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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (5-12-1976 Standtown Baptist Church)
The story of David and Bathsheba last time warns us that
as God dealt with David, so He will deal with us. He will forgive, but He may,
as our Father (not as our judge), have to use the rod. God restores us to His
favour and yet permits us to drink the bitter waters which our sin has tapped.
Forgiven men may have to reap a long train of sad consequences for the rest of
their lives, from what they have sown.
This message is drawn from material which is not so familiar. The lesson of chastisement is also not familiar, and is certainly not popular. It is an unpleasant topic, and often we resent it.
Bathsheba’s child became very sick. This was a child of
sin and shame, but his parents hung over him. For seven days his mother watched
him, and his father fasted and lay on the earth. How it cuts to the quick when
innocent people suffer for our crimes. Then on the seventh day, the child died.
Worse was to follow.
Some time later one of David’s
sons, Ammon, treated his half-sister Tamar as David had treated Uriah’s wife.
Man, it is said, never sees the worst of himself until it reappears in his own
child. In Ammon’s sin, David saw reflected his own unbridled passions. David
could not deal with Ammon because he was guilty of the same thing. His hands
were tied by his own sin, and its memory. But if David would not take action,
Tamar’s full brother, Absalom, would. Absalom waited for his chance for two
years and then at the right moment he committed the vicious murder of Ammon for
his violation of sister Tamar. Again, David was unable to act against Absalom,
even if he had wanted to, in view of his own treatment of Uriah. Worse was to
follow.
After some time, Absalom
returned to Jerusalem and began to plan to usurp the throne. After four years
his rebellion broke out. During this time he had used all his arts to draw the
hearts of the people away from the King. Absalom charmed them with his beautiful
figure, lovely hair, splendour, grandeur, wit, sympathy with their anxieties and
disappointments. David no longer had the respect of the people that he once had,
possibly because the story of his sin had disappointed them. Hence Absalom’s
scheming went on for years unchecked and unchallenged. Nothing takes the spring
out of a man like a humiliating sense of sin.
So when Absalom raised his standard, many ran to pay
homage at the shrine of the new prince. This vain, arrogant, unscrupulous and
unprincipled son of David was now at the head of a large following. How often
unsuspecting people are the best tools of knaves. This whole sorry story reaches
a climax in the defeat of Absalom’s army and his murder by general Joab
despite David’s explicit orders that Absalom should be spared. There were
three darts through his heart, his corpse was put into a pit in the wood, and
covered with a great heap of stones.
The heart of David was utterly
broken on hearing the news of the death. O my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom my son, my son (2 Samuel
18:33). This was the genuine grief of a father who dearly loved his son, with
all his faults. The prodigal was still a son; such is the depth of affection in
the human heart. David’s grief was mingled with grief over his own sin. He had
indulged Absalom, given him a shocking example, and had not been able to
restrain him. Here was the outcome of his own sin and foolish softness. The
birds had come home to roost. How many fathers and mothers have destroyed and
are destroying their own children by their example and failure to teach and
discipline.
The whole tragic story shows the
disastrous power of sin to reproduce itself in the human life. Nathan’s
prophecy had been fulfilled: The sword shall never depart from thine house (2
Samuel 12:10). David’s home became a place of incest, hatred, murder,
suspicion, jealousy, rebellion and more murder.
God forgives, but still chastises till the lesson is learnt. He is too loving to shield men from the natural consequences, in the physical and social world, of their sins. The penitent drunk’s hands still shake. His constitution is not renewed, even though his spirit is. What we sow, we reap.
Outside of Christ and His story, there is nothing in the
Bible more beautiful than David’s behaviour as he passed through this tangled
growth of thorns. He saw the strokes of the Father’s rod that fell thick and
fast on His child. The strokes appeared to come from the evil and hatred of men,
but David looked into their hearts and knew that the cup which was held to his
lips was mixed by heaven. It was not a penalty imposed by a judge, but the
punishment and chastisement of a father.
Two incidents are especially
instructive. The priests joined David’s flight from Jerusalem, bearing the
Ark. David urged them to return with the Ark to the capital. He was sure that if
God was favourable to him, he would return home. If not, and God had no delight
in him, Behold here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him (2
Samuel 15:26). David still had an acute sense of reliance on God and willingness
to accept the will of God for his life, whatever it might be.
Meanwhile he wanted the Ark to
return to Jerusalem. The Ark was the outward symbol to the people of God’s
abiding presence. David was deeply concerned for the spiritual welfare of the
people. He knew the things of God mattered little to Absalom, so he wanted the
priests and the Ark to remain in Jerusalem as some testimony to the truth.
We see the same spirit of
resignation to God’s will in the incident when Shimei cursed David and called
him a man of blood, throwing stones at him. When Abishai wanted to take off
Shimei’s head, David replied, So let him curse, because the Lord hath said
to him ‘Curse David’.. Let him alone and let him curse; for the Lord hath
bidden him (2 Samuel 16:11). Once again David leaves his life in God’s
hands.
C.f. When Judas brought the bitter cup to the lips of Christ, the Master said It is the cup which my father hath given me to drink (John 18:11). This is a lesson not to be forgotten. Pain and sorrow may come to us from the hands of a Absalom, Shimei, or Judas – but if God permits such things to reach us, by the time they have passed through the thin wire of His sieve, they are His will for us. Therefore we must look up into His face and know that we are not the sport of chance or wild misfortune, but we are being trained as sons. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth (Hebrews 12:6).
As the rods and strokes fell on David, God yet mixed
mercy with the punishment. Those who rallied around David and gave him succour
and support were those permitted by God to pour oil and wine into his wounds. If
there were those who deserted and cursed David, there were also his loyal
servants who said they were ready to do whatever their lord the king should
appoint for them to do (2 Samuel 15:15). These included Ittai the Gentile, with
his 600 Philistine bodyguard, the priests who accompanied David, Hushai who
acted as spy in Absalom’s camp, Zibar, Shobi, Machir and Barzillai (over 80
years old) who gave David’s hungry and weary troops beds, wheat, honey,
butter, sheep, cheese, raisins, bread and fruit (2 Samuel 17:27-29).
Then David’s people begged him
not to risk his own life in battle, because he was worth 10,000 of theirs. It
was as though God stooped over that stricken soul, and as the blows of the rod
cut long furrows into the sufferer’s back, the balm of Gilead was poured into
the gaping wounds. Voices spoke more gently, hands touched more softly, pitiful
compassion rained tender assurances on him, and God’s protecting mercy was all
around him.
God brought victory to the arms
of David. Absalom’s raw troops were unable to stand the shock of David’s
seasoned veterans. With Absalom’s defeat, people returned to their old
allegiance. Men like Shimei repented and begged for mercy. Men of Judah, who had
so readily followed Absalom, urged David to return. Many were David’s
afflictions, but out of them all, God delivered him. When he had learnt his
lesson, the rod was stayed. He was chastened and punished severely, but God did
not take His mercy from him, as from Saul. His house, his throne and his kingdom
were being made sure.
Thus always there is the rod, stripes and chastisement, but in the midst of all is the love of God, carrying out His redemptive purpose, never hasting, resting or forgetting. But making all things work together till evil is eliminated and the soul is purged. Then finally, after the glow of blessing, comes the calm ending of life in a serene sundown.
What is our personal experience of chastisement? Are we reaping the consequences of a word spoken, deed done, example shown? Are we reminded of it each time we see certain people or go to a certain place? We know we are forgiven now, but the chastisement was severe, and the lesson has been burned on the soul. Behind all is God’s love, ordering events in love, to cleanse and purge. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee (John 5:14).
