, or whatever his opinion concerning the decision of
his future fate, is secure from the stains of even the most deadly sins. David,
it appears, had hitherto been as holy in prosperity as in distress; and, it
might be supposed, was now so intimate with grandeur and power as to have
nothing to fear from their influence, especially when it is considered that it
was by habitual religion that he had supported himself inviolate amidst the
trials of persecution and the temptations of luxury. But at this crisis there
was one remarkable circumstance. He had already done all that was required of
him in active life, and there Seemed nothing now remaining but to turn his
thoughts towards the interests and good government of his kingdom. When his
pillow was the rock and his curtain the cave; when his sword, under Providence,
procured him his daily bread from the foes of his country, and the means of
existence formed the object and pursuit of life--he was pious and immovable; he
must have been active, or he must have resigned his life. But now the case was
widely different; he had not only all the necessities, but all the luxuries
which the most refined voluptuousness could devise, attending in profusion
round him: he had certainly the duty of his charge, to impress its importance
on his mind; but then he had the opportunity of neglecting it; and even David,
it appears, was not proof against the solicitations of this opportunity! To all
of us is this example fraught with materials for the most serious personal
application. The flesh itself works along with us so long as we toil for its
support; but when we have once accomplished this it ungratefully turns upon us
and endeavours to enslave us to its dominion. Where the necessities of life do
not compel him to labour there is great danger, even to the confirmed
Christian, lest the value of time and the necessity of improving it, should not
be always present to his mind; while the temptations arising from the very
nature of his situation are such as at all times require the very closest and
most diligent circumspection. And when the unguarded moment and the temptation
coincide, as they are wont to do, the example before us is a terrible
demonstration of the ruin which must follow. The crime of Bathsheba cannot be
long concealed: the punishment was death; either, therefore, Bathsheba must be
sacrificed to the law, or her husband removed in time to allow her to become
the wife of David before suspicion could arise. David no longer hesitates: the
fatal order is deliberately sealed, and put into the hands of the generous,
unsuspecting victim, who immediately is placed by his commander in the post
most congenial to his feelings, the forefront of the hottest battle, and
betrayed by his cowardly companions into the hands of an unsparing enemy. Such
is the natural uniform progress of sin, wherever it takes root, though the soil
be the heart of David. (H. Thompson, M. A.)
Two aspects of David
1. This chapter reveals the character of David in its most
distressing aspects. From end to end it is a production worthy only of the very
genius of perdition, His very greatness becomes the measure of his sin. All his
senses are set on fire of hell. The spirit of generosity is dead within him.
The spirit of justice is exiled from his nature. How is the star of the morning
dashed from heaven l How is the fine gold become dimmed! How are the mighty
fallen! It is almost impossible to believe that this is human nature at all.
Let us not seek to excuse David. We injure the Bible, and the whole purpose of
the inspired volume, if we speak so much as one word in defence of a series of
actions which might have been conceived by Satan and executed within the darkness
of perdition.
2. The all-important sentence is the last: “But the thing that David
had done displeased the Lord.” Without that sentence the chapter would have
been intolerable. From this time forth David must bear the judgment of the
Lord. Do not let it be supposed that even king David could perform such a
series of wrongs and cruelties, and play as skilfully on his harp as ever, and
sing as jubilantly before Heaven as he ever did. David’s harp acquired a new
tone after this infamy. Psalms were written by David after this great
transgression which could not have been written before its commission. Years
were added to the life of the king; he was bent down under an invisible load;
his face was wrinkled with grief, and his eyes were dimmed by contrite tears.
3. We see now something of what human nature is when it is left to
show itself. We are bound to go to history as the one revelation of human
nature. It is in vain to invent and discuss theories of psychology; it is in
vain to look upon one aspect of human nature, and to judge the whole by the
part; it is in vain, too, to fix upon any given date in human history and to
judge men by that standard of civilisation. The one inquiry is what men have
done in their very worst moods. An answer to that inquiry will settle the whole
question respecting human depravity. We are bound to look at such a chapter as
the first in the epistle to the Romans, if we would see what human nature is in
its innermost and largest possibilities. Nor must we shrink from dwelling upon
the hideous spectacle, To speak of revolted sensibilities, highly excited
prejudices, and to declare that such instances are beyond the range of careful
study, is simply to deprive ourselves of some of the most solid lessons of human history. We must know
what sin is before we can have any adequate idea of the Divine relation to it.
Sin explains the cross, sin explains the atonement, sin explains Christ.
4. The Bible is to be judged by what God would have done, not by what
man would have done. Find a single sentence which approves of David’s guilt.
Happily, there is no such sentence in the whole record. The spirit of the
Bible, therefore, is not seen in what David did, but in the judgments which
followed him and darkened his day with tremendous thunder-clouds. “It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
The aggravation of David’s sin
As for David’s fall, let it not be once named among you, as
becometh saints. David’s fall was such as is not so much as named among the
Gentiles. But, past speaking about as David’s fall was, it was what followed
his fall that so displeased the Lord. In the words of Butler’s latest editor,
“it is safer to be wicked in the ordinary way than from this corruption lying
at the root.” As Thomas Goodwin points out in his great treatise on the
“Aggravation of Sin,.” it was the “matter of Uriah,” even more than the matter
of Bathsheba, that awakened the anger of the Lord against David. That is to
say, it was David’s sin of deliberation and determination, rather than his sin
of sudden and intoxicating passion. It was both matters; it was both sins; but
it cannot be overlooked that it was after a twelvemonth of self-deceit,
internal hypocrisy, and self-forgiving silence on David’s part that Nathan was
sent to David in such Divine indignation. How a man like David could have lived
all that time soaked to the eyes in adultery and murder and not go mad is
simply inconceivable: That is to say, it would be inconceivable if we had not
ourselves out of which to parallel and illustrate David, and make David both
possible and natural to us. (Alex. Whyte, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》