The Rightness of 2 Samuel 11

Several months ago I wrote a blog on the downfall of David in 2 Samuel 11 (David and Bathsheba).  Recently I have dusted off the study to continue moving forward into chapter twelve.  But before we get into the confrontation with David by a studly prophet named Nathan, it is necessary we review the events in chapter eleven.  What causes a man of God, a man after God’s own heart, to fall into sin?  How can one in close intimacy with the Lord turn around and run the other direction?

Biblically there are several concepts for the word right or righteous, let me give you a basic idea.  There are two ways of looking at things.  One, you can look at a situation from your own vantage point, your own perspective, understanding, wisdom and make a decision based upon what you deem as “right” (correct).  But if you’re like me, you have experienced those moments when I have declared something as “right” only to find myself very wrong.  I thought something was correct and good only to find out later that it was the worst thing possible and wasn’t right at all.  A second idea of right is to see a situation not from your perspective, but from God’s.  You literally take on his understanding, wisdom, perspective, insight, vantage point and whatever He deems as “right” you say is correct.  Can I give you a secret?  God’s “right” is ALWAYS correct.

To put it another way, any time I source my own actions or perspective – turn within and decide myself what is good and right – I will find myself always in the wrong.  Your flesh cannot give you lead you in the “right.”  Isaiah 64.6 says that our own attempt to produce righteousness is but filthy rags in God’s sight.  We can’t do it.  The message throughout the entirety of Scripture is that we must be sourced by the Living God (the outside God coming to live and dwell and reign inside) – He sources and lives our lives.  It is all Him, not us.  When this takes place, He becomes my right-ness and I take on His perspective, understanding, wisdom, vantage point … because He is sourcing and producing Himself in my life.

1 Kings 15.5 says, “David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”  David always lived in the flow and sourcing of the Lord.  He constantly lived in the perspective, wisdom, understanding, vantage point of God.  Never once did he turn within himself to make a decision or to declare what was “right.”  He was dependent upon God as the basis of his own rightness.  He never turned to the right or the left from the path of seeing through God’s eyes what was right, upright, godly, just, proper, and true.

Well, that is except one time.  Just one little ole time.  You see there was this one time when David refused the perspective of God, turned within himself and decided what was right … only to find out it was completely and utterly wrong.  1 Kings 15.5 says that David always walked in the rightness and perspective of God, except the one time with Uriah the Hittite.

In 2 Samuel 11, David stays home from battle when the kings were suppose to go out to war.  One evening while walking around the roof of his house when he should have been sleeping, he sees a beautiful woman, sends for her and commits adultery.  To cover it up, he sends for Uriah and ends up killing him by sending him to the front of the battle lines.  What I find interesting is that Uriah wasn’t just some average Joe in David’s military, he was one of David’s best friends.  Uriah was amongst the elite group of David’s mighty valiant men (there were only 33).  David and Uriah use to hang out, in fact it could have been that David had Uriah and his wife Bathsheba over for dinner the week before the war.  But when David enquires who the woman bathing is and finds out it is his best friend’s wife, he is so consumed with his own lust, focus, and “rightness,” he jumps into bed without a moments hesitation.

It is imperative to understand that a man – even a man after God’s own heart – who is left to his own resource and sourced by his own “rightness,” will always cause their own downfall as well as the destruction of many.  Just the one time that David turns within and sources himself, caused a heap of destruction in his life, the life of his family, and all of Israel.  Therefore, it is absolutely critical that we allow Jesus to source and flow through our lives.  The moment we turn within ourselves, even if it seems harmless or “just once,” will destroy us.  Romans 6.12-14 gives a great illustration of this.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Paul declares that sin is not to have a place in our lives.  The idea of reign in 6.12 is that of a king ruling a kingdom – sin should NOT be ruling your life.  It is to have no voice or say, in fact, Paul says sin has been done away with in Christ and therefore no longer has power and authority over you – you are free!  Yet while we are free, if we so choose, we can put the noose around our necks, hand the rope to sin and say, “do what you want with me.”  By doing so, we give the control of our lives over to sin and we will have no choice but to obey its commands and “lusts.”

The idea of “present” in 6.13 literally means to yield.  Paul says you will yield to one of two things – either to sin or to God.  “Instrument” in this passage is actually the Greek word for “weapon of warfare” – think of it as a huge sword.  If we choose to yield our lives to sin, it will take our life as a weapon of warfare, march into our world, and use us to produce unrighteousness.  You cannot sin in a bubble – all sin affects those around you at some level, even if you can’t see the results now.  Sin is wielding you as a sword to wreak destruction in the world.

However, if you present your life to God, He will use you as a weapon of warfare, march into the world, and produce righteousness.  You don’t get a choice whether or not you are used as a weapon of warfare, but you do choose whom you will yield to – either to sin producing unrighteousness, or to God producing righteousness.

Whom are you yielding to?  Have you turned within, seeing and deciding your own “rightness” or are you completely surrendered and dependent upon Jesus as your rightness?  It does not matter if you are good or bad, the question is who is sourcing your life?  If you source your life, it always produces sin.  The moment we turn within and decide our own rightness, downfall and destruction are quickly coming.  AB Simpson once said about David, “It is frightful to see how speedily and how utterly the sensitive, spiritual nature of this man of God was paralyzed and petrified by one brief hour of sin.”  May our life’s testimony NOT be the downfall of David, but rather characterized by the embrace and intimacy of our life with Jesus as He flows and sources us.

Next week we are going to analyze God’s perspective of sin as found within 2 Samuel 11-12.

Read the other Bible Studies in this series:

The Downfall of David
The Rightness of 2 Samuel 11
A Chiastic Displeasure – 2 Samuel 11.27
You Are the Man – 2 Samuel 12.1-7
Despised – 2 Samuel 12.9