Introduction:

I want to begin this morning with a rhetorical question. What is the difference between a surgeon’s scalpel and a mugger’s knife? They are both blades, made of similar materials. Both are sharp and both are intended to cut through flesh.

I think the difference is obvious. One cuts to harm. The other cuts to heal. The difference is purpose and the hand that holds it.

This morning we turn to 2 Samuel 11–12 to meet the God whose mercy sometimes cuts us painfully, so that we live.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV).

As we will see in our passage this morning, God’s mercy wounds us to heal us. He exposes sin, restores the sinner, and returns us to obedience through the Greater Son of David.

Descent

The passage begins,

“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1, ESV).

Do you hear the contrast? Kings go out. David stays in.

The writer is drawing our attention to a small, but important detail. David is not where he should be. That small choice opens a door. If David had been with his men, he would not have been alone on the rooftop with wandering eyes.

Now listen to how the verbs stack up.

“It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’ So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant’” (2 Samuel 11:2–5, ESV).

He saw.
He inquired.
He sent for her.
He took her.
He lay with her.

A glance becomes a thought. A thought becomes a decision. Decision becomes deed. Deed becomes a chain of sin.

The Bible is careful about how it tells this story. Bathsheba is identified as “the wife of Uriah the Hittite,” and Uriah will later be named among David’s mighty men (2 Samuel 23:39).

There is also a small, but important detail to notice:

“Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness” (2 Samuel 11:4, ESV).

This points to the Levitical purification after menstruation, which means paternity will be undeniable. David cannot blame the child on Uriah. It also guards Bathsheba from slander. She was obeying the Law of God regarding cleanliness. Leviticus explains that during menstruation a woman is ceremonially unclean for seven days, “She shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days” (Leviticus 15:19, ESV), and after the period of cleansing “she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean” (Leviticus 15:28, ESV).

The narrator tells us this to make paternity unmistakable and to defend Bathsheba’s obedience. This was abduction, not seduction.

Here is a warning for all of us. Temptation rarely kicks the door down and makes its presence known. It creeps in quietly, and it knows your weaknesses.

“Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14–15, ESV).

In the modern era we live in, men and women, but especially men, do not have to stumble upon a woman bathing to be tempted toward lust.

With the advent of the internet and the popularity of the home computer, the problem of pornography moved out of seedy shops and into the average American home.

With the popularity of smart phones, it became a billion dollar monster that has corrupted an entire generation. I am of the last generation to grow up without access to the internet in my childhood, and I worry for any child, some of whom are now young adults, who grew up with unfiltered and unlimited access to the internet.

A nationally representative study of U.S. teens found 73% have seen online pornography, with the average first exposure at age 13, and 15% by 10 or younger (Source: Common Sense Media).

Think about that. There is a generation growing up who, on average, saw explicit adult content before they went on their first date, had their first kiss, or even knew what it was to have a crush on a boy or girl.

Over half say they’ve encountered it accidentally, and among teens who only reported accidental exposure, 63% said they were accidentally exposed to it within the past week (Source: Common Sense Media). In other words, many kids aren’t seeking it out, often it finds them.

This is not just a secular problem. Barna reports that over half of practicing Christians (54%) say they’ve viewed pornography (vs. 68% of non-Christians). Among pastors, two in three (67%) say they’ve struggled with pornography at some point, and nearly one in five (18%) say it’s a current struggle. (Source: Barna Group)

What should bother us even more is that those are self-reported statistics. We know that a lot of people will lie in surveys to make themselves look better, even if those polls are anonymous. That means the actual numbers are almost certainly higher than what I just said.

I don’t share this to scare you, but so that you know that the chances are very high
that my voice is reaching someone who is currently and actively struggling with the very sin that humbled David, “the man after God’s own heart.”

If that is you this morning, know that there is victory over every sin and over every addiction in Jesus Christ and I want to give you a battle plan from the very Word of God:

First, guard your eyes.

Make a covenant with what you look at and for how long you look.

“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a [young woman]” (Job 31:1, ESV).

Pray this when the first spark appears.

“Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (Psalm 119:37, ESV).

Second, gate your thoughts.

Do not let every idea rent a room in your mind.

“We… take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, ESV).

Then feed the mind better food.

“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8, ESV).

Third, take your first path of escape and move your feet.

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, ESV).

Often the escape is very practical. Leave the scene and seek better company. If you find yourself in the room with a ferocious lion, your first plan of action should not be to wrestle the lion. Your first plan of action should be to leave the room.

David did not go onto the roof with the goal of spying on Bathsheba. When he first saw her, he should have looked away immediately and gone back inside. For David, sin began when he stayed and took a second look.

You can change your location. You can turn off the screen. You can phone a godly friend for prayer. My point is, you must pour water on the spark before it becomes a fire.

Deceit:

Hopefully we all see how David had made a series of bad decisions to end up here.

First, he was not where he should have been.
Second, he did not walk away when he was tempted.
Third, he gave into temptation and used his power to take what did not belong to him.
So what should he do now?

The right thing to do is to confess, to own up to his sin. Yes it would have been an awful scandal. Yes it would wreck his reputation. But sin does not grow weaker when we try to hide it.

Satan laughs when we try to cover up our sin. When we try to pretend it didn’t happen. When we try to justify it and pretend that we really didn’t do anything wrong. When we try to act like it is ok because everyone else does it.

When we do that we are feeding a monster that wants to destroy you.God’s Word shows us how a cover up of sin ultimately only serves to multiply sin.

Sadly David falls for Satan’s oldest trick. He convinces us to run from God and run from the truth. It’s the same mistake Adam and Eve made in the garden when they hid from God after the first sin.

Confession is painful, but like the surgeon’s scalpel it is necessary for healing. Running from God and from the truth is like ignoring an open wound, it will not get better the longer you wait. If you wait too long, it may even kill you.

So what does David do?

First, David sends for Uriah.

“David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house and wash your feet’” (2 Samuel 11:8, ESV).

That phrase is a hospitable way of saying, “go home, clean up, rest, be with your wife.” If Uriah goes home, and sleeps with his wife the secret will remain safe. People will assume the child is Uriah’s.

But see what happens;

“But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house” (2 Samuel 11:9, ESV).

Uriah explains his refusal.

“The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing” (2 Samuel 11:11, ESV).

War in Israel carried a sacred dimension. Soldiers kept themselves consecrated (Exodus 19:15, 1 Samuel 21:5). Uriah, a Hittite by birth, lives more like a son of the covenant than the King of Israel.

David tries again.

“And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house” (2 Samuel 11:13, ESV).

Even reeling virtue stands straighter than sober sin.

Once David realizes that he will not get Uriah to cover up David’s sin, he decides to eliminate Uriah altogether.

“In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah” (2 Samuel 11:14, ESV).

The order is precise and lethal.

“Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die” (2 Samuel 11:15, ESV).

The result is not only Uriah.

“And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died” (2 Samuel 11:17, ESV).

Let me be clear, there is no such thing as private sin. In one way or another, sin always hurts more people than just the sinner.

The narrator then records how Bathsheba grieved and how David rushes her into a wedding.

“When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son” (2 Samuel 11:26–27a, ESV).

Now before we move on, I want to recognize that some of us are not David in this story.

Some of us are Bathsheba, used or pressured by someone with power. Sometimes we who are the victims of the sinful appetites of powerful people can feel unclean, unloved, or even begin to wonder if perhaps we brought this upon ourselves. If that rings true for you I want you to hear the Lord. He does not ask you to confess harder. He invites you to come into the light and to seek wise help.

“The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble” (Psalm 9:9, ESV).

The church must be a refuge and must protect the vulnerable.

Disclosure and Discipline:

As we have seen with David, sin loves silence, but God desires repentance and restoration. After David marries Bathsheba and the palace grows quiet, Scripture breaks in:

“But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Samuel 11:27b, ESV).

And immediately, mercy moves first:

“And the Lord sent Nathan to David” (2 Samuel 12:1, ESV).

God could have sent a plague or made a public example of the king; instead He sends a prophet with a parable. He could have crushed David in wrath; He confronts David with His Word.Divine judgment comes dressed in gracious disclosure.

Nathan’s story slips past the guard of self‑deceit: a rich man seizes a poor man’s lamb, “it ate of his morsel and drank from his cup and lay in his arms; it was like a daughter to him” (2 Samuel 12:3, ESV).

The tenderness makes the theft feel personal, and David reacts before he reflects:

“As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold” (2 Samuel 12:5–6, ESV).

The Law agrees (Exodus 22:1). By design, David pronounces the sentence his own sin deserves.

Then Nathan turns the mirror: “You are the man” (2 Samuel 12:7, ESV). The charge is not merely legal but theological: “Why have you despised the word of the Lord?” (2 Samuel 12:9, ESV). In the next breath the Lord says, “you have despised me” (2 Samuel 12:10, ESV). To spurn God’s Word is to spurn God Himself. Sin is not only rule‑breaking; it is rejection of God-denying.

Accordingly, the sentence fits the sin. What David took in secret will be taken from him in public:

“I will take your wives before your eyes…before all Israel and before the sun” (2 Samuel 12:11–12, ESV).

The sword David brought into another man’s house will now haunt his own: “the sword shall never depart from your house” (2 Samuel 12:10, ESV).

Hidden taking yields public trouble. What was concealed comes to light.

At this point David could have hardened like Saul. Instead, grace softens him. He bows: “I have sinned against the Lord”(2 Samuel 12:13, ESV). No excuses, no blame, just confession.

And immediately, assurance meets repentance: “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13, ESV).

Under the Law, adultery warranted death (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22). God spares David without suspending justice, partly in the consequences David must endure, and fully at the cross of the Greater Son of David.

Still, forgiveness does not cancel discipline.

“Nevertheless…because you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die” (2 Samuel 12:14, ESV).

David pleads and fasts, lying all night on the ground.

Yet “on the seventh day the child died” (2 Samuel 12:18, ESV).

What follows is one of the most powerful examples of surrendered faith in all of scripture. David rises, washes, and “went into the house of the Lord and worshiped” (2 Samuel 12:20, ESV).

He explains his posture: “Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me…? But now he is dead… I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:22–23, ESV).

We pray until God answers, and we bow when He answers differently than we hoped.

David is spared, “You shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13, ESV), yet he walks through discipline that trains his heart to hate sin and trust God.

This text does not teach that the child is condemned for his own sin. It shows God, in holy sovereignty, using severe providence to deal with David.

Scripture does not reveal the child’s eternal state, but David’s hope is genuine,
“I shall go to him” (2 Samuel 12:23, ESV), and Jesus’ welcome of children strengthens our confidence: “Let the children come to me…for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14, ESV). When particulars are hidden, we rest in the character of God.

Why, then, pray and fast if the outcome may not change? Because mercy sometimes relents. David says, “Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me” (2 Samuel 12:22, ESV).

Prayer is not like playing slot machines, hoping enough prayers will result in the answer you want falling in your lap.

Prayer is relationship. Sometimes God says “No” to teach us the sufficiency of grace.

Paul records: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord…But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:8–9a, ESV).

Jesus prayed this way in Gethsemane: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39, ESV).

David shows us how to plead earnestly and submit wholly.

At the same time, not every loss is a punishment for a specific sin. Jesus said of the man born blind, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3, ESV).

When told of a tragedy, He warned against simplistic reasoning: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners…? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:2–3, ESV; see vv. 4–5).

In the Old Testament, Job reminds us of innocent suffering and faithful worship: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21, ESV).

In David’s case, the Spirit supplies the link between sin and consequence; often, He does not. We must not draw connections where God has drawn none.

So we hold three truths together.

First, God is sovereign and good: “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28, ESV).

Second, God is compassionate in our pain: “[He is] the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4, ESV).

Third, our calling is humble repentance and patient trust: “Humble yourselves…under the mighty hand of God…casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6–7, ESV).

Practically, when suffering comes, ask gently: Is the Spirit exposing a specific sin? If yes, confess and make it right. If no, refuse blame and speculation; lean into prayer, community, and hope.

Expect trials, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you” (1 Peter 4:12, ESV), and seek fellowship with Christ in them, “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13a, ESV).

The church’s task is not to explain every tear, but to bear burdens and keep one another in the love of God.

In the end, God exposes sin not to destroy His people but to restore them. He sends His Word, pierces our defenses, grants repentance, assures pardon, and trains us through fatherly discipline.

Forgiveness is free.
Discipline is for our good.
Faith bows beneath both.

Deliverance:

As we close I want to briefly show how, even in the midst of sin and loss, the account ends on a hopeful note.

“Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:24–25, ESV).

Two names tell one grace.
Solomon means “Peaceful.”
Jedidiah means “Beloved of the Lord.”

Through Solomon the temple will rise.
Through this line the Greater Son will come.

David fell into sin on the roof of the palace.
Christ stood on a pinnacle and did not fall.

David took another man’s wife.
Christ took another man’s cross.

David sent to take a lamb.
The Father sent the Lamb to be taken.

David sent others so he could stay home.
The Father sent His Son so we could come home.

Where David’s taking stole life,
Christ’s giving bestows life.

David wrote a death warrant for the innocent.
Christ signed a pardon for the guilty with His own blood.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV).