For the past five weeks in our summer message series, “David for King,” we have been looking at one of the most important people in the Old Testament. King David was the gold standard by which all the other kings of Israel would be evaluated, and none of them were as successful as David. From his humble beginnings as a shepherd from a small town, through his becoming the successful military leader, to eventually becoming king, David’s success was due to his being someone after God’s own heart. Frequently, for every major decision, David inquired of the Lord, and then did what God told him to do. From David we have gleaned lessons about Christian leadership, so that we too can become people after God’s own heart.

But David was not perfect, and this week and next we are going to look at two significant failures of David, because we can learn from him even in his failures. This week we are going to be looking at events covered in 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12, and this failure was also a major sin.

Now keep in mind that David lived nearly 3000 years ago, in a very different part of the world. There was no baseball season then and there. No golf or summer soccer leagues. Back then, spring was the time when kings went to war. There was always some town that a king would want to add to his kingdom, so whether you were defending one of your towns or trying to take someone else’s, spring was after the rainy winter but before the time for harvesting crops, so it was a time for war. Personally, I am glad that we have mostly moved away from war in the spring and to baseball.

Kings were expected to lead their army in war, but in 2 Samuel 11 we read, “At the turn of the year, the time when kings go to war, David sent out Joab along with his officers and all Israel, and they laid waste the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. David himself remained in Jerusalem.” So King David is shirking his responsibilities by not leading his army. He is being lazy. One evening, after is long afternoon nap, David sees a beautiful woman bathing on her roof. He starts asking his aides who is she, and their like “Dude, just stop right there. She is the daughter of Eliam and the wife of one of your soldiers, Uriah. Her name is Bathsheba.” Despite the big stop sign his aides are holding up, David does not stop. He invites Bathsheba to the palace for some wining and dining, and he seduces her, after which he sends her home. So David is married, Bathsheba is married, and yes, there is the commandment from God, “You shall not commit adultery.” David sinned.

Things get worse when Bathsheba tells David that she is now pregnant. How does David handle his failure, his sin? Probably like too many of us; he tried to cover it up. Don’t go pointing fingers at David, because we have all felt the same temptation to cover up our messes. But we know that never works out well. It generally just makes the mess worse.

First, David has his general, Joab, send Uriah back to Jerusalem, allegedly to report on how the war is going. David is really hoping that Uriah will go back home and sleep with his wife, so people will think the baby is his. But Uriah doesn’t go back to his home, he sleeps outside the palace with the guards. When David asks Uriah why he didn’t go home to Bathsheba, Uriah says “How can I go sleep in a nice soft bed with my beautiful wife when my army buddies are sleeping out in the field.” Wow, Uriah is a pretty honorable guy. David then gets Uriah drunk, but he still will not go home to Bathsheba.

Finally David takes it up a notch; he writes a letter to Joab, his general, telling him to put Uriah up on the frontline, where the fighting is the worse, and then pull back so Uriah is killed. David even has Uriah deliver the letter to Joab. Joab does what David, the King, told him to do – he has Uriah and some other soldiers attack a place with the enemy was strongest, and they were killed. So, not only does David have Uriah killed, but other soldiers too, just to cover up his adultery.

After Uriah’s death, David marries Bathsheba (back then Kings had several wives). All good, right? Have you noticed that we have not mentioned someone whom David usually always inquires with? In 2 Samuel 12 we are told that God is not happy with David. Some of the psalms, which tradition says David wrote, seem to indicate that David was not very happy with himself either. Sure to the outside world it looks like he got away with his sin, but he knows what he did, as does God.

God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David, and David eventually acknowledges his sin. God tells David that while his sin is forgiven, there are going to be two consequences for his sin. First, there is always going to be fighting within his family (more on that next week). Secondly, the child is going to die. Shortly after the baby is born he becomes very sick. David prays and prays, and fasts day and night for a week hoping that God would have mercy on his son. But the baby does die. Yet David, through his prayer and fasting has shown his trust in God.

What do we learn from David's story that we can apply to our own lives? I would suggest we make two commitments. The first commitment is that rather than covering up our sins, our mistakes, or our failures, that instead, we admit them. If we are willing to admit things upfront, admit our original failures, we can save ourselves from so much other pain that comes from the cover-up. Ultimately, admitting our failures, our sins, our mistakes to the people around us, especially the people that deserve to hear it, builds trust. 

The second commitment is let's receive those admissions of failure with grace. Sometimes people don't come to us and tell us what they've done wrong or mistakes they make because they're afraid they're going to get their head bitten off. If we can create environments where people feel free to admit their failures, we'll have much healthier families, healthier communities, a healthier country, a healthier world.

So here is today’s message in a nutshell: "I commit to admit my mistakes and sins so that I have peace in my heart and build trust in my relationships. I commit to receive the failures of others with grace."