Facing Temptation

Click here for the audio message of 2 Samuel 11

Last time we left off with David bringing home the Ark of God to Jerusalem. He started off doing it his own way, but when God’s wrath was made known to them. David stopped and returned to God’s ways of doing things.

David gets the Ark to Jerusalem and decides he wants to build a temple for the Ark to stay in. God says no, but his son will do that. Instead God has much bigger plans for David.

God says to David that He will make his name great. He will give Israel a place to live. He will give David rest and make him victorious. Finally, God tells David that He will give him a son to succeed him, but also a Son that would rule forever. Of course, the immediate son was Solomon and Jesus Christ is the Son that rules forever.

After this David starts to see God’s Word come true. He is continuously victorious in battle and his name is made great. Then one day, David goes up on his roof and sees this beautiful woman and says, “I want that.” And as king, you pretty much get what you want.

We see then a bunch of what we would call small little sins continue to build up into a massive web of deceit and lies.

First our account of David and Bathsheeba starts off with David maybe being a little bit lazy or arrogant or egotistical. It is spring time and that is when the kings go off to war because during the winter it is cold and there is not as much food available. So kings go to war in the spring.

But not David. He stays back at his castle. Wakes up from a little nap and decides to go for a walk on his roof. So sin number one is David wasn’t doing what he should have been doing. He was idle and he got into trouble.

I’ve never been in the military, but I know some of you have been and I’ve talked with some of my friends who were. They would always tell me about how the Sergeant or whoever was in charge would always give them stupid ridicules things to do.

Why? Because if you have a bunch of soldiers sitting around doing nothing then they are going to get into trouble. This applies to any of us. This is what happened to David. But his sin doesn’t stop there.

David sees this beautiful women, now remember David is married already to a couple of other beautiful women, but he wants her. So David’s next little sin is desiring something that he doesn’t have.


Wow, how often has that gotten us into trouble as well. Even if we don’t act on that desire it still makes us feel bad that we can’t have whatever it is we want. David of course, being King can get what he wants, so little sin number three is David pursues Bathsheeba. Then comes sin number four, David sends for Bathsheeba, even after he finds out she was married.

Think about it. This entire situation could have been avoided if David had simply gone to war with his troops. Or didn’t look at Bathsheeba, or inquiry about her, or send for her.

Since David ignored his conscience through these little sins, he was good to go when Bathsheeba arrives at his bedroom. And that’s the point. Satan doesn’t attack us with this really massive temptation. He uses these small little sins as we call them to enable us to justify our actions.

Satan wears down our defenses and before you know it you are knee deep in some serious sin and separated from God. If you go home and read this entire chapter this afternoon or this evening you will see that God’s name is not mentioned until the very final sentence where it says, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”

And that is what Satan wants. He wants to separate us from God. He wants us to do things that displease the Lord.

So now we have David committing several little sins that lead to adultery. I would like to say that it is at this point that David gets on his knees in prayer and repentance to God, but that isn’t what happens.

Instead of confessing his sins, he tries to cover them up by sending for Bathsheeba’s husband and tries to get him to sleep with her so it will look like the child is the husband’s. But Uriah is an honorable man and will not sleep with his wife no matter how hard David tries.

So David comes up with another plan. He sends a letter to his commander to have this man Uriah killed during battle. Unbelievable isn’t it! Here we have a man after God’s own heart, lusting after a married woman, impregnating her, trying to cover it up, then killing her husband. Unreal.

As you look at this web of lies and deception that David had built you see how many people it involved. Obviously David and Bathsheeba, but also David’s servants had to know what was going on and were no doubt sworn to secrecy. The king’s commander also had to realize that something was fishy with the letter that he received to have Uriah killed.

Of course Uriah has to pay for David’s sin with his life and not just Uriah but other soldiers died during the battle as well. Finally, we see next time that David and Bathsheeba’s child dies as a result of all this as well.

This is what happens when we stray from God. There is a lesson here for all of us to learn this morning.

One author wrote, “The process works like this. First, the thought is allowed to enter into our minds. Second, the imagination is sparked by the thought. Third, we feel a sense of pleasure at the fantasy and we entertain it.

Fourth, and finally, we engage in the evil action [giving in] to its urges. This is how little by little, temptations gain entrance and overcome us if they are not resisted at the beginning. The longer we let them overcome us, the weaker we become, and the stronger the enemy [is] against us.”

There’s an old saying,
Sow a thought – reap an action.
Sow an action – reap a habit.
Sow a habit – reap a character.
Sow a character – reap a destiny.

How true that is. We need to remember that we are what we make ourselves to be. We can be children of God or we can be children of Satan. Who are we going to listen to and trust with the everyday matters of life.

Closing prayer

Lord, we come to you now seeking your guidance in our everyday matters of life. Help us to turn from our temptations that we face. And when we do happen to give in and mess up, strengthen us to not cover up our sins, but to come to you for forgiveness. Grant us the grace, mercy and peace that you desire for us. AMEN.