Guess which Bible character fits this description in Smith’s Bible Dictionary (first published in 1884):

“He was of short stature, with red or auburn hair. . . In later life he wore a beard. His bright eyes are specially mentioned, and generally he was remarkable for the grace of his figure and countenance (‘fair or eyes,’ ‘comely,’ ‘goodly’), well made, and of immense strength and agility. His swiftness and activity made him like a wild gazelle, his feet like hart’s feet, and his arms strong enough to break a bow of steel.”

Just like people can’t help but picture Charleston Heston when they image Moses, David, unfortunately, gets tagged with the nude sculpture of Michelangelo’s so loved by the gay community.

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As part of Jordan’s Mother’s Day sermon last month looking at especially famous mothers in the Bible, we were treated to a sidelight portrayal of David, husband of Bathsheba and father to their remarkable son Solomon, once-recognized as the smartest man on earth.

Jordan began by reminding us that David, the 10^th and youngest son of Jesse, “started in obscurity—a little unknown shepherd on the back of a hill.”

He says, “From the Book of Samuel, we know God told Samuel to go down to Jesse’s house and anoint the next king of Israel. Jesse brought out all of his other sons but after each one had passed before Samuel asked, ‘Have you got another one?’ and Jesse says, ‘Well, I’ve got one more boy but nobody’s interested in him. I got him out there tending sheep, way out. I didn’t even think to bring him in!’

“It was God who took David from that obscurity and made him that same little lad who went out to take vittles to his brothers in the army of Israel, as they were facing down the Philistines and Goliath, the giant of the Philistines.

“And David stands in the middle there and says, ‘Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should mock the armies of the living God? What’s a matter, guys—aren’t you going to do something about this?!’

“And it was David, with the little slingshot, who stooped down into that little brook and pulled up five smooth stones—one for Goliath and four for his brothers. David’s going out expecting to slay the whole bunch of them!

“That’s why the proverb says even when he became a great king, ‘Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.’ And by God’s help, by trusting God, and standing in the truth God had given to Israel, David became a great man; a great king. But David had some weaknesses.”

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In his sermon, Jordan labeled David’s double-crime of adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah as “one of the biggest tragedies in Israel’s history.”

From II Samuel 11, we can easily digest the scandalous account of how “David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
[3] And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
[4] And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.
[5] And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.”

Jordan explains, “David fetches her to his bed, commits adultery with her and she later sends him word, ‘I’m pregnant.’ David had a weakness and he didn’t keep it in check and he made a bad mistake.

“Some guy asked at a meeting one time, ‘How do you apply that passage?’ You know, when you’re preaching you’re supposed to apply everything, and his wife answered him, ‘Well, you apply it! You ought not hang out on the rooftops (playing) Peeping Tom on your naked neighbors!’

“That’s pretty good advice but problem is David did it, and he didn’t just commit adultery, he fomented a cover-up. He misuses his power to try and cover up the sin and the pregnancy, and finally it winds up in him committing murder, having Bathsheba’s husband killed on the battlefield so that David could then take her as his wife.

“You know the story is a sequence of tragically negative consequences that come from that beginning. David was totally deluded; he didn’t think straight, couldn’t think straight. He forgot God; forgot his convictions. One compromise led to another, and led to another, and that led to another, and that led to another, until there was no longer any sense of guilt for sin. There was no longer any stirring in his heart because of the evil and the wickedness of his own actions.

“Don’t you think, folks, you can get away with sin. You can be a Believer; you can be forgiven, but sin will smut you every time and the wages of sin is death. And it will bring death to your convictions, and death to your conscience and death to your character if you dabble with it. It doesn’t just kill your soul in eternity; it kills life now.”

*****

Jordan continues, “In chapter 12 of II Samuel you see the depths to which David went. It’s one of the most remarkable passages just humanly speaking.”

In the passage, Nathan, “the eminent Hebrew prophet in the reigns of David and Solomon,” according to Smith’s dictionary, “comes forward as the reprover of David for the sin with Bathsheba; and his famous apologue on the rich man and the ewe lamb, which is the only direct example of his prophetic power, shows it to have been of a very high order.”

The passage reads, “And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
[2] The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
[3] But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
[4] And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
[5] And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
[6] And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
[7] And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.”

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Jordan explains, “You’ve had a pet animal like that, hadn’t you? You see the picture? The rich man’s got plenty; the poor man’s only got the one little ewe that he loves and cherishes. The rich man’s got a visitor who comes in but he’s not going to go out and mess up his herd. No, he goes and takes the poor man’s lamb and kills it and feeds it to his guests. And how would you react to that? Probably like David.

“Verse 5 says ‘David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man.’ What you don’t get there if you’re not familiar with the Book of Exodus is God’s regulation was is if you stole something from your neighbor you had to repay it fourfold.

“You see, that’s the greatest deterrent to thievery there could be. You steal something and you get caught so now you got to get a job and work, and not just buy the thing you stole, but buy four of them from the dude you stole them from. It would make sense then that if you want something, go get a job and buy your own instead of buying the other guy four. There’s a mindset in that.

“My point to you here is David knew the law, quoted the Scripture, and yet none of it penetrated his heart. He was quoting the right verse but he was blind to the impact of Scripture in his own life. You’ve been there yourself, haven’t you?

“How often it’s true of you and me that we’ll learn the Bible, and we’ll have a knowledge of verses, and we’ll sit and argue about how many angels dance on the head of a pin, and we’ll talk about the technicalities and intricacies of doctrine, and yet we’ll walk right out of that discussion and live in the flesh as if the Word of God didn’t effect us at all in the areas where we live.

“Martin Luther said it in the Reformation; he said, ‘If you’re engaged in the battle and all the areas of doctrine except the one that’s in contention at the moment, you’re not in the battle.’ And if you’ve learned all the doctrine you need to know and you’re willing to apply it to everybody else but you’re not taking the Word where you are and putting it in your shoe leather, you aren’t in the battle and that was David.

“Now, the good thing is the next verse: ‘Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.’

“And you know what happened to David? The veil, the curtain was lifted and David was struck by the conviction. Verse 13 says, ‘And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.’

“There’s the repentance of a saint! David was broken. If you want to read how he prayed and how his heart bled before God because of his sinfulness when the curtain was lifted—go read Psalm 51 because that’s when David wrote that. He cried to God, ‘Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.’

“David wasn’t saying he didn’t sin against Bathsheba. He wasn’t saying he didn’t sin against Uriah, or that little baby, or sin against Israel. He’s saying that in comparison to what it was against God, all of that isn’t worth mentioning because, ‘I’ve sinned against the holy God of Israel,’ and it broke David’s heart.

*****

“He goes down in Psalm 51 and talks about how, ‘I realize the sacrifices that God wants are a broken heart and a contrite spirit.’ That’s why the Bible says, ‘David was a man after God’s own heart.’ He understood something about God’s heart and God restored him. But can I tell you He restored Bathsheba too.

“When I think about David, I think how good it is to know that God doesn’t just forgive little-bitty sins; He forgives BIG sins too. He’ll forgive big sins just as quick as He’ll forgive small sins! There’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ for it all. There’s liberty from it all.”

*****

Matthew 1 reveals just how prominent Bathsheba was in the lineage of the Messiah by her personal mention in verse 6: “And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias.”

Jordan says, “Wow, you talk about getting taken from the ash heap and put on the mantle! Polished off and God says, ‘Looky, looky!’ God literally restored her and gave her THE place of honor. There are only four women mentioned in the lineage of Christ there and she’s one of them!

“Listen friend, God doesn’t define us by our mistakes. Your mistakes aren’t final. They don’t need to be what define you. Let God define you in His Son and in Jesus Christ.

“I know what we do. We make a mistake. A BIG mistake. You’ve got them, I’ve got them. And then we spend day after day in our life repeating that mistake in our mind and beating ourselves up about it.

“Some of them go back years and years and years and some of them just go back a day or two. But no matter how far back they go, we relive them in our mind and beat ourselves up about them over and over and over and we come to say, ‘How can God do anything with somebody like me?!’ Failure isn’t falling down; failure is staying down . . .

“Of course, Bathsheba had another son after the baby with David; his name is Solomon. In Proverbs 1:8, he writes, ‘My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
[9] For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.’

“You see what’s going on there? Bathsheba had become a great mom, and she taught Solomon well, and her instructions became part of what made Solomon the great king, the great son of David. And if I had to guess, probably most of it came from her. Solomon sure thought so.”

*****

In II Kings, when Solomon’s sitting on his throne and his mom walks in the door, what does he do? The king doesn’t get up to say hello—everybody gets up for the king. But when mom comes in the door . . . you were taught as a young person (if you’re my age) that when a woman comes into the room you stand up. Why? It’s a sign of honor.

“Solomon honors his mom. He says, ‘This is my mother and she’s honorable,’ and he even does the unthinkable—he bows to her! The king bows to no one except his superior. What’s he saying about his mom? You see, here’s this woman and now her son says, ‘Here’s honor, respect.’

“What I’m saying happened to Bathsheba is she was restored. She didn’t start out so good, and she got caught in one of the biggest tragedies in Israel’s history, and yet now she’s restored.

“I think of that passage in Philippians 3 when Paul says, ‘Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’

“Don’t forget that part of the verse that says ‘forgetting the things that are past, the things that are behind.’ Don’t let your failures be what define you! Define yourself in who God has made you in His Son. That’s what the Cross is for!”