1 Samuel 8

Chapter 8. Sins and Sorrow of David’s ReignYou are the man! (2 Samuel 12:7) We have been dwelling on the virtues of David’s character and the glories of his reign. But suddenly the sky is clouded, and the chain of blessing rudely broken by a series of sins and sorrow that would crush us with discouragement and despair were it not for the infinite grace that shines out in contrast with man’s unworthiness. The Bible makes no attempt to hide the faults and crimes of its favorite characters. It is not given to reveal the virtues of humanity, but the grace of God, and therefore presents a frank and unbiased picture of man at his best. And then on the dark background of human infirmity and sin it spans the rainbow of heavenly mercy and infinite grace. There are lessons which we can only learn through the sad experience of deepest self-revealing, and David had to go down into the depths of failure in order to rise to the heights of grace. It is needless to dwell on the familiar details of the sad story of David’s fall. Let us also learn its lessons.

Section I: the Causes of His Failure

Section I—the Causes of His FailureIn the Wrong Place

1. The first of these causes was that he was out of his true place. We read in the previous chapter that “at the time 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” (2 Samuel 11:1). This was his first mistake. He was out of place. He should have been at the front with his brave soldiers. We are always in danger if we are out of God’s order. It matters not where we are; even the house of God, even the quiet chamber of rest, is the place of peril, if God has sent us somewhere else. Idleness
2. Idleness was the next cause of David’s fall. He was unemployed. He was loitering, dallying, driveling. Luther says that “while the devil tempts other men, the idle man tempts the devil.” Satan always furnishes occupation for the unemployed. He is a busy, restless spirit, and he lets no man rest. If labor be the curse of Eden, surely God has transformed it into a blessing by laying upon fallen man the blessed influence of preoccupation as a necessity of his existence. The idle, dallying throng are bound to become vicious. There is no greater curse that you can bequeath to your children than to train them up in luxurious idleness, and there is no greater blessing you can give them than to inure them to habits of industry and toil, and teach them to love work. The silly and sinful novel, the game of cards, the convivial debauch, all these are but inventions to pass the time away, to occupy idle hours, and they breed inevitable sin and sorrow. Sinful Glances
3. But the direct cause of David’s sin was an unholy look. John Bunyan told us that we must guard our eye-gate and ear-gate, or the adversary will soon capture the citadel of our heart. “Turn my eyes away from worthless things” (Psalms 119:37) is the wise prayer of this man, who had found out to his bitter cost the wretched consequences of a sinful glance. And his wiser son has crystallized the same lesson into one of his immortal proverbs when he says, Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. (Proverbs 4:23-27) Sin does not come to us full born. It is nursed by foolish words, worldly scenes, suggestive pictures and unholy glances. The daily Broadway parade is the nursery of thousands of ruined lives. The shop window is a prolific garden of unholy weeds. The prurient literature of the book stores, the pink page pictures of vice and debauchery and the abominable theatrical posters that defile the fences of every vacant lot stamp our cities as modern Gomor-rahs—these are the roots of lust and licentiousness—these are the soft-winged moths that breed the worms that destroy the robe of virtue. The Curse of Prosperity
4. Doubtless there are still deeper causes. David’s prosperity had doubtless induced a condition of pride and unwatchfulness, and David’s inner life had not kept pace with the extraordinary blessings which God had showered upon his outward circumstances. And so it became necessary that he should be rudely awakened to understand his true spiritual state, and then lifted into a higher, better place.

Section II: the Gradations of David’s Sin

Section II—the Gradations of David’s SinThe apostle has given us the genesis of evil in a very vivid pedigree. “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15). David’s sin was true to this pedigree. Passion

1. It began with an unholy passion. The sin of impurity has been so dangerously gilded with the false light of poetry and romance that the world is in danger of forgetting its sordid beastliness and utter degradation. It is the most debasing of all forms of evil, and most surely and swiftly obliterates all moral principle and religious sensibility from the human soul, deadening and hardening the heart until “having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19). And yet it is today undermining the family life, the social life and the morals of all civilized communities, and reaches its most fearful maturity in nations that are under the influence of culture and prosperity. We have only to read the shocking columns of our daily press to understand how truly our social life is being demoralized by the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let us never lower the standard of social purity or lightly esteem the fearful sin which brought upon David and his kingdom the dark shadows that clouded all his future. Passion meets us with a crimson rose and tempting perfume, but behind it is the sting of a thousand thorns and the fetid breath of the pit. Deception
2. The next element in David’s sin was falsehood, duplicity and deceit. This form of sin almost always leads to deception, evasion and a double life, until the conscience becomes utterly calloused and men and women are living a lie. One would scarcely think that the simple-hearted shepherd of Bethlehem was capable of the deep duplicity that first tried to snare Uriah into hiding the crime of the royal usurper of his home, and, failing in this, by the most cunning contrivance using Joab as a tool to push him into the place of peril and cause his cruel death while, at the same time, palming it all off as an accident of war. David’s heart must have been stung to the quick by the letter he got back from the crafty Joab, who had deeply divined the secret of the king, and sent him this word which sounds like the hiss of a serpent: “The kings’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight?’ Then say to him, ‘Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead’” (2 Samuel 11:20-21). How utterly hypocritical and devilish was the answer that David sent back to his twin hypocrite, Joab: “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab” (2 Samuel 11:25). To such steps of duplicity may the soul step when once it begins the downward slide of the slimy track of licentiousness and sin. Blood Guiltiness
3. But the dark crime of murder was also added to the sin of David. Bitterly and truly might he cry afterwards, “Save me from bloodguilt, O God!” (Psalms 51:14). Little did it avail him to plead an excuse that it was not his hand that struck Uriah down. Truly and terribly might Nathan answer in the name of the Lord, “You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites” (2 Samuel 12:9). It was the sword of Ammon that slew him, but it was David that slew him all the same. These two sins of uncleanness and bloodshed so terribly linked in the fall of David are the two sins that are specially held up in the prophetic word as the signs of the last days. “It was the same in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28). This gives us a picture of lust. “Just as it was in the days of Noah” (Luke 17:26). This is the vision of violence and blood. “It will be just like this” in both respects, “on the day the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:30). And surely these are the two forms of open iniquity that in our day are becoming most flagrant and most frequent. Look at the columns of our morning papers steeped in filth and blood, with their stories of divorce, intrigue and murder, increasing from year to year far in advance of the increase of our population and far in excess of any other nation. Indeed, these two sins usually go together. The love that fawns today will flame tomorrow as a devouring fire. And indeed it is true, in the most literal sense, that “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15). Spiritual Death
4. But there is another sense in which death came to David as the fruition of his crime. It was the death of his conscience and the entire suspension of his moral sensibility. It is frightful to see how speedily and how utterly the sensitive, spiritual nature of this man of God was paralyzed and petrified by one brief hour of sin. For two long years he seems to have been utterly unconscious of having done wrong, and to have enjoyed the fruits of his shameful conspiracy with absolute impunity, not even shedding a tear over Uriah’s noble sacrifice, but immediately sending for the wife of the man that he had wronged, and establishing her openly and shamelessly as his wife. Indeed, when Nathan told him the story of the ewe lamb, he was quick to condemn the cruel conduct of the oppressor in the parable, and it never even occurred to him that he was condemning himself. Surely this is death. Surely the saddest thing that can come to a noble nature is to sink into the depths of iniquity, and become reconciled to the most revolting associations and vices, and even forget what it once was like to be holy and pure. It is certain that David did not write any psalms during the two years of his profound spiritual catalepsy.

Section III: the Aggravation of David’s Sin

Section III—the Aggravation of David’s SinHis Aggravated Sin

1. It was aggravated by the person who sinned. Sin is always sin; but sin is more heinous when it is committed by one of whom we might expect better things. David occupied a pre-eminent position. He had received every kindness from the hand of God. Jehovah might well say to him: “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 the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this 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?” (2 Samuel 12:7-9). And so it is true of us. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Luke 12:48). When God has dealt kindly by us and trusted us with a high calling and a glorious work, it is a very fearful thing for us to drag His honor in the dust, and to degrade ourselves and our sacred trust by disobedience or unfaithfulness. Against His Friend
2. It was aggravated by the one against whom he sinned. It was against a true and noble man, a man who had done him no wrong, a man who trusted in his royal generosity, a man who left his wife’s honor in his keeping, a man who refused even the most innocent indulgence because his king and country were in danger, a man who nobly sacrificed his beloved wife and his happy home that he might hasten forth again to the battlefield, who, even when treacherously slain by his king, gladly gave up his life, believing it to be a worthy sacrifice for his sovereign and his country. Against such a man the sin of David was inhuman, monstrous and utterly inexcusable. Well is it portrayed in the simple-worded parable of the poor man with the one ewe lamb, robbed and wronged by a rich oppressor who had all he needed beside and might well have spared that one treasure. And so our sin is aggravated by the person against whom we sin. It is a very dreadful thing to sin against innocence, purity, goodness, loyalty and holiness. It is a very dreadful thing to harm the children of God, for God is their avenger. It is a more dreadful thing to speak or act an injury against the Lord’s anointed. There is many a wrecked life today, many an unhallowed grave, and perhaps many a raving maniac because of words hastily spoken and wrongs willfully done against the servants of the Lord. Against God
3. It was aggravated by the scandal and blasphemy it brought against the name of the Lord. “But… by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt” (2 Samuel 12:14). This was the severe aggravation of David’s crime, and this always makes the sin of a Christian peculiarly offensive to God. It dishonors Christ and makes Him seem false to a scorning world. God help us to walk humbly and watchfully because we carry about with us the honor of our King! Against Himself
4. There were the consequences of David’s sin. God graciously forgave him the moment he acknowledged his transgression, but at the same time He put him under a course of severest discipline and chastisement, which lasted for years and covered the remainder of his reign with many a shadow and many a sorrow. We must understand this principle of God’s government. It is not judgment in fierce anger, but it is a wise and loving chastening intended to teach great moral lessons, and lead the subject into a deeper and better place. There are great laws of moral and spiritual cause and effect which make sorrow inevitably follow hard in the tracks of sin. Grace does not abolish these laws, but grace gives us strength to stand the discipline; but we bring the discipline upon ourselves all the same when we sin, and we oft make life much harder than it need have been had we walked more closely with our God. It is like the decree which Xerxes made against the Jews at the instigation of Haman. Afterwards when Esther pleaded, the decree was not annulled, but instead, the Jews were given power to defend themselves against it. And so when we turn to God there are things which meet us in our lives hard and strange, which God does not always put aside, but He gives us grace and strength to go through the ordeal in victory. He gave this to David; but, oh, how much David might have escaped if he had stood true to God to the end! Seven great troubles entered into his cup of sorrow. The first was the death of the child born of this unholy passion. The second was the ruin of Tamar, his beautiful daughter, by the crime of Amnon, her half brother. Next was the murder of Amnon by Absalom. Then came the rebellion of Absalom and his cruel death, which broke David’s heart. And then came the curse of Shimei, and a terrible pestilence that almost blotted out Jerusalem. Last of all came the rebellion of Adonijah, and even the complicity of Joab with him. What a catalogue of sorrows—all the brood of that single sin! “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7).

Section IV: Mercy Triumphing Over Judgment

Section IV—Mercy Triumphing Over JudgmentOut of all this and above all this comes the “dear shining after the rain” (2 Samuel 23:4), and the marvelous grace of God in the later history of David. Led to Deeper Life

1. There was the deeper life it brought to his soul. It was a life through death. It was in this that he learned, as he tells us in the 23rd Psalm, to “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (2 Samuel 23:4), and to come out on the other side with a newer, higher life. It was in this experience that he learned the secrets that he has evolved in the 51st Psalm, where he can look down into the full depths of his iniquity and say, “My sin is always before me” (Psalms 51:3), and from there can look up through the blood into the unclouded light of the throne, and say with profound confidence, “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:7). Marvelous paradox of faith! The deepest sin, the brightest glory. The darkest stain, the whitest robe. Crimson and scarlet stains, but whiter than the snow, and spotless as wool cleansed to its finest fiber. It was in this that he learned in advance of his times the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and could sing, in the penitential Psalm, that wondrous song and prayer: “Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not… take your Holy Spirit from me…. grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalms 51:10-12). Henceforth he lived the resurrection life, and he knew the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Transformation of Love
2. Not only so, God transformed the outward circumstances so that the curse at last became a blessing, and the second son of this same Bathsheba was chosen by the Lord to be the heir to his throne. And we read about him this wonderful testimony: “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” (2 Samuel 12:24-25). The lesson it teaches us is this: if we deeply and thoroughly repent, if we pass judgment unreservedly upon our sinful self, and accept the mercy of God in its fullness and freeness, we will not only be forgiven but restored. Some day in yonder world of glory, of which Solomon was the type, we shall find the curse transformed into a blessing, and “instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed” (Isaiah 55:13).