How many of you have ever heard of Thomas Jefferson? Most of us know Jefferson as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the third president of the United States of America, and one of the most influential organizers of our country. But did you know that most historians believe that Jefferson carried on an illicit relationship with one of his slaves and fathered six children by her? I guess he was a Founding Father of more than just our nation!

How many of you have heard of Martin Luther King Jr.? Most of us know King as a Baptist minister, activist, and the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. He led the March on Washington where he delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream Speech.” But did you know that King plagiarized most of his doctoral dissertation at Boston University and he cheated on his wife with multiple women? Dreams weren’t the only things King had in his bed!

How many of you have ever heard of John F. Kennedy? We know JFK as America’s 35th president. He won a Pulitzer Prize, founded the Peace Corps., and successfully led the U.S. through the precarious Cuban Missile Crisis before his assassination. But his philandering with beautiful women is well documented, especially his affair with Marylyn Monroe. Cuba wasn’t the only precarious situation JFK ever found himself in!

Great people throughout our nation’s history, and furthermore, throughout world history, have possessed serious character flaws. From Jezebel and Julius Caesar in ancient times to the latest scandal in Washington D.C., people have achieved incredible success in the public arena and yet have had remarkable failures in their private lives. The rise and fall of great leaders is a familiar story, and so it is with the people in the Bible.

Nowhere is this theme more pronounced than in the life of David. He had risen from a simple shepherd boy from the obscure rural village of Bethlehem to become Israel’s greatest king. In his early life he exhibited a humble heart, a courageous faith, and an undivided loyalty to God. Unfortunately, in his later life, he became an adulterer, a murderer, and his family became a royal mess. He had a glorious rise to the throne, but as we will see today, he also had a great fall from the throne.

Sometimes God uses the stories of people in the Bible to give us an example to follow. Other times, he uses stories to help us avoid the paths others have followed. As we consider David’s fall, I hope that we can learn from his mistakes and avoid them in our own lives.

Pride and Laziness (II Samuel 11:1)

The story of David’s downfall begins in II Samuel 11:1. Notice what it says—“In the spring, at the time when the kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.” It was springtime, the period after the winter rains when kings would reopen their military campaigns. For whatever reason, this year, when all of the other kings were fulfilling their responsibilities, David neglected his responsibility and stayed home. He sent his general Joab lead the army. I don’t know if he had became too proud or too lazy, but if David had been doing what he was supposed to be doing, he never would have seen what he saw and he never would have put himself in a compromising position.

Isn’t it amazing how the same thing happens in our lives? When we become proud in our hearts, we begin to slide down the slippery slope toward sin. Do you remember the old cliché “Pride comes before a fall?” When we smugly say to ourselves, “I would never do that!” or “I don’t need any help!” we make ourselves susceptible to all sorts of sins.

Likewise, when we neglect our God-given responsibilities and become lazy, it opens the door to trouble. Have you heard the old cliché “Idleness is the devil’s playground?” It is true! If Satan can get us to be bored with what we are supposed to be doing, he can introduce all sorts of ungodly adventure. How about the person who avoids work and winds up clicking onto a pornographic website? How about the person who spends endless hours on social networks and winds up getting into an inappropriate relationship?

By all accounts, David was doing well, but that is often when the enemies of pride and laziness strike. If we are really focused on what God wants us to be doing, we don’t even have enough time to fall into sin. The best defense against sin is being active for God!

Flirting with Temptation (II Samuel 11:2-4)

While David neglected his duty and stayed in Jerusalem, one evening he got up from a nap and took a stroll across the palace roof to feel the evening breeze. The palace roof was flat and was used like a porch. It was higher than all of the other buildings in Jerusalem and it provided a good view of the whole city. This particular evening though, the view was a little too good. As he gazed across the rooftops, his eyes were drawn to the house of Uriah the Hittite where the beautiful Bathsheba was bathing herself.

Now this is where David made his second mistake. He couldn’t help but notice her, but he made a conscious decision to keep staring at her. He should have turned around and walked the other way, but he didn’t. As he allowed his mind to dwell on her, his dwelling led an inquiry, inquiry turned into an invitation, and the invitation became adultery. He flirted with temptation too long, and he eventually gave in. Leonard Cohen put it this way:

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

How often do we do the same thing? We all face some sort of temptation: sexual temptation, emotional temptation, financial temptation, material temptations, etc.

Flirting with temptation can be fun! The excitement lasts for a while, but you always get burned in the end. Let us learn from David’s downfall! When you are tempted to do something wrong, run the other way. Get off the computer! Turn off the TV! Put the credit card away! Turn around before it is too late!

Abusing Authority (II Samuel 11:5-16)

Sin always has its consequences, and so it was for David! After one night of forbidden passion with Bathsheba, she soon sent word that she was pregnant. Now David was really in a bind! What was he to do? If news of this spread, he could have lost his kingdom. So, he devised a master plan to cover it up, but he would have to abuse his authority as king. He thought, “If I send for her husband to return home and give me a report of how the war is going, he will surely sleep with his wife and it will look like he got her pregnant, and no one will ever know.”

So, David summoned Bathsheba’s husband Uriah the Hittite, wined and dined him, and sent him to his wife two nights in a row. But Uriah was a man of noble character and he reasoned, “How could I go to my house and eat and drink and lay with my wife when all of my comrades are still camped on the battlefield.”

When David’s plan backfired, he became so angry that he wrote a letter to Joab, telling him to put Uriah on the front line where fighting was fiercest and where he would have the greatest chance of death. Poor Uriah had no idea that he was carrying his own death warrant. He was the innocent victim of a king abusing his power. David stole his wife and then took his life. Now David wasn’t just an adulterer, but he was also a murderer.

When we are in positions of authority, we must be very careful how we use our power. Unfortunately, positions of authority are often accompanied by puffed-up egos. When we have a little bit of control, it is easy to feel like we control everything. We think we can do anything we want. Just look at how many political scandals we have seen in recent years—Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others! These are all cases of big ego and abuse of authority!

Before David became king, he had a humble heart toward God and people, but when he became king, he let the power go to his head. If you are in a position of authority, be very careful how you use your power with people who are under you. Don’t let power go to your head! Remember that your position is a gift from God!

Forgetting God’s Omniscience

David’s final mistake in II Samuel 11 is found in the very last sentence of the chapter. It says, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” Even though David covered up the scandal from everyone else in the kingdom, he couldn’t hide his sins from God. He forgot God’s omniscience—that is his attribute of knowing everything.

The author of II Samuel included this line to help us remember what David forgot. We must always remember that God sees everything, even when no one else does. Whether we sin with our hands, eyes, our mouths, or in the hidden recesses of our minds, he knows.

How many of you have ever done something wrong and didn’t get caught? It is exciting for a while, but then you have to work to keep the secret hidden. Even if no one else knows, you always have to live with that knowledge that God knows!

When I was a youth, my friend Barry and I stole hundreds of dollars of merchandise from Hoover’s Market, the general store in my hometown. He and I stole everything from candy bars and bubble gum to cigarettes and chewing tobacco while the owners were in the store. Over the years we watched many of our friends get caught and turned in for shoplifting, but Barry and figured out a way to avoid getting caught and we bragged about it all the time.

By the time I turned nineteen, the market had gone out of business, I had become a Christian, and I was home on summer break from Bible College. The first Sunday morning I walked into church, who was sitting in the pew right in front of me? Mrs. Hoover! Guilt flooded my heart and I knew that I had to confess my sin to her. It was God’s way of telling me, “I know what you did!”

Consequences of Sin

Well, as I have already said, “Sin has consequences!” so let me summarize the consequences of David’s sin. Almost nine months after this, Bathsheba gave birth to a son, but because of David’s sin, God decided to take the child. The child only lived for six days, and on the seventh, he rested. David wept and mourned over the loss of that child!

Also, David went on to have some serious problems with his family. All in all, David wound up having eight different wives and over twenty children. His oldest son Amnon raped his half sister Tamar, and when his son Absalom heard about what Amnon did to Tamar, he murdered Amnon. Later, Absalom led a rebellion against his father and David spent years of his life running from his son. Eventually, Absalom was assassinated and David wept and mourned over the loss of that son too. David’s family was a royal mess—and it all started with his sin.

David’s rise to kingship was marked by his humble heart, courageous faith, and undivided loyalty to God. His fall from kingship was marred by the mistakes of pride, laziness, flirting with temptation, abusing authority, and forgetting God’s omniscience. I hope that we will model David’s qualities and avoid his mistakes!

Like many other great leaders throughout history, David wasn’t perfect. There has only been one leader who has ever lived a perfect life, and we nailed him to a cross. But here is what separates David from many others—he truly repented from his sin. He confessed it to God, asked for forgiveness, and worked hard not to make the same mistake a second time. We can read his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51!

Have you truly repented from your sin? Do you have some secret sin hidden deep in your heart? He already knows about it! Confess it to God! Ask for his forgiveness! Learn from it! Don’t do repeat it! And finally, receive God’s grace through the death and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ, David’s descendant!