 Seminar 1: "Between the Testaments" Lesson 4
Introduction Be sure your sin will find you out! God is patient to allow men plenty of opportunity to change their ways but then God says His spirit will not always strive with man. So it was with the kings of Israel and Judah. God allowed the sin to continue but it ultimately brought about the downfall of the nation. What were the sins that brought Israel down? 1) Adultery. 2) Idolatry. 3) Careless Neglect of the Law of God. There are lessons to learn here. Saul paid for his stubbornness and rebellion of heart with a lost kingdom and finally lost his life. David paid dearly for his adultery. Solomon reaped a whirlwind for his becoming unequally yoked with pagan women and subsequent idolatry. Sin always demands a consequence. We cannot sin without reaping the consequences. "Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap." Here is a sample lesson from history, hidden from the casual reader but discovered by the careful student and historian who compares Scripture with Scripture. ======================================================================== Part 1: KING DAVID'S SIN ======================================================================== David was the apple of God's eye. Yet as such he still had to bear the severe consequences for his sins. His sins were forgiven in response to his plea to be washed, covered, and God created in him a clean heart and a right spirit, BUT HE STILL HAD TO BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES. One of the sad reminders of David's sin was the tragic rebellion of his handsome son Absalom. Absalom's pride led him to rise up against his father in a national revolt to sieze the throne of David. Those years were painful for David especially when he secretly knew that this rebellion and the death of Absalom were also the fruit of his affair with Bathsheba. Here is how. It has always been a curious wonder that David's closest counselor and prime minister, Ahithophel, sided against him with Absalom. This treason seemed sudden and without reason for one whose counsel had been "as of the oracles of God" (2 Sam. 16:23) to David. The question that has haunted many bible students for years is this. Why did Ahithophel join Absalom's rebellion? Why would this faithful counselor approach Absalom with the proposition, "Let me take twelve thousand men and I will arise and pursue after David this night...and I will smite the king only." (2 Samuel 17:1-2)? And why did Ahithophel advise Absalom to openly have sexual relations with David's concubines on the roof of the palace in the sight of all Israel? (2 Samuel 16:21-22) The answer to this mystery and the lessons it proposes for the next 500 years of history is hidden in the genealogical lists we so often overlook. To find the solution we must go back 30 years to David's adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. It was done because David had observed her bathing while on the roof of his palace. It was done during a time of war. David should have been where God wanted him, leading his troops not exploring his sexual fantasies in the palace. David had "tarried" in Jerusalem while his men went off to war. It makes you wonder if David were not planning this romantic interlude. If you read the Scriptures and compare them carefully you will discover some interesting connections. Bathsheba was the "daughter of Eliam" and the "wife of Uriah the Hittite." (2 Sam. 11:3) Tracing Eliam you will find him listed among the great heroes that guarded King David in 2 Samuel 23:34,39. The list contains 37 men among whom are Uriah the Hittite, and Eliam, the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite. Ah! Now the picture is starting to clear. Eliam was the father of Bathsheba, and his father was the honored counselor Ahithophel. Uriah had married Bathsheba, and Ahithophel was her grandfather! Uriah and Eliam were mighty warriors who had fought back to back for King David. Now David not only commits premeditated adultery with Bathsheba, but betrays the confidence of his closest bodyguards, Uriah and Eliam, and insults the trust of his counselor Ahithophel. Uriah's house was adjacent to the palace as a reward for Uriah's faithful service to the king. It is likely that David had observed beautiful Bathsheba many times in royal banquets in his palace. It must have infuriated grandfather Ahithophel to discover his granddaughter's pregnancy was the fault of the King, and his son-in-law's death was the direct act of David's cowardice and treason against his own friends. David was not the ONLY one who should have written, "My friend has lifted up his heal against me." So Ahithophel had good reason to betray David. He was exacting revenge against one whom he had trusted and honored as a man of God, who in fact had become an adulterer and a murderer. Ahithophel was exacting his revenge by counseling and encouraging Absalom to do the very thing that David did in the sight of all Israel. One final note should not be missed in this story. David responded to his guilt with remorseful lament and true heartfelt repentance as we can clearly see in Psalm 51. When he was told that the child of this pregnancy would die he fasted and prayed that the Lord would spare the child's life. When the child died David arose, stopped grieving and broke the fast. At the child's death David stopped fasting and arose and went about his normal business assuming that his sin and its consequences were over. ======================================================================== ======================================================================== If we had not studied the historical background of David's story we would have missed God's lesson to all of us. Here is the true lesson. The consequences of sin are often underestimated by the children of God. But God has promised that "every sin and disobedience will receive its just recompense of reward," and that "the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those that hate [him]." Often Christians feel, perhaps like David, that they can sin, then ask God to forgive them and the matter is over. But it is not necessarily over. Sin has consequences. The apostle Paul warned, "For this cause are many weak and sickly among you and many sleep." Yes, God does truly forgive us and wash us whiter than snow as he did for David, but the consequences live on. David experienced those lifelong consequences for his sin with Bathsheba, including that he would not be approved to build the temple. But he also reaped the whirlwind with the sins of his son Solomon, (son of Bathsheba) and the generations that followed reaped the misery of a divided kingdom. Each of their sins led to the Babylonian Captivity. When we confess our sins the Lord is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But it is not over. God will not stop the natural consequences that our sins reap. We will reap what we sow. Our sins will affect the course of our lives and the lives of those around us. Like the pebble thrown into the pond, the ripples of our deliberate sins echo outward and touch, affect, and shape those around us. Remember David's sin was not the casual misdemeanor, or the little foxes that spoil the vine. It was the presumptuous sin of believing that one can sin now and ask forgiveness later. It was a deliberate "sinning with the high hand", or "knowing what was right to do and doing it not." May God grant us the wisdom and grace to avoid the conscious, deliberate, and moral sins that stained forever the kingdom of David. "BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT!" |