V. 1, The battle against Ammon continues on. David has returned from a great victory. His armies on foot destroyed 700 chariots, 7000 chariot men and 40,000 horsemen and foot soldiers.
For David's army on foot to do this is a tremendous testimony to God's hand upon David. Ammon fled back to the city of Rabbah, 10:14. David goes back to Jerusalem and left the fight up to Joab.
Vs. 2-13.
This is the turning point of David's reign. At the peak of his power and probably a little over one half way through his rule, he does this foolish thing.
We will lump this all together and just call our attention to some high points. There are more sermon outlines here than we can possibly cover, so I will only give the basic outlines. We will cover this much more in depth in chapter 12. Ch 12 is James 1:22 illustrated.
1) Notice when David does this: he had returned from a great victory. This is the time we are all the most open to Satan's attack.
2) David was able to subdue every enemy of God, except one: his own flesh.
A) his own lusts were out of control. He already had many wives and God would have given him more, 12:8. But the grass always looks greener...
David's many wives without God's permission indicates his problem. He could rule a kingdom for God, but he could not rule his own spirit for God. We might keep in mind that David did not have the indwelling Spirit of Grace as we have Him today. One of the promises of the New Covenant was that the Father would write His laws upon the heart of his people
Deut 30:6 - Col 2:11
B) David's eyes were out of control. David had a wandering eye. Sin enters in through the eye: Eve saw the fruit...
Our Lord said in Mk 9:47, if our eye offends us, pluck it out... If one cannot control the lust that the eye alows to enter, it is better to cast it from one's self. I am sure that after chapter 12, David wished many times that he had been physically blind rather than blinded by lust. Lust blinds to the law of God.
I find it strange that David did not recognize adultery and murder as sin until after Nathan confronted him. Then David wept over this sin. I wonder why he was so sensitive to it after Nathan's confrontation and so hardened to it here. We will answer this question in chapter 12.
We will say this, God has chosen that by the foolishness of preaching to convict of sin and to save them that would believe. When Nathan preach, the Spirit of God moved upon David.
Job said, I have made a covenant with my eyes...
Job only had one wife also.
3) David was already a victim of his lusts: he was lazying around in bed instead of out about confronting the King's enemies. What we are will come out.
A) David loafed when he should have been laboring.
B) David was at ease in Zion when he should have been at war against the enemies of God: Ammon.
C) David spent the afternoon in bed while his men spent the afternoon on the battle field.
This is where Saul's son got in trouble. In 5:7, Ishbosheth was in bed during the day when his assassins killed him.
D) David was walking on the roof when he should have been running in the filed after God's enemies.
4) God will protect us in the line of His duty, but not in when we are walking in our own way. MH makes a very telling statement here: "When we are out of our way of duty, we are in the way of temptation."
In conclusion to chapter 11:
David loafed, looked, lusted and leaped.
Lust conceives
Lust conspires
Lust controls, constrains, compels, craves
Lust commits
Lust covers, both with lies and excuses.
Lust kills
It seems as though this might have been a time in David's life as referred to in 2 Chron 32:31. We can rest assured that if the Lord departed from us for a moment, we could well do just what David did here.
The heart is full of wickedness.
Man left to himself will self-destruct with his wickedness
Only by the Lord's mercies are we not destroyed, according to Lamentations 3:22...
Notice in the OT, the Spirit of God did not indwell His people as He does today. Today we have the promise that he will never leave us or forsake us..
Today, because the power of the Spirit of the victorious Christ living within us, there is no reason to sink to the level of being controlled by lust as David did. But we should learn from David, that every person is capable of doing the vilest of sins, except for God's providential care.
Why didn't God empower the OT saints as He does today? Maybe
as an example for us.
We will never understand until we ask Him face to face.
Look how much more and better we have than even David had (Hebrews
tells us this.)
Again, there are all kinds of outlines here in these few verses.
Just pick one and preach. There is no need to go through them
all again here.
David took her. She had to be willing, of course.
David's reigh is all down-hill from v. 4 on.
V. 14
David tries to trick Uriah, but in the whole matter Uriah was
more righteous than David.
Only one other thing here: V. 27. David conspired to have someone else kill Uriah. David's son Abslolm conspired with his servants to have them kill his brother Amnon. If David, a man after God's own heart, reaped what he sowed, we can be assured that we will also.
James 1:14---