Being a person after God’s own heart doesn’t exempt you from the temptation to fall into the trappings common to humanity.
King David would learn this all too well.
Focus: To live a life pleasing to God, we must learn to guard our hearts above all things and perpetually cry “Hosanna”!
Eros
Ego
Exactly What We Need
Eros
God instructs us to guard our hearts above all things - especially from the trappings of the sinful nature (the flesh).
Proverbs 4:23 ESV
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Biblically, your heart is the seat of the emotions, affections and desires.
What types of good things can fill a heart?
Love for God, his word, love for family, friends and neighbors - love for the people of the world - can all fill your heart in a good way.
What kind of things can pollute or ensnare a devoted heart?
Love of the things of this world including the love of money (which is the root of all kinds of evil - I Timothy 6:10) or even lifestyles that compete with the call of God can be things that try to ensnare our hearts.
1 John 2:15-17 ESV
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
The author of Hebrews points to bitterness and fleshly cravings that can derail a man or woman.
Hebrews 12:15-17 ESV
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”
Perhaps most importantly, the apostle Paul gives this exhortation to those who are doing well:
1 Corinthians 10:11-13 ESV
“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
What can we learn from King David and how would he exemplify this?
2 Samuel 11:1-27 ESV
“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.”
When King David should have been about God’s business and off at war, he stayed behind in the palace.
Both our attention and thus our worship will always be directed - if it is not towards God, enjoying life’s benefits with Christ and his purposes in mind, it will find somewhere else less desirable to land.
When David was just “browsing” on his rooftop, he stumbled across a beautiful woman named Bathsheba bathing.
Many people try to downplay lust - not just for other people, but for things.
Please do not overlook what God says is sin because it is the norm in our culture and throughout the cultures of the world.
Think about its effects:
What does it do to our relationship with God?
What does it do to our romantic relationships or marriages?
The reason why lust is dangerous is because lust sets you up to do the illicit thing that you fantasize doing if you thought you could do it without getting caught.
It is what would play out with King David.
It why Jesus would later warn:
Matthew 5:27-30 ESV
““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
King David thought that with his power and position that he could indulge this desire without consequence.
He took advantage of both his power and position.
This is where King David made his mistake.
He sent for Bathsheba, slept with her and then sent her home thinking there would be no reverberations.
However, Bathsheba went home having conceived a child.
At this point, rather than admit his wrong and look to make amends, David tried to cover up his sin.
But as we will see with King David, one unrepentant sin inevitably leads to another - David’s adultery with Bathsheba would ultimately lead to King David arranging the death of her noble husband Uriah to cover his tracks.
Yet God sees and God always knows.
We can not forget - this is the man after God’s own heart committing these sins.
When David was living in unrepentant sin, it warped his rulership and even the way that he looked after and treated his men.
“Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another.”
Many have been burnt thinking someone in authority in their lives or even who represented God got away with a violation against them and ultimately the Lord.
*But God did not excuse even David’s sin and would send Nathan the prophet to both denounce David’s sin and follow with extraordinary discipline.
Once confronted, David would admit his sin and pen the now famous Psalm 51.
It is a picture of how we should respond if we find that we have been ensnared by sin and chosen to transgress God’s commands.
Psalm 51:1-19 ESV
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.”
*King David asked God to create in him the clean heart and steadfast spirit that he felt he did not have on his own - and we need to do the same.
There would be ripple effects of David’s sin as the child conceived from the adultery would die, but as David chose to make things right by taking the widowed Bathsheba into his home, King Solomon would be born from their union.
*This was not because David was good, but because God is redemptive.
David would still be severely disciplined as he would be ousted from his kingship for a period of time by his own son Absolom, who would betray his father leading to David’s temporary exile.
Though much more can be said regarding this subject, what we need to know is that for the strength of our identity, calling, marriages and respectable human interactions, sexual purity is a big deal to God and it should be to us as well.
Ego
We need to guard our hearts from an elevated sense of self and self-sufficiency.
Whereas the incident with Bathsheba would highlight King David getting ensnared with illicit passions, this other curious narrative shows the king’s failure to hold to the Law of God as self-sufficiency and pride of life crept into his heart.
2 Samuel 24:1-25 ESV
“Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my Lord the king still see it, but why does my Lord the king delight in this thing?” But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. They crossed the Jordan and began from Aroer, and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer. Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they went around to Sidon, and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000. But David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.” So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.” And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David went up at Gad’s word, as the Lord commanded. And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. And Araunah said, “Why has my Lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be averted from the people.” Then Araunah said to David, “Let my Lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.”
Why the plague here?
David had not followed the Lord’s commands which the king was charged to uphold (Deuteronomy 18).
Exodus 30:11-16 ESV
“The Lord said to Moses, “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.””
When the census was taken, it was to be a form of worship, used as a memorial for the people to make atonement for their lives.
*It was an acknowledgement of the people that their lives depended on God’s mercies and could be directed by his benevolent rule wherever he thought best.
David failed to collect the ransom of a half shekel for each man’s life as an offering to the Lord.
This is important because as seen by the ark in II Samuel 21-24, God was dealing with unresolved sin with the Israelites.
And so God led David to take a census.
The issue here was atonement and it could be said that God was attempting to reconcile with Israel.
By each man and woman offering the temple tax, not only would they be making provision for the ongoing upkeep of the tabernacle, and eventually temple, but they were acknowledging their life belonged to God and was meant to be lived in service to him.
*It was a memorial of God’s kingship in their lives that they might not drift into the pride of life, thinking their accomplishments were their own or their achievements were meant to be anything less than worship to Almighty God.
*What bothered Joab and should be a check to our own hearts is that King David was not familiar enough with the Law of God (which he was supposed to write out and read daily to be careful to do everything directed in it) to be careful to carry out the Lord's directives from Exodus 30.
So the census became about David’s own military strength communicating a drift from his heart reliance on God for victories.
David would forget the truth of a Psalm not directly credited, but often attributed, to him:
Psalm 33:16-17 ESV
“The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.”
How often do we have this similar drift into self-focus and self-reliance?
So because the shekel was not collected, according to the word of the Lord, the plague began amongst the people.
It was only as King David resumed his consecrated role in providing a sacrifice for the sins he and the people had now committed, was the plague stopped on the threshing floor of Araunah.
*What is powerful is that God had already determined the place that the plague would be stopped, the very place that King David would make the costly sacrifice on the threshing floor of Araunah.
This is once again a foreshadowing of the provision that Yahweh would make himself to stop the plague against humanity’s sin in offering his own son Jesus.
The threshing floor of Araunah, located on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, would be where David would make the sacrifice to stop the plague.
It would be the exact location where King Solomon would eventually erect the first temple for worship to Yahweh.
It is also the same general area where Jesus would be crucified to bring reconciliation between God and sinful humanity.
In David making atonement for the Israelites, he was foreshadowing the work of king Jesus who would be the mediator between God and humanity to save us from our sins.
Exactly What We Need
Jesus comes as our humble king to provide us the salvation that we need.
As you may know, we’ve been celebrating Lent which leads us to today, Palm Sunday.
Matthew 21:1-11 ESV
“Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.””
What was happening here?
Matthew refers to Jesus’ entry on a colt as a fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9.
It is Jesus openly declaring that he is the righteous Davidic Messiah for whom the people had been waiting.
In response, the cloaks on the road symbolized the crowd’s submission to Jesus as king.
The palm branches symbolized Jewish nationalism and were waved in prominent Jewish victories.
Jesus was coming to save the people.
Again, the significance of the triumphal entry was that both Jesus and the people were acknowledging Jesus as king.
*He too would enter Jerusalem to stop a plague - the plague of sin that was ravaging humanity.
*But this time, the sacrifice that the king would offer would be his own life.
*Unlike with King David’s failing, Jesus would be the faithful king who would come in humility
not to take advantage of his people, but to save them.
By coming on a donkey rather than a warhorse, Jesus was declaring that he was coming to bring peace, not be a military conqueror.
Christ was highlighting that his kingdom was being built on humility and through his eventual sacrifice on the cross he would defeat Satan, sin and death to provide peace between us and God.
When the people shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were making reference to and celebrating Jesus’ as the promised forever King from David’s line.
Their cry “Hosanna” literally meant, “O save!”
The people were expressing their moment by moment need for the Lord to save them - not just from Roman oppression, but their own sin.
Jesus can work with this.
Jesus had said earlier in the Beatitudes:
Matthew 5:3 ESV
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The poverty described by this Greek word implies not someone unable to pay bills, but a state of destitution so deep that unless someone comes and does for you, you will not survive.
As opposed to David’s momentary neglect, Jesus understood without wavering that his mission was to perfectly fulfill the law of God so that he might make atonement for our lives.
This is the reality of what Jesus would accomplish in the sacrifice of himself on the cross.
Unless he paid the price there for all of the wrong that we’ve committed because of what has crept into our hearts over the years, there is nothing but judgment awaiting us.
*But if we turn from our self-sufficiency and put our trust in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, we are offered forgiveness and new life.
This is because the Father demonstrated that he was willing to offer that which cost him more than we could ever imagine in offering his own Son to make atonement for our sins.
As we now look to consecrate ourselves in this Lenten season, we can be given a new heart and a new spirit to be men and women who are truly and completely saved by our trustworthy king.