2 Samuel 11; 13:1-14
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew
WAS David a good man? O yes! he loved God and tried to please Him. What made David good? God's Holy Spirit. God put His Spirit into his heart; yet still there was wickedness in David's heart, as well as goodness. Satan, too, used to tempt David to do wicked things. Sometimes David did not pray to God to keep him from Satan, and then David used to mind what Satan said. Shall you not be very sorry to hear of a wicked thing that David did?
I am now going to tell you how David once displeased the Lord.
Once David's men went out to fight against some wicked people who lived near Canaan. David did not go himself to fight this time, but he told a man named Joab to take the people to fight. This Joab was called David's captain, because a captain is a man that takes soldiers with him to battle, and tells them when to fight.
So David stayed at Jerusalem. I do not know why he did not go out to fight himself; I am afraid that he was idle, and liked better staying at home to eat, and drink, and rest himself. It is very wrong to be idle. Did you ever hear this hymn—
Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do'?
One day when it was hot David lay upon his bed, and when it grew cool he got up and walked on the top of his house, which was flat like a table. As he was walking there he looked down and saw a woman, whom he liked very much as soon as he saw her. David wished to have her for his wife; so he sent his servants to ask what her name was; and they came back and told him that her name was Bath-she-ba, and that she was married to a man called Uriah.
Could David have Bathsheba as his wife, if she was married to Uriah? O no; David could not take her away from Uriah to be his wife; that would have been wicked; for God has said in the ten commandments, `Thou shalt not commit adultery.' David ought to have prayed to God to keep him from thinking of Bathsheba anymore; but he went on thinking of her, and wishing that she could be his wife: and he thought, 'If Uriah was dead, then Bathsheba could be my wife.' Then he wished that Uriah was dead. Now Uriah was a very brave and good man, and he was gone with the great captain Joab a great way off, to fight against the wicked people.
David wished that Uriah might get killed in the battle. Was not that very wicked? God said in the Ten Commandments, 'Thou shalt not kill,' and we must not even wish a person to be killed.
At last a very wicked plan came into David's heart. I will tell you what David did. David wrote a letter to Joab the captain, and this is what he wrote: 'When you take the people out to fight, let Uriah stand in a place where the wicked people will be able to shoot him.'
How could David write such a letter! David sent the letter to Joab. Ought Joab to have done this wicked thing? O no; he ought not to have obeyed David. But Joab was a very wicked man, so he determined to do as the king had told him.
Soon afterward Joab took his soldiers to fight against a great city with walls all round it, and he told Uriah to go with some of the soldiers very near the walls of the city, and some of the men of the city shot arrows from the walls, and killed poor Uriah.
Then Joab sent a man to tell king David at Jerusalem that Uriah was dead.
Was David sorry when he heard that Uriah was killed? He pretended to be sorry, but he felt glad in his heart. You know why he was glad. Now Bathsheba could be his wife: so he sent for Bathsheba, and he married her, and she came and lived with him in his palace.
But God was displeased at what David had done. One day, Nathan, who was a prophet, came to David. God had told Nathan what David had done.
Nathan began by telling David a little story. He said, 'There were two men in one city; the one was rich and the other was poor: the rich man had a great many sheep; the poor man had only one little lamb, which he had taken care of since it was first born: he fed it, and gave it drink out of his own cup, and he nursed it in his bosom, and loved it as one of his children. One day a visitor came to the rich man's house, and the rich man sent for the poor man's lamb, and killed it and prepared it for dinner for his visitor.' Then said Nathan, 'What shall be done to the rich man?'
And David felt very angry with the rich man, and he said to Nathan, 'He shall die, and give the poor man four lambs instead of the one which he took.'
Then Nathan said to David, 'Thou art the man!'
What did Nathan mean? Was David the man who had taken the poor man's lamb? No, David had not taken a lamb, but he had taken Uriah's wife, and that was much more wicked. Nathan had told him this story to show him what a wicked thing he had done. Did not David deserve to die?
Nathan said to David, 'God has been very kind to you, and made you king. Why have you disobeyed His commandments? God will punish you for your wickedness. Your children shall fight each other, and kill each other, and behave very wickedly to you as long as you live.'
David was very sorry when he heard that God was angry with what he had done, and he said, 'I have sinned against the Lord.'
Then Nathan said, 'God has forgiven you; you shall not die.'
David was really sorry for what he had done. He was not like Saul, who only cared for the punishment; he was most sorry because he had displeased God.
David played a very sad psalm on his harp, and he gave it to the singers to sing near the ark.
He asked God in his psalm to wash out his sins. These were some of David's words: 'Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.'
You see that David prayed to God to forgive him, and God did forgive him. God would not send David to hell, but He would forgive him, because Jesus had promised to die for him some day upon the cross. Yet still God would punish David while he was alive, that all people might know that God hated wickedness.
I hope, dear children, that you will often pray to God to keep you from Satan: but whenever you have done a naughty thing I hope you will feel sorry, and that you will ask God to forgive you; and I know He will forgive you, because Jesus died on the cross for sinners.
If you do not feel sorry, then you should ask God to make you feel sorry, for it is God's Spirit that makes people sorry for their sins.
Can this be David—this the man
Whose course in piety began?
Whose ways the holy God approved,
And whom He called His son beloved.
Ah! see him take the lamb away,
That in Uriah's bosom lay;
And see Uriah at his word
Perish beneath a heathen sword.
Has he forgot God's love of old,
When first He took him from the fold;
And how with grateful heart he swore
To serve this God for evermore?
Why have his feet gone thus astray?
Ah! surely he forgot to pray:
For God will never leave to fall
Those who on Him for succor call.
Child
Satan's nets are thickly spread,
On every path my feet shall tread:
But they shall ne'er entangled be,
If, Lord, I fix my eyes on Thee.
Questions on Lesson 15
Did David always take his soldiers to battle himself?
Who was David's captain?
How did David first see Bathsheba?
Why did David wish that Uriah was dead?
What commandment do we break when we wish people to die?
What did David desire Joab to do with Uriah?
Why was David glad when Uriah was dead?
Why did Nathan tell David the history of the poor man's lamb?
What punishment did God say that David should have?
Was David sorry for what he had done?
Did God forgive him?
Why did God forgive him?
Who makes people feel sorry for their sins?