2 Samuel 11:3 – And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

2 Samuel 11:4 – And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.

Hello readers, new blog today on David’s messengers. You know what, David cops a lot in this story, and rightly so. David’s sin with Bathsheba is the worst moment of his life, and it’s a big strike against his name, testimony and legacy in the Bible. He committed adultery and murdered a faithful man of God to cover it up. Stories like this tend to give us some hope when we mess up, if David messed up we feel better about ourselves when we sin. While the failures of others give us hope in our failures, David’s sin doesn’t legitimize our sin. We shouldn’t sin, because this sin had a very high cost to David, this is an example to avoid.

David should’ve gone out to battle, but instead he stayed back at Jerusalem. He had been living too much of the good life. Too much of the good life will get you in trouble. When life is good, when your flesh is well fed, that’s when you’re ripe for the slaughter. When you’ve put away your sword and shield, that’s when you’re most vulnerable. You’ve put your feet up in your Christian walk, you’ve stopped fighting, you’re taking a break, your guard is down, you think you’re going pretty well. Hey, noone could beat David out on the battlefield, he whipped a giant as kid… but Satan got him as a grown man and king of Israel when he was sunning himself on his roof. What a warning. If you’ve got it all made, you think, that could just be when you’re fixing to fall hard.

Well David strolls out on his roof and he saw a beautiful woman bathing from his rooftop vantage point. The hook was in straight away, she was beautiful, and he wanted her. So he asked about her. Who is she? And when he learned who she was, he sent messengers to go get her. The fact they told him she was the wife of Uriah didn’t phase him at all. Often when we are in the deep end, nothing’s going to stop us from where our lust is taking us. Nothing is going to stop a sinner from doing his sin most of the time. Your mind is already made up, you’re doing what you want to do in life. The rest is just noise, even if it’s a big load of religious bluster to cover up what’s really going on. David had to have her. And he was king after all, I can do whatever I want. You think you are a king in your life, well you live like you’re a king, you rate yourself pretty high and you think you deserve and get the exemption, you are the special one who can do whatever you want free of consequence, yeah everyone else burned out on sin, everyone else struck out… but you’ll be the exception… you’ll make a life of Baal and God work… except nah you won’t.

Well David sent messengers to Bathsheba. These messengers went and conveyed David’s desire to see her. She wanted David as much as he wanted her. There was no indication she was raped, it was consensual. She was pretty treacherous, what was she doing bathing out in full view anyway. She never even owned up to her sin to her husband. Uriah deserved better, and in a way, God spared Uriah a life of being mocked by everyone else in thinking the child was his firstborn son when it was David’s. That’s pretty humiliating and he got done dirty. Bathsheba didn’t care about God’s word, about her covenant to her husband… she was going up in society a bit to sleep with the king. Many other girls in the country wanted David, she was doing well for herself. She didn’t care about honoring God or Uriah. Are you honoring God, or are you just pursuing your own lust? Are you really honoring God or just honoring yourself. So often our lives are just honoring ourselves.

But today I want to zero in on these messengers that David sent. Just imagine yourself being asked to go and fetch the woman, to convey David’s wishes to see her. Would anything in you go hey wait a minute… I’m not going to be part of this. Why didn’t they say, she’s Uriah’s wife, you want her, you go yourself David. David what you’re doing is wrong and I’m not going along with it. Why did they do as David asked? You don’t have to sin people. You don’t have to yield to someone who’s getting you to go along and consent to their sin. These messengers were pathetic. They would’ve been too scared to tell David where to go. What a terrible request. No David we see what you’re up to, and we ain’t doing it. But they didn’t want to lose their place and their job. They didn’t want to risk the king’s wrath for not helping him get his pound of flesh. Imagine being put out of the king’s courts for standing to truth. That’s a price we’re not willing to pay. There’s many things we’re not willing to lose for Christ’s sake, for righteousness’s sake. There’s plenty of sacred cows, golden calves, in our life that come before God when push really comes to shove. They tacked the Lord’s name to their golden calf worship, but it wasn’t about the Lord at all. Today ask yourself, who or what is more important to you than obeying God first, than honoring him first in what you do in life.

What business did David have with one of his soldier’s wives? Seriously. Just because he was king meant nothing. The fact he was king didn’t mean he was above the law of God. We aren’t meant to respect persons. Just because of who or what someone is, it doesn’t change what’s right and what’s wrong. What’s truth and what’s lie. But because of his position and prestige, the messengers did his bidding. They surely knew what was up. They knew David’s track record with women. They knew how the game goes.

See, because of David’s title and reputation and standing in Israel, these messengers went along with David. It’s not they didn’t know what was going on, they just helped him to commit his sin rather than opposing it. Is that what your life is? You’re really assisting sinners, you’re really doing the devil’s bidding. You better believe Satan was behind all this. You’re a messenger of David by name, but you’re a messenger of Satan by action. They weren’t a help to David at all. See, when you go along and compromise and don’t stand for anything, you’re no help to anybody. We aren’t willing to sacrifice anything for Jesus Christ. Our life is like those sick, blind, lame, worst of the flock lambs they were taking to the temple. We are laying nothing on the altar for God in our lives. You can have the dregs God.

David needed a swift kick… not someone helping him get what he wanted in the moment. See you’re never going to be a help to anyone by facilitating, and understanding, and wringing your hands and going along with sin. You’re just helping out… wickedness. So many people are just helping sin happen. So often we do not stand for what’s right in our lives. Because we don’t want the cost that it has to ourselves. We are compromised in our life because we are in compromise. Our standards, our morality, our convictions they change with the wind. We’re like Samson, being moved at times. We’re just at times Christians. But for the king, we won’t do what’s right. In this particular situation, we won’t honor God. We’ve held out finger to the wind, we see which way it’s going, and we fall right in line. Hey, my loyalty and faith and service to God has quite a long list of terms and conditions. We may not even have any wisdom to understand what’s going on. When the king is asking about a married woman, surely one would say hey David, don’t worry about her she’s married, forget about her.

But what’s deafening in this story is the complete and utter silence of David’s messengers, it’s the people who knew about David’s sin. Silence gives consent. Not standing for God is as bad as the people doing the sin. Romans 1:32 – Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Unless they were complete idiots, they would’ve been able to connect some dots. There’s so much silence in this story. There’s noone voicing up, there’s noone standing against David’s wicked path. There’s noone making a difference. Rather than standing against sin, David got plenty of help in doing the sin and trying to cover up the sin by sinning some more. See how one sin leads to another and another and another. You’ll enter a world of sin thinking you can manage it and negotiate it’s cost…  and that win will permeate your entire life like leaven. David thought he could sort it all out and manage it, but he couldn’t. By the end of your life which started with a small sin, the end will be a personal catastrophe.

Those messengers were accomplices to David’s sin. Are you helping other people’s slide in life? There’s a lot of pastors, preachers, teachers, Christians… they’re helping the spiral… not stopping it. You think you’re serving them, but really you’re hindering and harming them. David needed a real friend, one who would love him enough to say, no David. So many of God’s messengers aren’t helping the cause, but they’re helping people to sin, they’re assisting evil, even with their silence. They did as David asked. They got Bathsheba to David, they delivered her to him.

You know what, if you are saved, you are a messenger of God. Your life is carrying a message, your life is a living epistle known and read of men. You carry the gospel to this lost dark world in word and in deed. But maybe instead of the gospel, instead of truth, your life is speaking something very different. So often God’s messengers aren’t standing for anything, there’s no rebuke for sin, and they’re instead going along with sin, and helping sinners sin. Are you part of the problem rather than the solution? Noone stood up for what was right. Noone stood up for Uriah. Noone stood up for truth. Noone was willing to sacrifice their position, their acceptance, their money, their career, their aspirations, their hopes and dreams, their goals, their comfort and ease to tell David to wake up you idiot. Those messengers didn’t stand up and be counted, they helped David fall.

David may very well have said you’re fired. But it’s better to be fired and unemployed but with a clear conscience toward God, than employed and gaining the whole world, and retaining your career and interests and self advancement…. but losing your own soul, but not having obeyed God. It’s better to be lonely for Christ’s sake, than popular and many friends and accepted because you’ve compromised and gone along with the rest. You see, it was a bunch of messengers, not just one. If your life is reliant on someone else doing right before you will… you’ll be found out. You’ll stand before God alone. Just because everyone else did it doesn’t mean it’s ok that you did it as well. In this blame society today, you’ll have noone else to blame… it’s your own choice and your own fault.

David may have said I’ll get someone else. Fair enough, but at least you did what you could. Do what you can do and beyond that it’s in God’s hands. The cost of obeying Jesus Christ, trusting and believing him, even when the cost is at your expense… it’s worth it. The messengers could’ve really put a spanner in the works, instead they really made it all happened, they matched made David and Bathsheba. This world is full of David’s messengers, people floating along in life, going with the flow, nobody standing for nothing, nobody willing to lose anything for Jesus Christ’s sake. And as a result they’re only going to be remembered for one thing, helping others fall. That’s the legacy of these messengers.

We shouldn’t be part of something that is wrong, we should be willing to lose all, we should be willing to incur personal cost… to stand for the truth of God’s word, to stand for righteousness, to stand for Christ… for our alleged faith in God to actually mean something. The message these messengers are sending today is they cared more about themselves and their prosperity and future than standing for what was right. They were silent, they were consenting, they went along with it all. May this not be us today in this dark world. No job, no future, no life is worth compromising on truth for. We need to stop compromising on truth because of who someone is. Because it was king David, they went along with it all, they were silent, and they were part of David’s sin. You won’t stand out by going along and going under with everyone else… there’s a big crowd on that broad road… but few on the narrow road. And we don’t help anyone when we get into their mess with them, we will only help by standing apart on the truth of God’s word whatever the cost.

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