June 22, 2025
David: A Man After God’s Own Heart
“I Was Wrong”
2 Samuel 12: 1-7a;13
When I was in college just north of Charlotte, NC, there was a thriving tele-evangelism ministry that was coming under huge scrutiny from the Charlotte News and Observer. The ministry was called “The PTL Club.” PTL stands for Praise the Lord. It was led by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. They preached a prosperity Gospel while building what appeared like a religious theme park near the South Carolina state line. Investors were guaranteed lavish accommodations in the surrounding and safety of good Christian people.
Susan’s grandmother used to watch PTL. She was a widow and very alone and it gave her encouragement. She gave money to PTL. Then one day Susan’s sister took her grandmother to Heritage USA, the lavish campus of PTL….
The PTL Club started to crash in 1987 when the newspaper broke the story that Bakker paid nearly $300,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault. He eventually went to prison for fraud and conspiracy. But in prison he read the Bible every day. Not that he hadn’t before. But now he read with new eyes. When he got out of prison he wrote a book about his experience. He said,
About the time of my parole hearing (1993), I completed my study of all the words of Jesus in the New Testament. To my surprise, after months of studying Jesus, I concluded that He did not have one good thing to say about money. Most of Jesus' statements about riches, wealth, and material gain were in a negative context. Even "The Prodigal Son," one of my favorite stories told by Jesus, took on new meaning…I quickly noticed that the story began with the younger brother saying to the father, "Give me! Give me my part of the inheritance" (Luke 15:12). He didn't even say, "Please give me." He simply demanded. Before long, that young man landed in the pigpen. I began to see that the fastest way to the pig pen begins with "Give me."
As the true impact of Jesus' words regarding money impacted my heart and mind, I became physically nauseated. I was wrong. I was wrong! Wrong in my lifestyle, certainly, but even more fundamentally, wrong in my understanding of the Bible's true message. Not only was I wrong, but I was teaching the opposite of what Jesus had said. That is what broke my heart; when I came to the awareness that I had actually been contradicting Christ, I was horrified.
What’s the name of Bakker’s book? I Was Wrong. Now, a skeptical person would say he was also broke, and the reason he wrote this book was to make some money. We can’t know his reasons. But what we can say is those three words are the key to having a future after failure. Just ask King David.
Roughly 30 years after defeating Goliath, when David was a nobody and nobody believed he could achieve such a feat, David found himself getting used to being a
somebody, King of Israel. He established the city that would become Jerusalem. He built a beautiful palace. And David enjoys the benefits of power.
Chapter 11 of Second Samuel begins, “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab…” (2 Samuel 11:1) David doesn’t go himself. Now he can send people. He sends others to do his fighting. He stays home at his palace. One afternoon while walking on the rooftop he sees a woman on another roof bathing. She’s beautiful. He sends for a servant to find out who she is. The servant returns saying, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”(v.3)
Eliam was one of David’s bodyguards. Uriah was one of his generals. The servant, perhaps knowing what David was thinking, was subtly trying to help David see that Bathsheba is someone’s daughter, someone’s wife. People he depends on. But David pays no attention, because he’s king now and can do what he wants.
He sends for Bathsheba. He takes advantage of her. Some scholars say this was not a consensual event. It was a misuse of power. The woman, Bathsheba, had no choice. It was perhaps like the accusation made by Jessica Hahn against Jim Bakker. Only in this case Bathsheba becomes pregnant, and like Jim Bakker, David goes into cover up mode.
He sends for her husband Uriah to return from battle. He tries everything to get Uriah to go home and be with his wife. But instead Uriah sleeps in the doorway of his house. He says, “How could I go home and lie with my wife while my soldiers are fighting?” He shows integrity David has lost.
So David gives orders for Uriah to be sent to the front lines where he would stand the greatest chance of being killed. And that’s what happened. And now that Bathsheba is a widow David sends for her again and she becomes his wife.
“But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” (v.27) Nothing escapes the notice of God. When our actions, our choices, even our votes, are done to benefit ourselves but cause harm to others, God takes notice.
Remember Genesis chapter 2? Cain strikes down his brother. God comes to him and says, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” Voices can be silenced but blood can’t be quieted.
The word send or sent is used 12 times. David sent Joab to fight…he sent a messenger to find out about Bathsheba…then he sent for her…he sent for Uriah…he sent Uriah back to battle…and finally David sent for Bathsheba to become his wife. David has become comfortable with power and how to use his power to get what he wants.
Max Lucado says, “We don’t like this sending, demanding David. We prefer the pastoring David, caring for his flock; the dashing David, hiding from Saul; the worshipping David, penning psalms. We aren’t prepared for the David who has lost control of his self-control, who sins as he sends.”(Facing You Giants, p135)
But time goes by. It’s nine months later and Bathsheba has the baby. If anyone knew or had suspicions about what went on, they just shrug their shoulders and think, “Kings can do what they want. What can you do?”
But such things never escape the notice of God. And out of the blue the story is interrupted by this line, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” (v.27) David had been sending, but notice how chapter 12 begins, “The Lord sent Nathan to David.” (2 Sam. 12:1) Now God is the one doing the sending.
Nathan was a true prophet. I say “true” as opposed to false prophet. Many kings kept all kinds of prophets around them, but often they simply told the king what he wanted to hear. Erskine White imagines what false prophets might sound like in our own time:
Imagine some of our brother and sister Christians from the Fundamentalist Right in Nathan's shoes; imagine some of our popular "God bless America" preachers meeting with the king. They don't point an accusatory finger; they have no courageous words of condemnation!
Instead, they walk in and shake the king's hand. "King David," they might say, "don't worry about abusing one poor man. You are God's chosen leader. You've added military might to Israel and defended us against our enemies. You've spoken up for religion and upheld traditional values. You are restoring Israel to greatness and in the name of God, we cast our lot with you."
But when a true prophet speaks…the most popular king is subject to the laws of God. (from sermon “The President’s Religion” https://sermons.com/sermon/the-president's-religion/1336210)
Nathan is a true prophet, but he has to be careful. Kings who love power don’t like being told they are wrong. So, Nathan comes up with a clever plan. He makes up a story. We heard it read earlier. There were two men in a village, one rich, one poor. The rich man had lots of cattle and sheep, but the poor man had just one beloved lamb that was like a family pet. It played with his children. One day a traveler came to the rich man, but rather than take one of his own flock to kill and prepare for a meal, the rich man took the lamb of the poor man and had it prepared.
David fell for it. He burned with anger. He said the rich man deserves to die. He must at least pay for the lamb four-fold. You see, as a king David was regularly in a position to render judgements. His purpose was to see that justice was served. He’s become comfortable with seeing right and wrong in others, but he’s become blind to himself.
That’s when Nathan pounces and says to David, “You are the man!” He went on, “This is what the Lord says, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, gave you a palace and wives and family but it wasn’t enough. Why did you do evil in the eyes of the Lord? You killed Uriah and took his wife to be your own.”
David’s reply? “I have sinned against the Lord.” No cover up. No excuse making. No volatile reaction. No comparison saying things like, “Well compared to Saul what I did was nothing. No, he is able to say, “I was wrong.”
A skeptical person would say, “Of course he says that. He’s been caught. He knows he can’t fool God, but he’s not changed. Once that power is in your blood there’s no going back.
But remember, God doesn’t look at the outward appearance of a person. God looks at what’s in the heart. That was why God picked David to begin with. David’s remorse isn’t going to get him out of consequences. Nathan predicts the sword will not depart from his house. Two weeks ago we considered how this played out in the fighting and rebellion of David’s sons. Nathan also predicts that the child he has with Bathsheba will not survive. If David’s confession is to avoid suffering, then he failed.
But it seems more legitimate than that. David seems to be a different man because of this experience. When his son Absalom takes the throne of Israel by force and David has to slink out of the city as a fugitive, a man named Shimei runs beside David throwing rocks at him and yelling what a sorry leader he was. David’s officer wants to kill him, but David says, “My son, my own flesh and blood, is trying to kill me. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today.” (2 Samuel 16:11-12)
This is a different David. This isn’t a demanding, sending, sinning David. He’s more humble. He even seems regretful. Another instance will occur much later on when David seeks to take a census. This was David’s attempt to count his resources and determine his strength by that rather than God, so God gives him a painful correction and David accepts it.
No, David is now teachable. He had gotten away from wanting to obey God above all, but not so far that he didn’t recognize the reality and realize that without God he is nothing.
Sometimes I hear from people who have had some big moral failure, and they feel so awful about themselves, their regret is almost too painful to bear, and I suggest that the pain is not so much a sign of how bad they are but how righteous they still may be. For if we desire any closeness to God, then God will make us aware when we have fallen away. The pain of regret reveals the tenderness of soul. This is what Paul meant when he distinguished between Godly sorrow and worldly sorrow, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)
And this is why I believe David was a man after God’s own heart. He never lost the ability to feel Godly sorrow. He was someone willing to be rebuked. He could say, “I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
Close with story about Carver McGriff and his dad…