[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: This class thus far has been on the Life of David. Life of David takes place in first and Second Samuel.
You also have two Chronicles where he's involved a lot. But then we're also looking at the Psalms, especially starting this week. We had a big break over the New Year's section, but today is the class that I have been equally like excited and terrified of this whole time, because this class really is sort of the awful crux of David's life. We're going to be getting into David and Bathsheba this evening, so you guys have probably heard of that story before. It starts off a little bit more fun than that, though, and it comes off of this word. So this is the Greek word hesed or in, I mean Hebrew word, hesed in Hebrew though, if you ever want to practice it, it's more like a guttural, like German noise at the beginning. So it's like chesed or something like that. When it comes to the Old Testament, though, I don't know, we talk a lot more about the New Testament and the Greek language that's involved there. When it comes to different things. If you guys have talked about the Greek words for love, you might have heard of agape before. You have the other ones like Eros and Phil.
In Hebrew, we don't talk about it as much. However, this word hesed is the word that almost sets up agape to even exist.
And in fact, the best way I can describe this is it almost means a little bit more than agape. So I want to start out by doing in this class just to make sure we're all on the same page is it's very important starting right now in the David story, really the whole Testament, but especially the David story, to understand what this word means. So the way that I teach our teenagers how to differentiate between the different types of love in the Greek language in the New Testament is you have eros. Eros is like a romantic love. You have phileo, that's like a friendship love. There are other words for love in the Greek, but you have a variety of them. But all of those types of love essentially get into two things. It's the idea that I'm going to love this person or this thing, but I'm also expecting that person or thing to provide me with love or something like that back. If I have eros love for somebody, I'm not sitting there just, okay, like having eros love by itself, the expectation is like, I hope that person romantically likes me back. It's very sad if they do not.
Agape love differs from all of those. It's a sacrificial love. You may have heard that before. But what really means at its crux is I'm going to love in that direction without any expectation to receive any sort of love back. Like, I'm going to love regardless of what is given back to me. In the end. Thankfully, God has this agape love for us. And even more difficult than that, though, He. He challenges us to have that agape love for other people.
Chesed is like the building block for agape, but it means something even more. It also deals with the idea of covenant. And what that means is it's taking agape love, this love, that's only one directional, but it's also saying, I'm going to make an oath, a covenant. I'm going to swear by this love.
What I say and do is totally involved with it. I did a youth series a while back talking about the idea that love is a verb. And I know love's not a verb, but if you truly love someone, you're not just going to say, I love you, and then do absolutely nothing for them and not care anything about them. You're going to act on that love.
Chesed involves us acting on love that is one directional.
This stuff below, this was literally just. I don't normally do this, but I typed in on Google, like, what's a good way to explain chesed to somebody? And this is just what AI came up with. So y' all can read that on your own. But I also posted on our groupme that I'll post at the end of the class.
Again, this video in the bottom right, it's a Bible project video and it's all about this word.
But this covenantal love, starting in the middle of two Samuel becomes very, very important. And it's mentioned over and over again. One of the biggest moments in David's Life comes in 2 Samuel 7. We've already talked about this a little bit, but in 2 Samuel 7, God finally strikes a covenant with this man that's after his own heart.
Now, David has already struck other covenants that thus far he struck one with Jonathan once or twice, if you remember.
But God now strikes a covenant and he uses this word chesed. I'll highlight it throughout all the chapters we go through today to describe it. And he says, but my love, my Hesed, will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me, and your throne will be established forever.
This caused David to respond to God and say, like, man, like. This is the most amazing thing. Thank you so much for being willing to love me, to be close to me, to have that type of crazy, insane love for me.
But then here's the cool thing. David after a man's own heart, a man after God's own heart begins using that word chapter after chapter following 2 Samuel 7, 2 Samuel 8 we talked about last week. He defeats some armies and stuff, but specifically, I want to look real quickly at 2nd Samuel 9.
A guy named Mephibosheth is introduced here, and we've mentioned him once or twice before, but we're just going to read the story real quickly. David asked, is, is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show so this word kindness? Some of your Bibles will say mercy. Some of your Bibles will say love. It's all chesed. Is there someone that I can show hesed for Jonathan's sake? Now, there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David. And the king said to him, are you Ziba? At your service, he replied. The the king said, is there no one still alive from the house of Saul who I can show God's not kindness necessarily, but hesed to Ziba, answered the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. And he describes him in one phrase. He is lame in both feet.
Where is he? The king said, ziba answered, he's at the house of Makir, son of Amiel, in Low Debar. So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir, some of Ammiel. When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. And David said, mephibosheth at your service, he replied.
Don't be afraid, David said to him, for I will surely show you pesed.
For the sake of your father, Jonathan, I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather, Saul. You will always eat at my table. Mephibosheth bowed down and said, what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me? And ultimately, David allows this man, the grandson of Saul, the son of Jonathan, to sit at his table for the rest of his life to eat food in the king's palace as a lame man and as the son of Jonathan, son of Saul.
So how is Mephibosheth introduced? We've already discussed that a little bit, but here's my question for you all. Just real quickly. Why is it significant?
Why is it a big deal that Mephibosheth, the only things we really know about him is that he's lame and that he's a son of Saul.
Why is that significant for us to know could be a legitimate heir to throne? Absolutely.
I did this research earlier. There's actually at least four or five chapters in scripture where we see other peoples killing off dynasties before them. But just historically, that's the case. You kill off the dynasty before you. So as a son of Jonathan, son of Saul, this guy's a dangerous guy. He's one of the only true heirs to the throne following Saul's lineage.
And when it comes to being lame in their day and time, it was just looked on as if this is a punishment from the gods.
This is a bad, bad thing if you're lame. Now, does anybody happen to remember the name that Mephibosheth sounds a little bit like that we talked about? This was probably a month or two ago. Now, there's a guy who comes earlier. They're all tongue twisters. There's a guy who comes earlier, and his name is Ish Bosheth. And if you remember, after Saul dies, Ish Bosheth takes the throne on one side and David takes the throne on behalf of Judah.
Now, here's the interesting thing. They're at war against one another for a while. Ultimately, Ish Bosheth dies, David rises up. But the name Ish Bosheth means man, Ish of shame, b', sheath, man of shame.
Mephibosheth, Mephib, or the word that that's derived from, means exterminator or destroyer of shame.
So here's my question. Now, Ish Bosheth has died. He was obviously doing the thing that God didn't want to happen by taking the throne in place of David, by challenging David, the man that God has chosen. He was a man of shame.
How is Mephisto, though, now a destroyer of shame?
From this passage alone, how is he a destroyer of shame?
Here's the interesting thing. I was digging into this a little bit, and the entire idea about this passage, everything is centered on what?
Well, not on what Mephibosheth is doing, but on who or what David is doing.
So when it comes to being the destroyer of shame, ultimately, shame has been destroyed in the life of Mephibosheth, but not on account of anything that Mephibosheth has done.
Rather, on account of what David has done.
David is the one that has offered hesed, which has then destroyed the shame in Mephibosheth's life by allowing him to sit at the table with the king.
All right, so the reason that that's there, that's an incredible story. If you're like me, you're thinking about how that just, like perfectly shows the type of chesed that God has for us and allowing us to sit at his table. It destroys our shame, but for a very specific reason. I believe the story of David and Bathsheba follows the story of David and Mephibosheth.
Why do you think? Well, specifically in David's life, we have to figure out what sort of shame God is destroying in the end.
Before you get into that, though, the setup for David and bathsheba occurs in 2nd Samuel, chapter 10. This war with the Ammonites start. This war actually ends in 2 Samuel 12 that we'll get to at the very end of all of this. But it's an interesting little passage. In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. And David thought, get this. I will show not kindness. I will show hesed to Hanun, the son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.
Interesting thing here. David went from, okay, God has given me this chesed, this loyal love based upon action and covenant and promise, where he has said he will always, always stand beside me and love me in the midst of anything.
I'm going to offer that to my nine son grandson, the next heir to the throne, technically Mephibosheth, who's also a lame man. But not only that, I'm going to begin offering that type of love to the enemies of God's people. I'm going to offer it to an ammonite, so he offers it to him. David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. Father, when David's men came to the land of the Ammonites, the Ammonite commanders, though, said to Hanun, their lord, do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn't David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it? So Hanun seized David's envoys, and this is just a wild thing that would have been much more significant then than today.
He shaved off half of each man's beard, he cut off their garments at the buttocks, and he sent them away.
And this next verse is to me one of the manliest verses in all of Scripture.
When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were humiliated. And the king doesn't say, I'm sorry or, I feel so bad for you. The king said, stay at Jericho until your beards have grown and then come back.
Which is just kind of wild to me, but I guess it meant something more back then. The remainder of the chapter ends with David and Joab in war, in battle, defeating the Arminians, who were beginning to help the Ammonites, and then beginning to defeat a portion of the Ammonites. But then what seems to have happened is there was a break.
Whether it was because of the weather, whether it was because of cultural tradition or anything else, it seems that they had war times and war seasons and they had other periods where people mostly kept to themselves. When the Ammonite battle starts, it's obviously a war season. And David is heavily involved, and he's ultimately not just going to war for the sake of going to war. He's trying to provide chesed. But this chapter is not just history.
I truly believe any chapter. I went through this at the very beginning of the class. Any chapter in Scripture that you go through can teach you a variety of things. It can teach you something about God. It can teach you some way that God chooses to work in our lives or something that's supposed to impact us, some knowledge through that. And it can also teach us something that we're able to provide others with knowledge for. So what are the core Messages of Chapter 10?
David seeks to show hesed not only to a fellow Israelite, but also to enemies of the Israelites. Talked about that already. But also we learn here that a rejection and spurning, like a hatred of Hesed that's shown, leads to dire consequences.
So we have this story now of David showing others Hesed.
We know what Hesed Means we have this wonderful story of Mephibosheth being brought to the table. This lame man that should have been dead. And. And we have this wonderful Ish story of David offering his said it getting denied. But ultimately God helping David lead the Israelites in victory.
All of this is setting up for second Samuel, chapter 11.
So I'm just going to read it and we're going to follow along together in the spring at the time when kings go off to war.
And I want to make note of this thus far in almost every chapter we've been through, God's doing a lot.
It will say Yahweh verb Yahweh did this, Yahweh did that, Yahweh did this, Yahweh did that.
I highlighted in blue all of the actions in 2nd Samuel, chapter 11. And just notice as I go through who's performing each and every action when kings go off to war. David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
One evening, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful. And David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, she is Bathsheba. And this is important.
I'll mention this just real quickly.
Bathsheba. In case you're wondering, it has nothing to do with actually taking a bath. That's not what her name's for.
But this will come up in the next chapter.
Bat bath.
That word in Hebrew is the word for daughter. So literally her name is daughter of Sheba. But in the next chapter, you'll see the word daughter appear in an interesting area.
The man said, she is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. If you study Second Chronicles, you find out that Uriah the Hittite was a mighty man of David. He was a man who was strong and powerful and had rescued David and the Israelite army multiple times.
Then David sent messengers to get her.
She came to him and he slept with her.
Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.
Then she went back home.
The woman conceived and sent word to David saying, I am pregnant.
So David sent this word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was and how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet.
If you had the Exodus class with me about a year, year and a half ago, I mentioned this. It's just something that will help you guys in your Bible interpretation.
Almost every single time I can find in the Old Testament that the word feet is used.
It's symbology in the Hebrew for male private parts in the end.
So washing your feet. And it's not just saying like, take a bath, like he's literally saying, go to your house and have sex. It is direct.
It is very obvious in their culture what this would have meant.
So Uriah left the palace and a gift, we don't know what the gift was from the king was sent after him.
But Uriah slept at the entrance of the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house.
David was told Uriah did not go home. So he asked Uriah, haven't you just come from a military campaign? Why didn't you go home?
And listen to how opposite this is to what David's been doing. Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents.
And my commander Joab and my Lord's men are camped in the open country.
How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing.
So while they're all in tents, while the ark is in a tent, while everybody's at battle, who is in their house eating and drinking and making love to somebody?
Then David said to him, stay here one more day and tomorrow I will send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next, at David's invitation. He ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk.
But in the evening, Uriah went home to sleep on his mat among his master servants. He did not go home.
In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it to Uriah. In it, he wrote, put Uriah out in the front where the fighting is fiercest, then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die.
So Joab had the city under siege, put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men, so not just Uriah, multiple people in David's army fell. Moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. Joab sent David a full account of the battle. He instructed the messenger, when you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, the king's anger may flare up, and he may ask you, why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, son of Jerub Bathsheba? Didn't a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died in the bees? Why did you get so close to the wall? If he asks you this, then say to him, moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.
The messenger set out, and when he arrived, he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. The messenger said to David, the men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead. David told the messengers, say this to Joab.
And any English translation I was able to find says something similar to this. Don't let this upset you. But the literal Hebrew is, don't let this be evil in your eyes.
So David says to Joab, don't let this be evil in your eyes. The sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it. Say this to encourage.
When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son.
And this is normally what this says, but literally the last sentence of this in the Hebrew is, but the thing David had done was evil in the Lord's eyes.
So David looks at Joab, says, don't let this be evil in your eyes. But the thing was evil in the Lord's eyes.
Here, I want to. In case you haven't gone through this with us, the life of David has been going like this.
Before this scene.
When we first met David at the very beginning of this class, he was a shepherd boy, and God anointed him, and he was going up and up and up. And we begin running into some chapters where he just. He's struggling, and then he's relying on God again. And he's struggling, relying on God again. Then God makes this covenant with him, and he says, my chesed will always be with you. David will always be with you.
But immediately after this, while David seeks to show others this chesed, ultimately, second Samuel, chapter 11 has finally taken place.
And if you are a original Hebrew reading this, if you're someone Living in that day and time.
Obviously, if you're David, like your world is shattered after this chapter, David, this man after God's own heart, now seems to completely and utterly be taking the same exact path as Saul that we found earlier.
Where Saul is this meek, mild manner man, God lifts him up. But that pride that everything else just causes you to think so much less about God and so much more about yourself.
And then you make an awful decision that caused Saul's end.
Saul was cast off by God. He took his hesed away from Saul.
And after this just awful, terrible, horrible chapter, you have to be thinking to yourself, God's just about to do the same exact thing to David.
David's life is over. The hesed is gone. He is now amongst the list of the evil kings that we have.
But then 2nd Samuel 12 comes about, and I want to get to some questions in a little bit, but I didn't have a lot at the moment in the midst of these because I don't think 2 Samuel 11 can happen without 2nd Samuel 12.
But also, honestly, just for all of you, I was trying to think of these, like, amazing, profound things I could say about 2 Samuel 11:12.
But I've said this before, like God's word is able to impact your lives a lot more than anything I'm able to say.
When you guys read this text just like me, it's obvious that the purpose in all of this is that we're thinking of ourselves and our own disgustingness and our own sin and what we need. So let's read 2 Samuel 12 together.
The Lord sent Nathan to David.
When he came to him, he said there were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a so Bathsheba daughter, daughter to him.
Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him.
Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, as surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die. He must pay for that lamb who four times over, think of Zacchaeus later on, he may have been referring to this. He paid four times the amount of money back because he did such a thing and had no pity.
Then Nathan said to David one of the most famous lines in all of scripture, you are the man.
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.
So 2 Samuel 11 David did this. David did that. David did this. David did that. Let's start seeing what Yahweh is doing in this chapter.
I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms I gave you all Israel and Judah and and if all that had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword and the Ammonites. Now therefore, the sword will never depart from your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.
This is what the Lord says. Out of your household, I am going to bring calamity on you before your very eyes. I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.
Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
Nathan replied, the Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because doing this, you have shown utter contempt for the Lord. The son born for you will die.
After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent nights laying in sackcloth on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day, the child died.
David's attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought while this child was living, he wouldn't listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He might do something desperate. The literal Hebrew is, he might kill himself.
David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead.
Is the child dead? He asked. Yes, they replied, he is dead.
Then David got up from the ground.
After he had washed, he put on lotions Changed his clothes, went into the house of the Lord, and he worshipped.
Then he went to his own house, and at his request, they served him food and he ate. His attendants asked him, why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept. But now that the child is dead, you get up and eat.
He said, while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live. But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.
David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went into her and made love with her. She gave birth to a son. They named him Solomon. The Lord loved him. And because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the Prophet to name him Jedidiah. The Lord is my friend.
Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah, the Ammonites, and captured the royal city. Job then sent messengers to David saying, I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply. Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise, I will take the city and it will be named after me.
So David mustered the entire army. He went to Rabbah. He captured it. He took the crown of the king's head. It weighed a talon of gold. It was set with precious stone. He took a ton of plunder. He brought the people who were there, brought them back as servants and as slaves. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. And then the entire army returned to Jerusalem. Do you remember how all of this started in 2nd Samuel 10? With the war of the Ammonites. This battle, this thing that David is hoping that they can have victory of, it's this huge chapter.
It's all about it. And then 2 Samuel 11, 2 Samuel 12 happen in the middle of nowhere. And then it just ends with this tiny little paragraph that says, and he captured all these towns and he got all this plunder. But you know what the reader is meant to be thinking there?
Yeah, David won the battle, the yo. And he lost the war.
In light of David and Bathsheba, in light of all that's happened here, who cares about beating the Ammonites? Who cares about defeating them? At this point, it went from an entire chapter to just a sub point at the bottom of chapter 12.
So I want to talk about a little of what we've read here, but I know I've read so much in this class thus far, but before we get to the questions, before we finally get to those, I don't think we would ever think of David in the same light if we didn't have the Psalms.
Because when you read.
When you read first and Second Samuel, just from that trying to take all the other things out of your eyes, when you just read first and Second Samuel by yourself, you're going to get very, very confused.
Because Saul, in light of what David has just done, really doesn't seem like that bad of a guy, if we just get down to it. If you compare actions to actions after what David has just done, Saul really didn't ever get close to that mark.
Yet how does God deny Saul?
Throw him out, take away his chesed from him, and then look at David and say, like you're my king, my people will come from you.
Without the Psalms, I don't really think that we're able to have a clear answer.
So we'll read one of the most famous psalms in the entire Bible together.
Psalm 51, written by David after this entire scene.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict, and you're justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place.
So then David stops trying to act on his own, and he starts acknowledging some of the ways that God acts.
Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean.
Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. Blot out my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me.
I know it's intense right now, but in this song, it's always written my. It's supposed to be your or thy. So just remember that next time you see it. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, thy salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed. O God, you who are God, my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. God you will not despise.
May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of. Of the righteous and burnt offerings offered whole. And then bulls will be offered on your altar.
I want to talk about a few things real quickly.
We have mentioned this throughout.
The exact scene where God's chesed was taken away from Saul was where Samuel, if you remember, told Saul, I'll be there in seven days.
And in seven days, in seven days, wait for me and make a sacrifice and then go to battle.
So what does Saul do? He waits seven days. Samuel doesn't show up. Saul says, God needs to be with us in battle. He hasn't shown up. On the eighth day. He says, we just need to make this sacrifice so God is on our side in the battle. Samuel didn't tell the truth. He makes the sacrifice to Yahweh, which, by the way, David also makes a sacrifice to Yahweh later on. Then Samuel shows up and he says, what are you doing? What have you done? You know you're not supposed to do that. You know you're not supposed to make that sacrifice. Who cares if I'm late? God is removing his chesed from you.
That's how Saul got his chesed removed. Does that seem like that big of a deal?
I mean, it is. Obviously the answer is yes, but, like, does it to me. Not really.
David not only sleeps with a woman, kills her husband, other people are responsible for the death. Lies about it.
Like, why does God reject Saul and not reject David?
[00:39:05] Speaker A: It's his response.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: Saul's response was, can you still stick up for me? Thinking about people.
Nathan says, you are the man, comes to him, huge scene occurs.
You know what David's response is?
One line, I have sinned against the Lord. I have learned something in our marriage. Or at least I'm trying to learn it.
When Sarah calls me out on something, you know what I'm not supposed to do?
I'm not supposed to make excuses.
I'm not supposed to say, well, let me explain real quickly what my reasoning was behind it. Let me tell you where my thought process was in the midst of this. Ultimately, and I get this Wrong, like, every day. But ultimately what matters the most is for me to just take it and to say, you know what? Ultimately, like, I messed up here, and what I care about the most in all of this is you.
And in order to make this right, I'm just going to acknowledge and let you know I messed up. You know what David does here? He doesn't make excuses.
He doesn't say, well, but I'm the chosen one, I'm the anointed one. Or he doesn't say, like, well, I wasn't trying to, like, make this a law throughout the nation. I was just trying to do it myself. Keep.
No, he says, I have sinned against the Lord.
Next question.
Each of these is so important. We could have a whole class on each of these questions. What happens when we focus more on God's chesed than our actions? If you guys remember before, I highlighted David's actions in the blue, Next passage is God's actions everywhere.
Oftentimes, I know Andrew's talked about this in lessons before, but oftentimes we get those switched up where we think it's all about my actions and the things that I'm doing. And ultimately that's what leads to others loving me and ultimately God loving me. It's supposed to be reversed. God has made a covenant with us that he's decided to love us, that he's decided to offer us salvation.
And because he's done that, when I focus on that, all of a sudden my actions flow from that. If we start the opposite way, we're really going to mess up. Now, here's a big question that I try to teach our teens every day. And I think this is sometimes hardest for people who have grown up in the church.
How does it change our lives when we have. And hopefully this makes sense when we have a sense of grace rather than just a doctrine of grace.
How much time I have, like, no time. Okay. I'm just gonna. So in my years of doing ministry here, I've sat with a lot of different people. Teenagers, parents, adults, others who are involved with sin.
Each time I'm talking to somebody about sin, it's gotten to a point in my life where, like, it just makes me like we just did in 2nd Samuel 11:12. Reflect on my own sin and my own shamefulness.
And I was in a conversation recently with someone who had made such a mistake that they had lost nearly everything.
Lost a job, lost a spouse, lost their kids because of this mistake that they had made.
And after talking with them for a while, they just broke down.
And ultimately they sat by themselves and they just looked up at me and I still remember this.
They said, you know what the craziest part about all this is? And I said, what? And they said, I've lost my job, I've lost my spouse, I've lost my kids from these mistakes that I've made in my life over and over and over again.
You know what the craziest part is? What?
This is the first time in years that I've genuinely prayed to God.
Sometimes what we have to understand.
One of the hardest things to understand. I'll phrase it this way, one of the hardest things for us to understand is that God truly is all that we need. But I think for many people, until God is all that you have, until it's really hard to recognize that God is all that you need.
Understanding, a sense of grace.
Understanding through David that this story is just supposed to make us reflect on our own lives and our own disgustingness and our own sin and our own awfulness. But the idea that God has said for us in the midst of all of that, like a sense of grace, a sense of grace is so much more important than a doctrine. So I want to talk a lot more. Look at my slides. It's always good to look at my slides because you'll probably catch things I missed. But please come out of this class just remembering that this passage is supposed to not just cause us to look at David. It's supposed to cause us to reflect on ourselves, to have humility with regards to our sin, and to have just an incredible, amazing respect and love for God because of his chesed for us. So that's classic.
