Join us in the second part of our deep dive into King David’s life as we unravel the complex tapestry of his choices and the unfathomable consequences they brought upon his household. This episode unpacks the narrative from 2 Samuel, uncovering the enduring ripple effects initiated by David’s sin with Bathsheba. We spotlight the harrowing consequences that included betrayal, heartbreak, and the fulfillment of a dire prophecy spoken by Nathan the prophet.
00:00:06 Introduction and overview of previous episode
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you’ve been listening to our message, The Ripple Effect of David’s Sin, you know it is a real page-turner. And today we will continue with the second part of the story that deals with the third judgment David’s sin and cover-up brought upon his family. The sword will never depart from your house. Today in the ripple effect of David’s sin, part two. We’re going to go to 2 Samuel, the 12th chapter. And looking at verses 9 and 10. And we read these verses last week. But we’re going to look at them this morning and then we’re going to move on from there. Chapter 12 of 2 Samuel, verse 9. And this is the prophet Nathan speaking to King David. Wherefore have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword and have taken his wife and to be your wife and you have slain him with the sword of the children of Amnon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Now, last week we studied this in depth and we went through it incident by incident. And we found out that David’s original sin of adultery. when he saw Bathsheba bathing naked on the rooftop and lusted for her in his heart and then after knowing that she was a married woman and the wife of one of his captains that was serving in the army where David should have been but instead was hanging around the palace at ease and we learned that after he sinned with her by taking her and having sex with her and she got pregnant that very first and only time and then he tried to cover up the sin and we saw the ripple effect And each time we saw a new ripple going out, as it were, when you cast a stone into the water and then the whirlpool goes out ripple by ripple. And we saw ripples that we didn’t even think about before. I know I hadn’t and it seemed like none of you had either. First of all, we found out he took Bathsheba, she was innocent, and he saw her, he desired her, he asked about her, found out she was married, became reckless and careless, knew her husband was off at the war, had her sent for, brought her to the palace, had sex with her, and then she went back home, but she sent him word shortly thereafter that she was pregnant, and everyone would have known it could not have been her husband, he had been away in war too long. And so we know that David then went about to try to cover it up and sent word to his commander-in-chief on the battlefield, Joab, and said, send Uriah into the hottest battle where he will definitely be killed. So we learned out the first ripple was that he raped, as you might say in a way, Bathsheba. Because nothing that we read indicated that she was complicit in the whole thing. He was a man of authority. He was the king and he flexed his muscles of authority. The scripture says he took her. Amen? And then we know that he had her husband killed. So now Bathsheba is a widow. And now she’s grieving for her husband because we saw that Uriah was a righteous man and a good man. And not only that, the ripple effect went out beyond Bathsheba and now Uriah, but Joab, the commander-in-chief, he was forced to obey the king, so he had to participate in Uriah’s murder. And then we saw something we had never seen before. When Joab sent Uriah in the hottest battle, he couldn’t send him all by himself. That would obviously been… No one would have understood why you would do that. He sent other valiant men with him, and they were killed. They were killed in the battle, so there’s another ripple. All because of David’s sin. Amen? And then… When it all came out and the prophet came to him and said, what you have done, you have done in secret. But now judgment’s coming to you and your house. And God’s going to do stuff out in the sunshine what you did in the dark. And he pronounced three judgments. First of all, this baby is going to die. the baby died and secondly he said you went and took his wife and you lay with her and no one knew you thought it was all done in secret but now someone close to you is going to take your wives is going to lay with them in the sunshine in front of all of israel and i even took you to the place i i to make the story all fit i took you where much later where we will visit today that when his son absalom revolted against him and he got into uh jerusalem and marched into the palace he thought okay here i am what do i do now and he said to his advisor ahithophel who was actually David’s advisor. What should I do now? He said, well, go get your father’s ten concubines that he left behind when he fled the palace. Take them up on the rooftop and have sex with them in the daylight in front of all of Israel. So the ripple effect now went out to those 10 innocent women. They were molested by Absalom in public on the rooftop. And when David finally got back home to the palace, he took those 10 women and he secluded them in a ward. And the rest of their lives, they lived as widows. These were the ripple effects of David’s sin. Amen. So we looked at the baby died and we looked at your wives will be molested publicly. But the third part of the judgment was the sword shall never depart from your house. Amen. That was the third part. And we never looked at that. And that’s what we’re going to look at today. Now, because it covers many chapters, I will do much paraphrasing and have you look at certain key verses. So we are now going to be going into chapter 13. And this is where the first problem arises. David had many sons by now, but one of his sons, the third one that was born to him, was Absalom. And Absalom was one of his favorites. The Bible tells us this man was exceedingly handsome. And he had a sister, Tamar, a full-blooded sister, and that she was very beautiful. Apparently, their mother, Mekah, was a very beautiful woman. And these kids were very beautiful people. And there was another one of David’s sons who would have been half-brother, having a different mother than Absalom and Tamar. And he was infatuated with Tamar’s beauty. And he was so infatuated with her and he wanted her sexually. And so he had become listless and despondent and not acting like himself. And so one day one of his cousins, David’s brother’s son, Yanadab, came to him and said, what’s up with you? What’s up with you, Ammon? How come you’re just not yourself? You’re not acting like yourself. What’s going on? And Ammon confessed to him that he was in love with his half-sister Tamar. And Yanadab said, well, I got a good idea. Pretend to be very sick. And then you know your father, the king, will come to visit you and see what’s wrong. And when he comes to see you, tell him that it would make you feel better if he would send Tamar, your sister, to come to your house and bake you a special meal. And then, of course, you know what to do from there. And so Ammon said, you know, I think I’ll do that. And he feigned to be sick. And David came and he said to his father, please send my sister here to prepare me a meal. And David, not ever suspecting anything so evil that was in his heart, he sent her there. Tamar came to prepare these cakes. Now let’s take up the story in chapter 13 and verse 8. So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house, and there he was laid down. And she took flour and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and did bake the cakes. And she took a pan and poured them out before him. But he refused to eat. And Amnon said, Have all the men put out from me. And they went out every man from him. And Amnon said unto her, Tamar, bring the meat or bring the food into the chamber, into my bedroom, that I may eat out of your hand. And Tamar took the cakes which she had made and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. And when she brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her. See, just like David took Bathsheba, he took hold of her and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister. And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me, for no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Do not this folly. And I, I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? And as for you, you shall be as one of the fools in Israel. Now, therefore, I pray you speak unto the king, for he will not withhold me from you. How be it? He would not hearken unto her, but being stronger than she forced her and lay with her. First of all, I have to say, well, my God. These children had seen their father take one wife after another and one concubine after another and even commit adultery with Bathsheba. They had seen so much of this that they had become jaded by their father’s sexual sins until she actually believed that her father would break the law of Moses and let them get married. Because I know that if you go way back to Abraham, that Abraham and Sarah were half brother and half sister. However, that was before the law of Moses. If you read the law of Moses, it was not permitted. It was considered to be incest. And so she actually believed that their father would go along with it and let them get married. Amen? And so she pleaded with him. And she said, not only that, if you do this to me, where will I go with my shame? How will I ever outlive this humiliation? She would never get a husband. Amen? she would never be able to be married but he was so consumed with lust lust was leaping in his loins and he was so consumed that he didn’t care about her all he wanted to do was have sex with her and it says that he forced her and he lay with her wherever you see in the old testament about someone having sex If it says, and he knew her, K-N-E-W, and he knew her, it’s always intimate between a husband and a wife. It always means that Adam knew Eve and she conceived and bear a son. Whenever you see he knew her, it means it’s legitimate. It’s between husband and wife. When it’s illicit, it will always say, and he lay with her. letting you know it is ill-listened. So he forced her. Now read verse 15. This is very telling. Then Amnon hated her exceedingly so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise and be gone. You see, it’s because he didn’t love her. He lusted for her. It wasn’t love. It was lust. Amen. And when someone has illicit lust in them and they carry it out. And, you know, maybe that even in the church, a young man is just pressuring a young girl to have sex. And he pressures her and pressures her. And she’s holding on. and she’s holding out because she doesn’t want to sin. She doesn’t want to sin against God. She doesn’t want to sin against her own body. But eventually she succumbs and she gives in and has sex with him and then he hates her. You know why? Because she represents his sin. When he looks at her, he knows his sin, his wickedness, his guilt. He hates her because actually he hates himself. for what he has done. And may that be something for some of you young women out there to know that he’ll tell you, if you love me, if you love me, you will do this for me. Amen. But he’ll tell you that and make you think that you got to prove that you love him by doing this. And if you don’t do it, you don’t love me. I’ll just go find me another girlfriend. And then you think, well, I don’t want that to happen. And you give in to him and he has his desire quenched and he goes and finds another girlfriend. Amen. So this is what I call when lust becomes disgust. When lust becomes disgust. Now, let me say, I picked on the young people. Let me get to the other people. You may already be married. But you’re having a flirtatious thing somewhere on your job or in your neighborhood or somewhere. It’s just flirtation, you know. It’s just innocent flirtation. He compliments you all the time. Or let me just say, or the woman is always complimenting the man and telling him, you know, they’ll compliment you what good job you do on your job. And you really, you’re the best secretary I ever had. And, you know, or you’re the smartest guy I ever worked for and whatever. Amen? But that flirtation goes from flirtation to lust. And if you don’t snip it in the bud, if you don’t stop it then, you will eventually act on it. Which means you got to go hide and seek somewhere. Which means you got to lie to cover up. Which means you got to pretend that you’re working over when you’re not. And all of those other things you got to go to to support your lust so you can carry out this sexual act. And so you get caught up in it. And after a while, you know, the sexual fire begins to pull down. And now you look at that person with disgust because now you know it’s ruined your marriage. And destroyed it. And your home life. And your whole life. Your children. Everything now. Everything that is really important in your life. That you really love and care about. Now you’re on the verge of losing it. Or have lost it. And then you look at that person with disgust. Because you see in them. The cause of it all. Amen. Look at how cruel he was. He said get out. He talked to her that way. He’s just forced her and now he screams at her, get out of here. What did that do to this young girl? Her brother has raped her and now he tells her, get out. In other words, I can’t stand the sight of you. Get out of here. Verse 16. And she said unto him, there is no cause this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that you did unto me. But he would not hearken unto her. Listen to her. She said, you sending me away now is worse than you forcing me to have sex. This wounds me even more. Then he called his servant that ministered unto him and said, put now this woman. This woman? Put now this woman out from me and bolt the door after her. And she had a garment of diverse or many colors upon her, for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins appareled. Then his servant brought her out and bolted the door after her. And Tamor put ashes on her head and rent or tore her garment of diverse colors that was on her and laid her hand on her head and went on crying. And Absalom, her brother, said unto her, Has Amnon thy brother been with you? And apparently she said yes. But now hold your peace, my sister. He is thy brother. Regard not this thing. So Tamar remained desolate, remained desolate in her brother Absalom’s house. She begged him not to humiliate her. Perhaps she still had hope that maybe David would let them get married. But he didn’t want anything to do with her now. Calling her this woman. Put this woman out. And here she had this beautiful robe on that was only what virgin princesses wore. And she took that robe and she ripped it. She would never be able to wear that robe again. Putting ashes on her head. He told her to get out. And so she goes out crying. because her virginity was stolen and her life would never be the same again and she comes upon her brother Absalom now he’s the whole brother and he says what happened did Amnon have sex with you and you know yes and he told her don’t say anything to anybody just go to my house big mistake Big mistake. Tamar sure went running to her father. And she should have told her father what happened. Because David as king and as father. would have had to execute some kind of discipline upon Amnon, some kind of a penalty. Now, Amnon was his firstborn, so he would have been next in line for kingship, amen? And so he probably was very cocky. And thought he could get away with anything. And like I said a moment ago, these kids grew up seeing all their father’s sexual shenanigans. They saw how loosely he lived sexually. And so, you know, when you watch that, you think nothing of it. That’s why we see a cycle, you know, today of children being born outside of marriage. And then they grow up and they… have a bunch of kids outside of marriage, and it just keeps perpetuating that cycle. Somebody’s got to break the cycle. You break the cycle. Somebody comes to Jesus Christ, gets born again, gets filled with God, and then starts living by the word of God, gets married and has children, raises them in the house of God, and the cycle gets broken. Yeah, sometimes it still happens, but it’s not like a cycle that keeps going and going. And so that was a big mistake. That she did not go to her father and say anything. And no one said anything. And Amnon thought, boy, I got away with that, which would have only made him cockier. And can you imagine that when Absalom had to come into his presence and be around him? Oh, what do you think was brewing in his heart and in his mind? Let’s drop down to verse 21. It came back to David, because be sure your sins will find you out. But when David heard of all these things, he was very angry. And Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister Tamar. And it came to pass after two full years that Absalom had sheep shears in Baal Hazor, which is beside Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king’s sons. Okay, let me tell you what’s going to go on here. This is now two years later. And Absalom has never even confronted Amnon about what he did to his sister. And David heard about it. He was angry and he did nothing. So Tamar, no one has done anything for this girl. And they have let Amnon get away with this wicked deed. Two years later now, all this time, hatred and vengeance is brewing in Absalom’s heart. And he came up with a plot. He wanted Amnon dead. He wanted to kill him. He didn’t want just a slap on the wrist. So he decided to come up with a plot, and he went to his father, King David, and he asked him, would you come and join me and my men as we go out into the fields to shear our sheep? Remember, David was a shepherd at one time, and he no doubt loved that that he grew up doing. So this would have been a good father-son outing. And he said, Daddy, would you come out with me and my men? And David said, no, I’m sorry, son, I can’t come. Absalom knew his father would say no. He knew that he would say no. He wanted him to say no. Because then he said, well, father, if you can’t come, let Amnon, my brother, come. And when he said that, David must have felt a pain in his spirit. He should have felt a pain in his spirit. Red flag, red flag alert. Because he knew the animosity between the two brothers. And when he had this hesitation, Absalom discerned his father’s hesitation of allowing Amnon to come. And he quickly followed up and said… How about if all my brothers come? Let all my brothers come to the shearing. And so David, even though he had that in his heart, even though he knew that there was a possibility of bad stuff between the brothers, he did not follow through. He said, okay, fine. They all can come. And he allowed them all to go to this shearing event. And whenever they would shear sheep afterwards, they would have a big celebration. You know, a big dinner. Let’s celebrate. You know, it’s a big job shearing all them sheep. Afterwards, they would all have celebration and there would be food and all this going on. It would be like a party. And so they all came, all the king’s sons. And Absalom told his own servants, he said, watch Amnon. And when he is really getting happy with wine, when he’s drinking and getting drunk, kill him. Kill him. He said, smite Amnon. And this is what he told them. Don’t be afraid. Be courageous and valiant and kill him. And you know what? That’s exactly what they did. At the celebration, the party was going on. Amnon, who would have been probably the cocky guy anyway, and he was good and drunk. And the servants obeyed Absalom’s command and they killed him. Well, when they killed him, all the other brothers were like… We are out of here. They all ran for the hills. They all cleared out in a hurry. They went out and jumped on their mules and they hightailed it back to Jerusalem. Because they didn’t know if all of them were going to get killed. They didn’t see it coming. Two years had elapsed. But someone ran ahead and got to David and told David, Oh, said all of your sons are dead. Said they all are killed. Absalom has killed all of your sons. This was their words. And there is not one left. You can’t even imagine. You can try, but you can’t imagine how that must have hit David. Oh, yeah, he had lost a baby one time and that almost devastated him. But now to have all of his sons dead, all of them. He was absolutely grief stricken. He was in shock. He ripped off his robes and he lay on the ground with his face in the dirt. And along comes his nephew, Yanadab, that same one that advised Amnon to do what he did to Tamar. He came along and said, O king, O king, it’s not that bad. No, it’s not true. All your sons are not dead. Only Amnon is dead. And Absalom killed him because of what he did to Tamar. Amen. What a comprehensive look at the life and influence of one of God’s choice servants, King David, whom God had said is a man after my known heart. In part one of the ripple effect of David’s sin, we saw that the cover up he concocted was worse than his original sin of adultery and its collateral damage was widespread and tragic. Likewise, his judgment was swift and terrible. The child born of adultery died. Ten of his concubines were publicly molested by his own son who tried to steal his throne. And today in part two, we are following the trail of death in the final part of his judgment. The sword will never depart from your house. This is a multifaceted story rich with nuances and nuggets. So to order on CD, request SK207 and send a minimum love gift of $10 for our radio ministry to soundoffaith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland. 21203 or order from our e-store at soundoffaith.org where you can also order on mp3s. But to order The Ripple Effect of David’s Sin Part 2 by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 21203 and request SK207. If you would like to order Part 1 as well, add $10 and request SK-206. That’s $20 for both SK-206 Part 1 and SK-207 Part 2. Till next time, this is Sharon Ott saying, Maranatha.
