When I was first thinking about
preaching a summer series on the life of David, I was really excited and eager
to get started. I mean, we’re talking
about one of the most recognizable names in the entire Bible and all of those
great Old Testament stories about him.
Who doesn’t like the story of little David going out to fight the big
bad giant Goliath with just a sling and some stones? Or the story of how God chose David to be the
next king of Israel? Do you remember
that story? It’s when Jesse’s sons were
paraded in front of the prophet Samuel.
And each of these sons looks like he would be the ideal king. But God instead chose the least likely of the
sons. God chose little scrawny, David. That’s a great story, isn’t it? God doesn’t look on our outer
appearance. He looks at what’s in our
heart.
Or how about the story of brave
David sneaking into the city of Jerusalem to take that city from the Jebusites
and making it the capitol for a new united Israel? What an exciting story!
And then you have the story of David and Bathsheba, the R rated story in
the bible. It has all the makings of a
summer block buster movie. Pastor Cheryl
and I tamed it down a little bit for our family friendly worship experience,
but we did learn from that story that it is possible to resist temptation with
the power of God’s grace, and if we do fall into temptation, that we can own up
to our sins and receive forgiveness from God.
These are the stories that I was looking forward to during these summer
months. But I didn’t expect this very
sad and tragic story that we find in II Samuel chapter 18. I’m not sure that too many churches are
focusing on this appointed scripture reading for today. I would venture to say that 99.9% of all
preachers are preaching on one of the other scripture readings instead.
But that’s OK because if we want to really know who David was, we need
to hear as many of these stories as possible.
With just a few more Sundays to go on the life of David, we have this
very, very sad story. We’ve already
heard it read, but allow me to set the scene of what’s going on here. This is one of those stories that if taken
out of context, we can easily miss the point.
On the surface, this sounds like a story in which we should feel really
sorry for David. I mean, his son,
Absalom has died in battle. And upon
hearing this sad news, David weeps and cries out, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom,
my son, my son!”
At first glance, this appears to be a story in which we feel great
sympathy for David and so we enter into his grief. And while there is that element to the story,
it’s really much more complicated and tragic, I’m sorry to say.
This scripture reading is from II Samuel, chapter 18, but we need to go
back to chapter 11, the story of David and Bathsheba and her husband Uriah to understand
what’s going on. As you may remember,
even though David was a tremendous leader for Israel, he did a terrible thing
when he committed adultery with Bathsheba.
After he discovered that she was pregnant, he had Uriah killed to cover
up what he had done.
But then the prophet, Nathan confronted David about his sin and you may
remember from last Sunday that he ended up repenting and receiving forgiveness
from God. But even after David repented
and received forgiveness, Nathan still told David that there would be
consequences for his actions. And that’s
important for us to remember whenever we sin and ask God for forgiveness. Admitting our sins and receiving God’s
forgiveness is so central to our faith but the truth is that we also need to
face the consequences from those sins.
The title I gave that sermon on David and Bathsheba was that famous
line, “O, What a Tangled Web We Weave.”
And from that point on, David experiences a very tangled web as a result
of his sin, and David somehow manages to tangle things up even more.
We fast forward several years when Absalom, who was David and
Bathsheba’s son is now an adult. Absalom
finds out that his brother has sexually abused their sister, Tamar. Mysteriously, David does nothing to bring
justice to Amnon who did this terrible thing.
Absalom does the right thing by being there for his sister. But because his father, David does nothing
about this, Absalom takes matters into his own hands and kills his brother,
Amnon.
Absalom then flees Jerusalem and stays away from his father David for
three years. David ends up forgiving
Absalom for murdering his brother, Amnon and has him return to Jerusalem and
they are reunited as father and son. But
the story takes another tragic twist when Absalom undercuts David’s leadership
to the point where he leaves Jerusalem and claims to be the true king of
Israel. And now David has to flee
Jerusalem for his life. The nation of
Israel is now experiencing a civil war between David and his own son, Absalom.
Today’s scripture reading is when David’s men were finally able to track
down Absalom and kill him in battle. To
complicate matters, David’s own men are upset with him because while they are risking
their lives and fighting for the unity of Israel, David’s heart isn’t with them
since he’s more concerned about his son even though his son had betrayed him.
O, what a tangled web we weave.
What a sad, sad story!
Part of me wants to throw up my arms and ask, “Lord, what can we possibly learn from this story?” One of the commentaries that I read about
this chapter in II Samuel has this as the subtitle, “A Story in Which
Everything is Wrong.” And that is so
true.
In this story, everybody is angry at everybody else. David is angry at Absalom for betraying
him. Absalom was angry at his father,
David for not doing anything about Tamar’s rape. David’s fighting men are angry at David
because it’s because of David’s mistakes that they have risked their lives to
stop Absalom.
Everybody is angry at everybody and it can all be traced back to the
consequences of David’s sin and David’s poor leadership in all of these events. And yet, we still remember David as a great
leader of Israel and a man who was after God’s own heart. He’s still viewed as a great biblical
hero.
But then I started thinking about other great biblical people in the
bible and was reminded that they had feet of clay as well. Abraham left everything to follow God’s
calling but he ended up doubting God and he lied to Pharaoh to protect his
life.
Moses led the people of Israel to freedom but he sinned against God and
didn’t even make it into the Promised Land.
Peter, probably the greatest of Jesus’ disciples, denied that he even
knew Jesus.
The reason we have these flawed biblical heroes and these very painful
and sad stories like the one for today, is to show how serious and detrimental
sin can be. It’s like the biblical
authors continually want to remind us of the consequences of sin.
As I think about this sad part of David’s life, I’m reminded of another
David who I have known for many years. I
always admired him. He was a great athlete and a very skilled carpenter,
probably one of the strongest and toughest guys I have ever met.
But even with all of these great qualities, it always bothered me that
David never attended church with his wife and children. Even when his children would sing in the
children’s choir on a Sunday morning, he wouldn’t come. He kept God and the church at a distance, for
some reason.
One day, I felt led to begin praying for David on a regular basis. Knowing that he didn’t believe in God and
that as a carpenter he often worked outside on building projects, I prayed that
David would be able to see God’s handiwork on those beautiful blue sky
workdays. Even when I moved from that
community, I continued to pray for David that he would know of God’s love for
him and that God is real.
A few years later, his wife told me that he was now attending church
with her and the family. I was so glad
to hear this! This was an answer to prayer!
And not only was he attending church, he was also leading a bible study
in their home! He was beginning to lead church
mission trips in Africa and throughout our country to help with building projects.
But even with all of these wonderful changes in his life, there were
signs that something wasn’t quite right, something from his past that was
unresolved. To this day, I don’t know
what demons David was battling against, but they were very, very real.
And he ended up making some really bad decisions. He started having an affair and when his wife
finally heard about it, she was devastated.
He quit attending church and slowly drifted away from his faith. In fact, he even said that he would never set
foot in a church again. He and his wife
divorced and from that point on, I kind of lost contact with David. That was several years ago.
And then just last year, I attended the wedding of his son, but David
didn’t come. I discovered at the wedding
that David, now in his early 60’s, was confined to a wheelchair and under
hospice care. The family showed me a
picture of David in a photo album at the wedding.
The day after the wedding, I received the sad news that David had
died. It was like he gave everything he
had so that he would live through his son’s wedding day, which amazingly, he
was able to do in his very weakened state.
That’s a sad story, isn’t it?
Kind of sad like the story from our scripture reading for today. We get these stories from time to time as
we read through the bible. We can’t
ignore them. They’re must be some
purpose for stories like these or they wouldn’t be in the Bible.
If David did all of these bad things, why do we still remember him as a
great biblical hero? Why would we spend
a whole summer focusing on this one man from the Bible? These are the questions I’ve been wrestling with
as I prepared for this message today.
It’s interesting that we still hold David in high regard. I think it’s because of at least two very
important reasons. And the first reason
is that even though David really messed up during this part of his life, that
doesn’t take away from all of the good he did for God and for Israel.
And secondly, we remember David, not primarily for what he did or didn’t
do, but because of the promise that God had made to him. And the promise was that it would be through
David’s lineage, that a king, a messiah, would one day bring salvation to the
world. Hundreds of years after the time
of David, God sent us this Savior, and his name is Jesus.
And it’s through Jesus, that you and I are invited to receive salvation,
forgiveness of our sins, and new life.
God kept the promise that he made to David. Jesus wants to be our Lord and Savior. So our
sad story today eventually has a very good ending.
Oh, and as for the story of the other David I was telling you
about? When I heard that he had died, I
found his obituary online. I was
surprised to read that David’s funeral would be held in the church, the same
church that he said he would never return to again.
The obituary read that David left this earth to be with the Lord on July
31st, 2011. It went on to say
that his personal mission was to serve the Lord by going to Sierra Leone in
Africa, South Dakota, Mississippi and Kentucky to build homes for those in
need. As I read this, I realized that at
some point, David had made peace with God.
And at the very bottom of the obituary, it said, “In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of David may be made to the
Sierra Leone Water Drilling Fund being raised at the church.”
Thankfully, this is how I will remember him.
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