"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister (serve to bring up) questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith " (1Tim. 1:4)

King David's Values and Contradictions - April 29, 2023 - Dr. David Antion

King David knew why he was not going to build a temple for God. He knew. And even though he had gathered all the things ready and made it, he knew.

And this is what he said in One Chronicles chapter 22 and verse eight. But the word of the Eternal came to me, saying, you have shed much blood and have waged great battles, wars or battle. The Hebrew word can mean either battles or wars.

You shall not build a house to my name because you have shed so much blood on the earth before me. In other words, in my presence. And then in First Chronicles chapter 22 and I'm going to read this in the new English translation.

Say this in First Chronicles 22, verse eight, in the new English. Translate. But the Eternal said to me, you have spilled a great deal of blood and fought many Babbles.

You must not build a temple to honor me, for you have spilled a great deal of blood on the ground before me in my presence. And we saw last time that David had fled. Now, David had we also saw last time in our last sermon that David had two chances to kill Saul.

One, when Saul went into the cave to relieve himself in the area of Ingeti, and the other time when Saul was in the camp and David took a couple of his men and he went right into the camp, and he was standing over Saul. It was about three in the morning, probably, and he stood over Saul and Saul was sleeping. And Saul's spear is right next to his head on the ground, right next to it.

So if he had to jump up, he could grab it like that. But David took the spear. He could have stabbed Saul right there, but he didn't.

And David's statement, even though his men were encouraging him, says I will not raise my hand against the Lord's anointed. In other words, I will not do this. Now, I have checked.

I do not find anywhere in the law that people could not kill a king or the kings would not be killed in battle or with one another. And many times Judah and Israel, battled each other, brother against brother, and kill each other who tried to get on the throne or something like that. So I don't know where that came from.

That's David's idea. I just won't know. I will not raise my hand against Saul, even though Saul is trying to kill me.

Now, there is a contradiction in values. David was willing to run to the Philistines. We saw that last time in First Samuel 27.

He went to the Philistines and wanted to be there with one of the lords and said, look, I'll serve you. I and my 600 men will serve you, and let us do it. To show him that, to show this Lord of the Philistines that David was sincere.

David invaded Israel, and some of the small towns, and killed each man. Every man and every woman. I don't know, it doesn't say children, but it says every man and every woman.

So what happened to the children? Are they orphans? It created a lot of suffering. And he killed innocent people who weren't trying to hurt him, but he refused to kill Saul, who was trying to kill him. So he ran to the Philistines to show he was loyal to the Lord of the Philistines.

He killed innocent people in Israel. What happened to that value system? It certainly is not a value system that I would take. You're killing innocent people, but you won't kill the man who's trying to kill you.

It didn't make sense to me. It still doesn't. So David just not going to be allowed to rule the temple.

He's not going to be allowed to build the temple, even though he gathered all the things through his battles. Okay? And he went over to the Philistines. He tried to show and in First Samuel, chapter 27, dropping down to verse ten, David said, he went he invaded the Negev of Judah and against the Negev of the Jeremy lights and against the negative of the Keenites.

And David did not leave a man or a woman alive. Did not leave a man or woman. Otherwise, they were saying Akesh, the Lord of the Philistines.

The king there says to David, he says to his friends, he has surely made himself odious hateful among the people of Israel. Therefore, he has become my servant always, forever. David's sincere.

He killed his own people to show he was going to fight for us, the Philistines. So he goes over to the Philistines, but even though he's trying hard to win over the Philistines and says David's a good guy, listen to First Samuel, chapter 29, beginning in verse one. First Samuel, chapter 29, beginning in verse one.

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek while the Israelites were camping by the spring, which is in Jezreel, and the lords of the Philistines were proceeding on by hundreds and by thousands. And David and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Akash. So he's going to have them, the lords of the other Philistines.

But he was with Akesh, who was at Gaff. Okay. Then the commanders of the Philistines said, what are these Hebrews doing here? Why do you have David and Ismail? What are these Hebrews? And Aches said to the commanders of the Philistines, I'm reading now first Samuel, chapter 29, verse three, he said, Is this not David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, who has been with he said, he's been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him.

From the day he deserted Saul, to this day he deserted Israel. He deserted Saul. He deserted the army of Israel.

I have found no problem. But in verse four, one Samuel 29, verse four the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him. And the commanders of the Philistines said to Akesh make the man go back that he may return to his place where you have assigned him and do not let him go down to the battle with us or in the battle he may become an adversary for us.

In other words, he may attack us from the back. Make him go back to the place where you had him and let him stay there where you've assigned him. For with what could this man make himself acceptable to his Lord? He could do some great thing against us and make himself acceptable to Saul.

Saul was to say, well, great man, you killed those Philistines. For with what cause did this man make himself acceptable to the Lord? Would it not be with the heads of our men? In other words, these men the argument, Akesh, is this not David of whom they sing in the dances saying Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousand? Then Akesh called David and said to him as the Lord lives, you have been upright and you are going out and you're coming in with me in your going out and with me in the army are pleasing in my sight for I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming here. In other words, coming to me to this day.

Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the other lords. In other words, these lords. Now therefore return, go back in peace that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.

So David said, what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? Now they were going to fight against the Israelites. David was going to go fight against the Israelites with them. But Aches replied to David I know that you are pleasing in my sight like an angel of God.

Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said he must not go up with us to this battle. To the battle. Now then arise early in the morning with the servants of your Lord who have come with you.

And as soon as you have arisen early in the morning and have light, and have light, then you depart. Okay. So David rose early in the morning.

He and his men depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines all went up to Jezreel. So even though he tried to win them over, he was still David.

The guy who fought for Israel had killed his 10,000. And Saul, of course, got jealous of that insane jealousy and tried to kill him. All right.

So David for a while was a deserter he was a traitor to Israel, and he killed innocent Israelites. But he wouldn't kill he had the opportunity to kill the man who was trying to kill him, and he wouldn't do it. Now, was David a man after God's own heart? Yes, he was.

And the Bible talks about that, and I'll talk to you about that next week, okay? You'll see why he was a man after God's heart, but he was not a man, I'm sorry to say. He was not a man after God's required behavior. He was not.

Now, I want to read you a passage from Second Samuel, chapter eleven. Now, you'll see it here in verse two, second of Samuel eleven. Well, I'm going to begin in verse one.

Then it happened in the spring at the time when the kings go out to battle. Go out. My translation writes to battle in italics.

When the time when the kings go out, they want to see where we are David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon, and they besieged Rabbith, but David stayed at Jerusalem. Now, that's unusual because David usually led the fight. In fact, it's one of the reasons they wanted a king.

You remember when we read First Samuel eight, the king will go out and lead us. By the way, when David said, I will not raise my hand against the Lord's anointed. What does that mean? What is the Lord's anointed? The anointed one is the Messiah and many Messiahs.

And the word Christ means anointed one. So every king was in the anointed one. And David said I'm not going to raise my hand against the Lord's anointed.

That's how he felt. Although this guy Saul was a kind of a dumb kind of guy, and brutish in his own way and just misunderstood. Samuel tried to explain to him that you didn't follow the lore.

You didn't follow what God said. He said, Kill all the cattle. Well, Saul said, I did too.

I followed it. I just saved the best ones. God said, destroy all of them.

Didn't care about the best ones. And here you are saving the best ones. And you think you follow the Lord, follow the instructions.

He was sort of broodish. He just couldn't get it. We might say dumb.

I don't know if he was with it or not. Okay, so in the first 2nd Samuel, rather than in Second Samuel, chapter eleven, I'm going to show you what I interpreted from years ago. This is how I explained this many years ago, and I want to go through it again because I want to show you some new information I've come across.

You don't have to believe this at all. I can hold whatever belief you have. Of course.

Okay. Then it happened that it came in the springtime when the kings were gone out of the battle of the David and sent their people there. But David stayed in Jerusalem.

A very unusual thing for David. Most of the time he stayed in Jerusalem. Now, in verse two.

Now, when evening came, David arose from his bed. He must have been napping evening. Now, he gets up and he walked around on the roof of the king's house.

It's evening now, the sun is kind of setting, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman.

And one said, oh, isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife? So evidently, she may have been an Israelite, but the wife of Uriah the Hittite. The wife of Uriah the Hittite.

Now, I always thought, she's bathing, she's naked. She could see him, he could see her. She's teasing him.

She's trying to get him to want to lust for her and so on. And she's blamed, Bathsheba. And then she went down to his house.

Verse four. The messengers came, took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her. He lay with her when she had purified herself from her uncleanness.

Okay? He lay with her, and when she purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. He didn't want her for a long relationship. He wanted her because he lusted after her and he wanted her.

So I've always thought Bathsheba, she was the fault. She caused David to stumble on this. And we tend to blame women anyhow for everything that goes wrong.

I guess some women feel that way. But anyhow, I'm here to see if I can tell you why I'm changing my mind a little bit. So let me read this again.

I'm going to start with verse two. Now, when evening came, David arose and he walked around the roof of his thing. It was evening, okay? Evening came and he walked around the roof of the king's house.

He had this run roof all over. He's looking here, looking here, looking here, and he walks over here. He could have been here.

He could have been here. So she didn't know whether he'd be looking at her or not. He could have been here, here, here, or here.

But he finds he comes to a place and he looks down, and from the roof, he saw a woman bathing. Now, the Hebrew word literally means washing. If you're washing yourself, I guess you're bathing.

But it doesn't say it. It just says he saw a woman washing. Was she washing? Was she washing her clothing? Did she just finish her period, which is implied? And then, you know, in the law, if a woman has her period, once she finishes her period, she has another seven days of uncleanness because she can't come into the camp.

She has to purify herself for another seven days afterward. So she may have been washing out menstrual clothes or whatever she was doing. Now, why was she up on the top?

Why was she on her roof? Well, where do you get warm water? If you have water and you want it to be warm, you want it out in the sun. And a lot of people had pots of water on the rooftop of their houses so that the sun would hit it, and that'd be a little warmer than just straight, cold water. If you're either going to bathe yourself or wash your clothes or whatever else you're going to wash, it just says she was washing.

It does not say what it does not say. Here's what it does not say. Does not say she was naked.

There's no statement here. It just said the word. And we get that because translators have translated the word washing as bathing.

Now, when I hear the word bathing, I think a person is bathing. They won't have any clothes on. That's what I thought, but it doesn't say that.

Okay? And the woman was very beautiful in appearance. She was pretty and looked nice. Can a woman be very beautiful in appearance and very desirable in appearance and not be naked? Sure, of course, it can.

She can be very attractive and very pretty, very beautiful and very attractive, and very close to people who want to lust, even if she's not naked, just with clothes. Okay? So David inquired, who was this? Who is this? And they said, Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Now, people are all into race or nationality and all that. Either she was a Hittite and married Uriah the Hittite, or she was an Israelite who married a Hittite.

Nobody seemed to object to that. Okay, that's fine. They didn't think anything of it.

She's Baftshima, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Now, right there, that should have been a large stop sign right in front of David's eyes. She was someone else's wife.

You can't have that. You can't have her. She was someone else's wife.

That should have been a stop sign. Now, he could have other women. He could take many wives.

He did have a number of wives. He had many wives, and not as many as Solomon, but he had many wives. But that should have been a stop sign.

This is not a woman that's free for me to take. This is a woman who's married. But that didn't stop David.

Oh, this is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Verse four of two, Samuel eleven. David sent messengers and took her.

The Hebrew word is and he took her. Okay? He sent messengers and he took her. That's the Hebrew.

David sent messengers and he took her. He didn't invite her. He didn't send an RSVP.

If you want to come to my castle or come to my place, my home and all that, oh, no, you get messengers from the federal government, like the FBI or something. They just come and they take you. And that's what happened to her.

Listen to this way. It said, David sent messengers and took her and the Hebrews and he took her. Not they took her.

He took her through his messengers. He took her. And when she came to him, he lay with her.

Okay? He lay with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned home. Now, she was still probably in that period of seven days after her uncleanness or her period, she had to purify, finish it.

She just went home. I don't know how many days she stayed there. She stayed there a few days till she purified herself.

I don't know. Okay, so now she's home. Do you think she had a choice of whether to go there or not? Do you think that she said, I don't want to?

I'm married. What am I doing here? You're taking me over here. You took me.

The word Hebrew is he took her. Did she have a choice? Pick this up and take it. And so she went.

Okay. The woman conceived. She conceived.

Now she had her period. She was in that seven-day thing and so on after her period. And she conceived and sent and told David.

She sent a message, I'm pregnant. I'm with a child. King James says I'm with child.

I'm pregnant, as we would say today, moderna. Then David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent Uriah to David, the king.

David wants to see you at your place. So when Uriah came to, David came to him. David asked, concerning the war, how is it going, finding the Ammonites and all that? How are we doing out there? Tell me about it.

Concerning the welfare he wanted to ask about Joab, how are they doing? How are the guys doing their fighting and the people and the state of war? Tell me about where are we. How far? We got a report. Then David said to you, okay, all right. That's great.

Thank you. Go down to your house, wash your feet. Now, in Hebrew, feet are a metaphor for sexual organs.

Go down to your house, wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house and a present from the king was sent sent out after him. I'm going to send you a present for coming here.

Go out to your house, wash your feet, and enjoy yourself in other words, bathe yourself. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of the Lord and did not go down to his house. Now, when they told David, saying Uriah did not go down to the house to his house, David said to Uriah, have you not come from my journey? Why didn't you go down to your house? You come a long way here to get here.

Uriah said to David, now, here's a guy who's absolutely dedicated, pure as the driven snow, in a sense. Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters. And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field.

They're having it hard now, what a lot of people don't realize in war, soldiers become very connected and very dedicated. You know, in Marines the word is semprafredlis, meaning always loyal, always faithful, always loyal. And Marines had a thing.

We leave no man behind. We go get them, we go get them, we go help them because we're like brothers. They love each other, they're dedicated to each other.

They sacrifice. You'll hear stories of one guy jumping on a grenade to save some of the other guys. If he has the opportunity to do that, he sacrifices himself.

So Uriah says to him, the Ark is out there in the open field. My servants of my lord are camping out in the field. Shall I then go down to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? These men are fighting.

I was fighting with them. I can't get that out of my mind. I can't go down here now and say, oh, well, you guys go for it while I'm down here having a good time with my wife.

He said I can't do it. And he says to David, by your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing. I will not go down to my wife's house and lie with my wife.

Well, David had another plan. Verse twelve. David said to Uriah, well, stay here today also, and tomorrow I'll let you go back.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day, and the next he was staying at David's place. Now, David called him and he ate and drank before him and he made him drunk. Have another glass of wine here, come on.

They joke they laugh, they drink and they drink. And in the evening he sent out to lie on his bed with the Lord's servants. But he did not.

He got him drunk. He thought maybe if he's drunk enough, he'll have maybe sexual desires or whatever. And he still lay down with David's servants right in their time where they worked.

Now, in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. They usually sealed it with some kind of wax or something so that it's not broken. And David had written in the letter saying, place Uriah used his name, place Uriah in the front of the line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die.

So Uriah is loyal to the end. Do you want me to take this to Joeb? Absolutely. You can trust me with it.

I'm dedicated. And the king is sending instructions. Holding in his hand the instructions for his death.

He hands it to Joe EB. So it was as Joab kept watch on the city that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. The men of the city went out, fought against Joab, and some of the people among David's servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite fell.

So what they did, they went right up against that thing. And several other men died beside Uriah because Joab had to get them up close enough and get Uriah up close enough, and some of his men. So they didn't pull back from Uriah.

Not that far, not that much. Then Joab sent a report to David on all the events of the war. He charged the messenger, saying, when you have finished telling David the events of the war to the king, and if it happens that the king's wrath arises.

And he says, why did you go up near to the city and fight? Did you not know that they could shoot them from the wall? They're shooting at you. You're attacking a walled city. You're going up close, too close, and they're shooting down at you from their wall.

Who struck down? Abimelech, the son of Jeremy, whatever it is, did not a woman throw an upper millstone and hit him? Don't you remember we had one guy die from a woman throwing a millstone and she hit him on the head and killed him? Why did you go so near to the wall? So Joab is prepping these men. If he asks that, then you shall say, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also because that's what he wanted.

So the messengers departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent for him to tell. And the messenger said to David, the men prevailed against us, and they came out against us in this field. But we pressed them as far as the entrance to the gate.

We ran up against the wall. Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall. So some of your king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.

When David heard that, what did he say? David said to the messengers, thus shall you say to Joab, do not let this thing displease you. Don't be bothered by this. For the sword devours one as well as another.

Make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it and encourage him. I know Joe Ebb is going to be sad that he lost several men but encourage him. Now, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband.

Doesn't sound like she wanted to cheat on him. She mourned for him. I don't know.

Now, one of the reasons when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife. Then she bore him a son. And remember that's when God struck that.

And then finally Nathan. But the last part of verse 27 of chapter eleven. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the eternal, not the thing that David and Bathsheba had done.

The thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the eternal. So there you have it. Now, one of the other reasons I'll tell you why.

One of the other reasons that people often thought Bathsheba was at fault and she was just as much at fault as David was. In the Book of Matthew, chapter one, you have Matthew talking about the genealogy of Christ. And when he gets down to talking about several of them, he comes down, he says that Tamar, mentions Judah was the father of Perez and Zara through Tamar, that's his daughter-in-law Perez was the father of Hezran and Israel the father of Ram.

This is Matthew one, verse three. Now verse four. Ram was the father of Amidab.

Amidab was the father of Nishan. Nishan was the father of Salman. Salman was the father of Boaz by Rehab.

Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king.

David was the father of Solomon. By now, the Greek does not put her name in here. The new American Standard inserted her name deliberately by Bastiba, who had been the wife of Uriah.

The Greek says by her, who was of Uriah, who belonged in other words, who sort of belonged to Uriah, her who was Uriah. Let me read that in a couple of translations. Here's the Christian Standard Bible Translation.

Matthew one, verse six. And Jesse was fathered, King David. King David fathered Solomon by Uriah's wife.

Because the Greek just says her of Uriah. This is the new International Bible. It goes like this.

And Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife. That's not a good translation because there is no past tense of her of Uriah.

So many people thought because they left Bathsheba's name out, that was a slam against Bathsheba. But when David had Solomon, he had Solomon. At that time, Bathsheba was his wife.

But in Matthew's gospel, it's saying he had Solomon by Uriah's wife. So in one sense, David took Bastiba as a wife by murdering her husband. And I'm sorry to say that he might have raped her whether she had a right or not.

But we're going to see from other scriptures that they treat Bathsheba very well. Some of these other passages treat Batsheba very well. Nathan went to David and said, you're the man, he made up that little parable about the sheep.

One man had one sheep by himself, and the other man had a whole herd. When he takes the one-man sheep watching this sheep, and he killed it for the company when he had many other sheep. And David said, you know, the man that did that ought to die.

And Nathan said you're the man. You're the man. And this is what God said.

He could give you all this. He gave you. Many and all blessed you with all these women and all that.

And if you had wanted more, he would have done more. But you had to take Uriah's wife. It was the most egregious, evil sin David had ever done.

That and invading is killing. Every man and woman in certain Israelite towns was certainly shedding blood, shedding the blood of which Uriah's had to be. And several other people died.

And David said, oh, well, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. David's behavior was not Godly and he paid for it. His sin was forgiven, but he paid for it through ongoing problems in his own family.

His own son was trying to kill him. Absalom wanted to kill him, wanted to rise up against his dad. And guess what? Absalom then went to David's wife at the advice of Hitherfell, he went to David's wife in front of all the people to let him know, I'm having your wives.

So it came back to haunt David many times over for Bathsheba, what happened to her, we'll talk about that and the way that she has been seen in scripture, she still the New Testament looked at her, even delivering Solomon as Uriah's wife. Would you join me now as we close with prayer and thank God for his revelation and thank God that we don't have to blame other people for our sins? And I think Bathsheba got a bad rap.

Join me as we close today's service. Heavenly Father, thank you very much for every blessing, for Your Word, for the understanding of it. Many people may still feel the way that I felt when I first read that, but that's their choice.

I want to present as much as I can of Your Word and its context and I want to know the Hebrew and the Greek so that we understand exactly what Your Word is trying to tell us. We give you thanks now for every blessing. We thank You for Your people.

We thank you for those who are looking in faith, Father, they have faith in Jesus Christ and faith in you for their healing, for their comfort. And we all know, Father, that as we get older we're not going to live in this life forever. But please give them comfort and help them.

Each and every person struggling with a disease and a problem, give them comfort, give them faith, give them joy. Let joy and comfort surround them. We give you thanks for everything asking for Your blessing on our day through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, and our soon-coming Messiah King.

He's our Messiah and the King that will lead us to victory over all contradivine forces. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.