2 Samuel 12:14

OCCASION TO BLASPHEME

‘This deed.’

2 Samuel 12:14

I. When we read the history of David’s fall, what surprises and perhaps somewhat perplexes us at the first is the apparent suddenness of it.—There seems no preparation, no warning. But if we look back to the first verse of the chapter preceding, we shall find the explanation there: ‘At the time when kings go forth to battle … David tarried still at Jerusalem.’ Had he been enduring hardship with the armies of Israel, these temptations to luxury and uncleanness would probably never have come near him; certainly he would not have succumbed beneath them. The first lesson from the story is that prosperous times are perilous times.

II. Notice the way in which sins are linked to one another, in which, as by a terrible necessity, one leads on to a second, and a second to a third, and so on.—The great enemy of souls is in nothing more skilful than in breaking down the bridges of retreat behind the sinner. Wrong may become worse wrong, but it never becomes right. Close walking with God is the only safe walking.

III. Do not miss this lesson— the ignoble servitude to men in which the sinner is very often through his sin entangled.—Mark how David becomes the servant of Joab from the moment that he has made Joab the partaker of his evil counsels, the accomplice of his crime. Let no man in this sense be thy master. Let no man know that of thee which, if he chose to reveal it, would cast thee down from the fair esteem and reputation which thou enjoyest before men.

IV. Note the darkness of heart which sin brings over its servants.—For wellnigh a whole year David has lain in his sin, and yet all the while his conscience is in a deathlike sleep, so that it needs a thunder-voice from heaven, the rebuke of a prophet, to rouse him from this lethargy.

V. In David’s answer to Nathan we observe.—(1) The blessing that goes along with a full, free, unreserved confession of sin, being, as this is, the sure token of a true repentance. (2) While he who has fully confessed is fully forgiven, there is still, as concerns this present life, a sad ‘howbeit’ behind. God had taken from him the eternal penalty of his sin; but He had never said, Thy sin shall not be bitter to thee. God may forgive His children their sin, and yet He may make their sin most bitter to them here, teaching them in this way its evil.

Illustration

‘One brief spell of indulgence, and then his character was blasted irretrievably, his peace vanished, the foundations of his kingdom were imperilled, the Lord was displeased, and occasion was given to his enemies to blaspheme. Let us beware of our light, unguarded hours. Leisure moments may be more harmful than those of strenuous toil. Middle life—for David was above fifty years of age—has no immunity from temptations and perils. One false step taken in the declension of spiritual vigour may ruin a reputation built up by years of religious character. It was David’s plan to cover his sin; but God could not for His servant’s soul-health allow the crime to be glossed over thus; the abscess must be lanced that the flesh may heal properly; and so, at all costs, God will deal with us rather than allow sin unrepented of and unconfessed to eat out our vitals.’