David: The Tragic King
Notes
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What Went Wrong?
What Went Wrong?
One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. So David sent someone to inquire about her, and he said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hethite?”
David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. Now she had just been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Afterward, she returned home.
The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In the letter he wrote:
Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest fighting, then withdraw from him so that he is struck down and dies.
When Joab was besieging the city, he put Uriah in the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers were. Then the men of the city came out and attacked Joab, and some of the men from David’s soldiers fell in battle; Uriah the Hethite also died.
David took a woman he DESIRED and MURDERED her husband. (2 Samuel 11)
David’s behavior set a PATTERN:
Indulge your DESIRES.
TAKE what you WANT.
Use VIOLENCE to remove any OBSTACLES.
God punished David by making him LIVE in the kingdom his actions CREATED. (2 Samuel 12:7-12)
Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul. I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. Why then have you despised the Lord’s command by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hethite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hethite to be your own wife.’
“This is what the Lord says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them in broad daylight. You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’ ”
David’s son Amnon wanted his half-sister Tamar and took her.(2 Samuel 13:1-22)
Some time passed. David’s son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar, and David’s son Amnon was infatuated with her. Amnon was frustrated to the point of making himself sick over his sister Tamar because she was a virgin, but it seemed impossible to do anything to her.
When she brought them to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come sleep with me, my sister!”
“Don’t, my brother!” she cried. “Don’t disgrace me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Don’t commit this outrage! Where could I ever go with my humiliation? And you—you would be like one of the outrageous fools in Israel! Please, speak to the king, for he won’t keep me from you.” But he refused to listen to her, and because he was stronger than she was, he disgraced her by raping her.
So Amnon hated Tamar with such intensity that the hatred he hated her with was greater than the love he had loved her with. “Get out of here!” he said.
Tamar’s brother Absalom hated Amnon, so he murdered him. (2 Samuel 13:23-29)
Two years later, Absalom’s sheepshearers were at Baal-hazor near Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king’s sons. Then he went to the king and said, “Your servant has just hired sheepshearers. Will the king and his servants please come with your servant?”
The king replied to Absalom, “No, my son, we should not all go, or we would be a burden to you.” Although Absalom urged him, he wasn’t willing to go, though he did bless him.
“If not,” Absalom said, “please let my brother Amnon go with us.”
The king asked him, “Why should he go with you?” But Absalom urged him, so he sent Amnon and all the king’s sons.
Now Absalom commanded his young men, “Watch Amnon until he is in a good mood from the wine. When I order you to strike Amnon, then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Am I not the one who has commanded you? Be strong and valiant!” So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had commanded. Then all the rest of the king’s sons got up, and each fled on his mule.
Absalom wanted the kingdom, so he took it—and his father’s concubines. (2 Samuel 15-17)
When four years had passed, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go to Hebron to fulfill a vow I made to the Lord. For your servant made a vow when I lived in Geshur of Aram, saying, ‘If the Lord really brings me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the Lord in Hebron.’ ”
“Go in peace,” the king said to him. So he went to Hebron.
Then Absalom sent agents throughout the tribes of Israel with this message: “When you hear the sound of the trumpet, you are to say, ‘Absalom has become king in Hebron!’ ”
Ahithophel replied to Absalom, “Sleep with your father’s concubines whom he left to take care of the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become repulsive to your father, everyone with you will be encouraged.” So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
David’s hit man, Joab, killed Absalom against David’s wishes. (2 Samuel 18)
The king commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, “Treat the young man Absalom gently for my sake.” All the people heard the king’s orders to all the commanders about Absalom.
Absalom was riding on his mule when he happened to meet David’s soldiers. When the mule went under the tangled branches of a large oak tree, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so he was suspended in midair.
Joab said, “I’m not going to waste time with you!” He then took three spears in his hand and thrust them into Absalom’s chest. While Absalom was still alive in the oak tree, ten young men who were Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him, and killed him.
David replaced Joab with Amasa, but Joab murdered him to get the job back. (2 Samuel 20:8-10)
Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, “Today you have shamed all your soldiers—those who saved your life as well as your sons, your wives, and your concubines—by loving your enemies and hating those who love you! Today you have made it clear that the commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you. In fact, today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead, it would be fine with you!
“Now get up! Go out and encourage your soldiers, for I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the trouble that has come to you from your youth until now!”
So the king got up and sat in the city gate, and all the people were told, “Look, the king is sitting in the city gate.” Then they all came into the king’s presence.
Meanwhile, each Israelite had fled to his tent.
And tell Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me and do so severely if you don’t become commander of my army from now on instead of Joab!’ ”
They were at the great stone in Gibeon when Amasa joined them. Joab was wearing his uniform and over it was a belt around his waist with a sword in its sheath. As he approached, the sword fell out. Joab asked Amasa, “Are you well, my brother?” Then with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him. Amasa was not on guard against the sword in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach with it and spilled his intestines out on the ground. Joab did not stab him again, and Amasa died.
Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.
David’s son Adonijah conspired with Joab to STEAL the THRONE. (1 Kings 1:5-7)
Adonijah son of Haggith kept exalting himself, saying, “I will be king!” He prepared chariots, cavalry, and fifty men to run ahead of him. But his father had never once infuriated him by asking, “Why did you do that?” In addition, he was quite handsome and was born after Absalom. He conspired with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar. They supported Adonijah,
David told his successor, Solomon, to rule wisely—and have Joab MURDERED. (1 Kings 2:1-6)
As the time approached for David to die, he ordered his son Solomon, “As for me, I am going the way of all of the earth. Be strong and be a man, and keep your obligation to the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees. This is written in the law of Moses, so that you will have success in everything you do and wherever you turn, and so that the Lord will fulfill his promise that he made to me: ‘If your sons take care to walk faithfully before me with all their heart and all their soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’
“You also know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me and what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s army, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He murdered them in a time of peace to avenge blood shed in war. He spilled that blood on his own waistband and on the sandals of his feet. Act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head descend to Sheol in peace.
The violence and chaos of David’s reign followed the PATTERN of his own SIN.
The Kingdom of Heaven
The Kingdom of Heaven
As rulers, our actions are never ISOLATED—they CREATE the world we live in. (Luke 6:37-38; Matthew 26:52)
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over—will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.
When we act out of SELFISH desire, we create a SELFISH world—and we have to live in it.
The GENEROSITY of God gives us the freedom—and responsibility—to create a world of GENEROSITY around us. (Matthew 7:7-12)
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.