Wednesday Bible Study: A word from David, part three

 

You see the trend here?  In the first four mistakes, it was like David was looking away from God and saying, "Who can do this?"  In this set, he's looking God in the face and saying, "I can do this."  How did that work out for him?  (from last week)

One of the wonderful things in the Bible is how God can teach forwards and backwards.  Forwards in this study, you can watch David go from "Who will do this" to "I can do this" to this week where his sins tell him "let them do this".  But from this end, you can also see that God is teaching us in the opposite direction- from "you have a responsibility for consequences" to "you won't succeed until you submit it to God", to "Let me progress by committing this to God".  Or at least you can once I tell you the third bank of David's mistakes.

GROUP THREE: Sins of personal responsibility

 

Sin 9- Let them take care of it

 

 2Sa 13:6  So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. And when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand."
2Sa 13:7  Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, "Go to your brother Amnon's house and prepare food for him."

As we begin this story, it's a tale of a man not knowing what's going on with his own house.  Of course, with that many wives and that many kids, and a kingdom besides, how could he? (Stay tuned, I'll get to that!)  So son Amnon falls in lust with stepsister Tamar.  And since Amnon wasn't close to David, he didn't go to him with the problem.  No, he went to no-account buddy Jonadab, who concocts a plan, not to win her love but to rape her.  David's 'hands-off' approach to his children's lives allows him to get manipulated in the plan.  Tamar gets raped, Amnon decides he's done with her, and Tamar's full brother Absalom swears revenge.  And what does David do to head things off?

2Sa 13:19  And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went.
2Sa 13:20  And her brother Absalom said to her, "Has Amnon your brother been with you? Now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother; do not take this to heart." So Tamar lived, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom's house.
2Sa 13:21  When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry.

"He was very angry"- see sin #3 from the first post.  But... he DID nothing.  And because he didn't ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY AND GET INVOLVED, Amnon ended up dead, Tamar a virtual prisoner in her brother's house, and brother Absalom?  Well...

Sin 10- Let Joab handle it

 

It was up to Joab's scheming to bring the fleeing Absalom and the bitter David back together; it was up to Joab to stop Absalom's revolution, which David allowed to grow right under his nose until it exploded in shame on him; and it was up to Joab to end the revolt with Absalom's death.  But not only that...

2Sa 19:1  It was told Joab, "Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom."
2Sa 19:2  So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, for the people heard that day, "The king is grieving for his son."
2Sa 19:3  And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle.
2Sa 19:4  The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, "O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
2Sa 19:5  Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, "You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines,
2Sa 19:6  because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you, for today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased.
2Sa 19:7  Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants, for I swear by the LORD, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night, and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now."

His grief- which was totally hypocritical, because there would never have been a revolt had he put that much into the relationship with his son in life- was about to lose him everything- if not for Joab.  He couldn't ACCEPT FACING THE CONSEQUENCES of his actions, and it had just about cost him everything.

Sin 11- Let the people handle it

 

As the dust settles, God is displeased with the people; however, He knows it's David's faulty leadership that is the cause of their unfaithfulness.  So He allows a plan of Satan's, to cause David to sin by taking a census.  David finally repents- a bit late- but again there are those nasty consequences, and God gives David a choice:

2Sa 24:11  And when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
2Sa 24:12  "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.'"
2Sa 24:13  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."
2Sa 24:14  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."

Notice it wasn't "Let ME fall into the hand of the Lord", but "Let US..." and so for a sin that David committed, God unleashed a plague that killed 70,000 people in 3 DAYS.

2Sa 24:17  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."

Nice of you to think of that after 8% of the people you had counted DIED.  Which would have been avoided if he would have TAKEN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS SIN.

Sin 12- Let the future take care of it

 

There were several people who offended his kingly dignity over the years to whom he showed mercy... but never forgave as he should have.  But HE didn't take revenge on them, no not him...

1Ki 2:5  "Moreover, you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, how he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, avenging in time of peace for blood that had been shed in war, and putting the blood of war on the belt around his waist and on the sandals on his feet.
1Ki 2:6  Act therefore according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace...

1Ki 2:8  ...And there is also with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD, saying, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.'
1Ki 2:9  Now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol."

Don't you just love this?  Solomon has to build the Temple, because David "was a man of blood", but David commands him  to put the blood DAVID should have shed- if it had to be shed- on his hands with his dying words?  "You will know what do do, for you are a wise man..."  Also known as, "You take care of it, since I painted myself into a corner and don't know how to get out of it."

Does it strike you, as it does me, that David, a man who found God's favor by constantly coming before Him, made all of his mistakes by NOT coming to Him?  And that is our overall lesson here- coming to Jesus with EVERYTHING.  Some things that require our involvement, some that require our submission, and some that we need to bring into commitment to him.  David sinned in "asking the questions": who will do it; shouldn't I do it; and can't someone else do it.  Our job is to put all these with the right answer.  And next time, we will at last see how Nehemiah knew how to answer these questions and get them right.