Becoming Your Own Worst Enemy

Sermon Transcript:

(transcribed with AI)

Good morning, church family. This morning we are returning to the life of David and our scripture reading is from 1 Samuel chapter 25. Our tradition is to stand as we read God's word, so if you are able, would you please stand with me. This is a bit of a longer passage, so please feel free to sit down if you need to.

Now Samuel died and all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Rama. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Pyon, and there was a man in Mayon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now, the name of the man was Nabal and the name of his wife, Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved. He was a Calebite.

David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, so David sent 10 young men, and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel and to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall greet him. Peace be to you and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time that they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.

When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and they waited. And Nabal answered David's servants, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?

So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this. And David said to his men, every man strap on his sword, and every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. About 400 men went up after David while 200 remained with the baggage.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us both by night and by day while we were keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do. For harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.

Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves, 2 skins of wine, 5 sheep already prepared, and 5 measures of parched grain, and 100 clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and laid them on donkeys, and she said to her young men, Go before me. Behold, I will come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

And as she rode on the donkey and came down under the cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men had come toward her, and she met them. Now David had said, surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he returned me evil for good. God, do so to the enemies of David and more also if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.

When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Do not let my lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him. But I, your servant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. Please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.

If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God, and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my lord according to the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause, or my lord working salvation for himself. And when the Lord has dealt with my lord, then remember your servant.

And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand. For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.

Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice and I have granted your petition.

And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king, and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about 10 days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.

Then David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David has sent us to take you to him as his wife. And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her 5 young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, we are returning now to the life of David after our Easter break and we are coming to what is one of the greatest failures of David's life. There are a few that we get throughout David's life, but this is really his first big failure, and in one sense he's still kind of held back from it. But as we look at this, we're faced with this question: what do we do when our heroes fail us? What do we do when the people that we look up to let us down?

Everyone has somebody that they're looking up to. We might not call them our hero, but we have people we look at and actually consider what their life looks like, we imitate them to some degree or another, whether it's someone online or someone we know in person. And honestly, all you have to do is watch anyone for some amount of time and eventually they're going to let you down. Nobody lives up to perfect expectation.

We see this with celebrities — they're not always the same people off the screen as they are on the screen. In one sense that doesn't really faze us because they're so far beyond us, we don't really think about them as real people. Oftentimes it's the people we know personally that make a bigger impact. It's your teacher at school who gets fired and suddenly you start thinking back through every conversation you had with them, wondering were they always like that. As you grow older, you start looking at your own parents differently. You used to think about them as perfect people and then you get older and you think, oh, actually they're just normal flawed people. Conversely, sometimes you look at your children and think, why are they making those decisions?

In the church we're not immune to this. How many pastors have we seen fail over the years for all kinds of different reasons. The question is not if, but when people will let us down, and so the question is, what do we do when that happens? When people let us down, what are we supposed to learn? How are we supposed to react?

As we look at our passage this morning, we're confronted with one of David's failures. What are we supposed to learn from this? As we go through this story, I want us to see a few things we should take away. First is just the warning of how deceptive and how destructive sin can really be in our lives. We should take seriously the fight against temptation — not only how to fight it, but also how to avoid it entirely. But we should also be reminded that the only perfect person we will ever see is Jesus. Whenever our heroes let us down, we are reminded that none of us are perfect, that salvation is not found in any of us, but is found in Jesus and him alone.

So if you have your Bible, I invite you to keep it open to 1 Samuel 25 as we go through this passage. We're confronted with the problem of pride, and then the wisdom of God in fighting against temptation, but reminded that salvation is always by the hand of God. We have a perfect savior in Jesus, who forgives our sins and gives us the strength to fight temptation.

Now we're going to pick up our story here. It's been a few weeks since we have looked into David's life, and you'll remember that David has been on the run. King Saul has been trying to kill David now for quite a few chapters, and so David has been fleeing until last chapter, when they finally met face to face. Saul went into a cave, he had no idea David was in the same cave. David had the opportunity to kill him on the spot. David chose not to, and finally when they talked, Saul realized he had been in the wrong — David was not actually trying to hurt him. There was a sort of truce. We're told at the same time, Samuel passes away. Samuel was the prophet who anointed both King Saul and then David to be king. This brief respite lets them come together to mourn, but it's not going to last too long.

We're introduced in this chapter to a man by the name of Nabal, and here we are confronted with the problem of pride. Nabal is a very rich man — wealthy, lots of sheep, lots of goats — but we're also told his name is Nabal. For those of you who don't speak Hebrew, you can find in your footnotes that Nabal means fool. So this is a rich, foolish man that we are introduced to. His name literally means foolish. Just so we're clear, foolish people have been getting rich for a very long time.

We're also introduced to his wife — his better half by far. She is described as both discerning, wise, and beautiful. In many ways she is the most impressive person in our story. She is the one who is saving the day. Proverbs 11 says:

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

In one sense, that verse describes our entire chapter.

As we're being introduced to all these people, David is sending messengers to go and talk with Nabal, and what we find is that they actually have a little bit of history. David has come across his servants out in the wilderness as they're looking after the sheep and shearing them. Now when you shear a couple thousand sheep, it takes a long time, and you're quite vulnerable — there's lots of stuff sitting around that could be stolen. This is a dangerous place to be. We're also told earlier on that there are Philistines who are regularly sending people to go and attack. So this is a sitting duck. David comes along with his militia and says, great, I'm going to protect you. He watches over them, protects them, makes sure nothing bad is going to happen, and provides for whatever needs they have.

David then sends a messenger to Nabal and says, the feast is coming — it comes at the end of the season — and he says, I'd like to come join you. Can I come? In one sense it's an ask; he's provided a service and is seeking repayment. But more than that, it's an invitation to hospitality. We're told that Nabal is a Calebite, meaning he's from the tribe of Judah. All that really means is David and he are distantly related. This is family coming together for a feast, from someone who has already blessed them in many ways. It seems like a reasonable offer.

Verse 8, David's messengers say, ask your young men, and they will tell you what we did for them. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David. David is not coming with a commanding or domineering attitude — he's simply coming as both relative and humble man, expecting a gracious response.

However, this is a foolish man. Verse 10, Nabal answered David's servants:

Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where.

Now there's some irony here. David didn't say "I'm David, son of Jesse" — Nabal already knew that. He's making this big fuss, acting as though David is nobody, and yet he clearly already knows him, knows where he comes from, knows what he's done. What is this actually about? Nabal simply doesn't want to give him anything. This is my stuff, I earned this, you get nothing, go away. Nabal, as his name tells us, has completely forgotten God. In fact, God tells people in Deuteronomy:

Beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as at this day.

Nabal had forgotten that, ignoring not only that it was his servants who were doing all the work, but that it was God's provision that gave him what he had. Nabal's pride — this sense that all of this is mine — is going to be his downfall.

He sends back this harsh answer, and here's where we find David, who has been in so many ways up to this point a paragon of virtue — allowing all kinds of things, not fighting back. David is fed up. He gets this response, and what does he say? Every man strap on his sword. Gear up, we're going to go kill this man. David grabs 400 men, all of them armed, and says he will wipe out every single man who is with Nabal. This is the most rash decision we have seen David make to this point.

James in the New Testament actually warns us about this kind of anger. He says:

Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

David is way too quick to anger in this passage. In fact, verse 22, David swears, God do so to the enemies of David and more also if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him. David is ready to commit genocide — he's going to wipe out everything this man has. Why? Because David's pride was hurt. David felt he had earned something, he didn't get it, and his response was to lash out in anger.

Here is the true horror of what pride really does to us. We've seen someone throughout this story who's been acting like that the whole time — his name is Saul. Saul has been the one who is jealous of David, who is getting all the attention that Saul wanted, and Saul's response was to lash out with anger and lead an entire army to go kill David. Now here is David, the one who has been slighted, and how does he respond? Exactly like Saul. David's pride is turning him into his own worst enemy. The very thing that he has been trying to run from is what he has now become.

Hear me — we need to see the warning of what's going on here. Pride will turn us into our own worst enemy. If this can happen to David, it can certainly happen to us as well. Our pride will twist our desires, taking the very things that we think we want or the things that we hate and twisting them around. We'll say to ourselves, yeah, but I deserve this, and so my anger, my vengeance is therefore justified. I can justify any action because I deserve more. We risk becoming the monster ourselves. So hear the warning, lest our pride get out of control and lead us to destruction, twisting us into our very own enemies.

But here's the question — what do we do when that happens? The answer is: listen to the wisdom of God. Because as much as David at this point is determined to go and kill Nabal and wipe out everyone with him, God is also going to stop him. David is giving in to this temptation, and yet God is going to provide him an escape. This is still what God does for us. Listen to 1 Corinthians 10:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. 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.

It doesn't say that you are going to always be strong enough to overcome any temptation. What's the promise? God's going to give you a way out. Run from your sin, run from this temptation — God will provide that for you. Your endurance of the temptation is to run away from it. And in David's case, it is a woman by the name of Abigail.

Here is where Abigail comes into the story and does amazing work. Verse 14, we're told some of the servants who overheard Nabal go and talk to Abigail. They already know she's level-headed and he's a fool, so they come to Abigail and say, look, David treated us very well. We were protected by them, and Nabal has gone and offended him. We are in trouble. And so Abigail — and I'm sure she's already had to do this a few times — immediately knows what to do. She gets a whole bunch of food. David wanted a feast, so she sends 200 loaves of bread, 2 skins of wine, 5 prepared sheep, grain, raisins, figs, empties the pantry, sends it to David. It's not quite enough for a feast, but it's a symbolic offering to buy some time. And then she gets herself ready and goes out. She knows if she waits for David, that's way too late.

You have to understand how bold a move this would have been for a woman to go out on her own into the wilderness to meet the man who is trying to kill her husband. This is a dangerous thing that she is doing — a bold move — and yet this is exactly what God is calling her to. Verse 23 says as soon as she finds David, she bows on her face before him. I'm sure that alone would have already stopped him in his tracks.

Verse 24, she begins to speak:

She fell at his feet and said, on me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant.

Abigail comes, and the first thing she says is, I will take the blame. He might say, why on earth, Abigail? You didn't do anything. This is your foolish husband who's doing this. In fact, she's not even in danger — David's going after all the men. She is safe at this moment, and yet she has put herself in the way to take the blame for her husband.

We just came through the season of Easter — this should be ringing some bells. Throughout this whole series, we've been seeing David pointing us toward what Jesus looks like. Here, it's Abigail. She's going to show us a picture of what Jesus does. We had sinned before God, we had actually faced the wrath of God, but Jesus is the one who steps in our place and says, let the guilt be on me. Jesus went to the cross on Good Friday — not because he had sinned, but because we had. It was to save us. Though he did not have to, he stood in our place so that our guilt would be forgiven, that anyone who comes to Jesus would be saved. Abigail comes and shows us a picture of what Jesus is going to do.

But even then she's not yet done. Abigail then begins to outline why it is that David should not go through with this. She's going to give him reasons why he should fight against this sin. Verse 26:

Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and all those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.

Here is the crux of her speech — everything flows from this one point. It starts with the recognition that God has sent her. She's not there by accident; she's there to stop David from committing sin. This is a strong statement to make because David hasn't quite been stopped yet. But she is confident that God is going to work in his life, that she is in fact God's grace to him, because if he continues, he will be guilty of murder.

Up to this point, David has gotten into a lot of battles, and in all of them, David was fighting to protect the people of God — fighting to defend or to free people who were being oppressed. This is not that. This is David taking vengeance into his own hands, trying to justify murder in his own way. And she confronts him with exactly what he is doing: David, if you continue with this, this is murder. And she gives him three reasons why he should not — the same reasons we should fight against our sin as well.

Verse 28, look back with me. She says:

Please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make you, David, a sure house, because David, you're fighting the battles of the Lord and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.

Why shouldn't David sin? Because God has a plan for his life. Here she is beyond just practical — she is nearly prophetic about what God is going to do, because this is actually a promise God does give to David a little bit later on. 2 Samuel chapter 7, once David has become king, God says:

And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

God had a plan to use David to actually foreshadow what Jesus was ultimately going to do. Abigail says, God has a plan for you. He is doing something in your life, you are to represent him, so do not sin.

Now hear me — we don't have the exact same promise that David did, but God does promise that he has a plan for our lives. For every Christian here, God actually does have a plan for your life. Ephesians chapter 2 says:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God does have plans for your life in which you are to represent Jesus Christ, so why should you fight against the temptation in your life? Because God has a plan to showcase Jesus through you. We don't want to dishonor the name of God, of our savior, by living in a way that would bring dishonor on his name. God has a plan for you, for your good — don't turn away into sin.

There's her first reason. The second one is in verse 29. She says:

If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life — remember, that's already happening — then the life of you, David, shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling.

She uses this powerful imagery — shepherds binding up giant bundles, a nice cushy, soft protection around you. She says, as you are following God, God has wrapped you like these bundles, safe and protected, but your enemies have been slung out like a stone from a sling. You have to remember, Abigail knows who David is. She knows about David and Goliath. She intentionally uses this metaphor of God shooting out the enemies — why? Because David knows exactly what she's talking about. Do you remember how God can protect you? Why then would you sin and become one of his enemies? Why place yourself in the wrong camp after receiving God's kindness and care?

And in one sense we read that and think, well, it's OK if I sin — Jesus forgives me. And absolutely, yes, we cannot overestimate the grace of God in our lives. But we can misplace where we think that grace really is. Sometimes we get caught up and say, well, it doesn't matter if I sin. Everyone sins, it's just what happens, it's just what people do. We justify all manner of things as if God doesn't really care, and so we say I can just continue living, I don't have to worry, because God will just forgive me.

Actually, Paul addresses that head on. Romans 6:

What shall we say, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who have died to sin still live in it?

If we have actually repented of our sins, said I'm stopping that, I'm turning away, I will follow Christ — how can we then go back and live in it? The forgiveness of Jesus doesn't mean we're now free to continue in sin, to live in a pattern of sin and expect that God will just forgive us, no worries.

Hear me — do not misplace the grace of God. Do not think that he does not care about your sin. But do not at the same time underestimate God's grace. For everyone who turns to Christ, confesses their sins, turns away from them and trusts in him, you will find his mercy does not end — not so that you may continue living in sin, but so that every time you repent, you will find he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Turn again and again to the grace and to the mercy of God. You will find he is a protection around us, but do not volunteer for the role of God's enemy. God's grace is far greater than we know, so turn to him again and again as we fight against our sin. Why should we not sin? Because God has been so gracious — let us not abuse it.

Verse 30 — she has one final reason:

When the Lord has done to you, David, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, David, you will have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause.

Here is her final reason why David shouldn't continue — because if he does this, he will remember it his whole life. If God blesses him and makes him king and all the dreams he's had come true, he will have to remember in the middle of the night, yes, but I also murdered when I should not have.

Here's what temptation never tells us. In the midst of temptation, as we look at sin and think how good it seems, it never tells us how bad it will be afterwards. There's a great book by the author Fyodor Dostoyevsky called Crime and Punishment. In the book there's a man who is poor and destitute, and he comes to the conclusion that his only way out is to kill a woman who is a pawnbroker. She's not very nice and she has money he knows where to find. And so he begins to justify why he would be allowed to do this — in fact, it would be good for everyone, everyone dislikes her, so it would actually be a good thing. He finally convinces himself, goes and kills her, ends up killing her sister as well because she witnesses it, grabs the money and runs.

But the rest of the book, even though he doesn't get caught, is the problem of him living with that guilt. Every time those murders get brought up, he nearly faints, he can't handle it. Every time someone suspects him, he panics and is so overwhelmed and sick he can hardly get out of bed. The guilt follows him, it crushes him, it condemns him. The money he thought he would get, he can't even spend because then people would know. He is utterly trapped and is far worse off afterwards than he ever was before.

This is what sin never tells us. Sin never shows us what would actually happen afterwards — the problems that result and the guilt that leaves us in chains. Our sin doesn't leave us alone. Abigail's words are to remind David: you don't get away with it. Don't forget how truly liberating a free conscience actually is.

If you're a Christian here, do you remember the first time you came to faith? Do you remember coming to the realization that your sin and your guilt had been paid for by Jesus? That your sin was dealt with in full — there was nothing left to do. I remember I was in my room, I was a teenager, praying for the first time, confessing my sins before God, and I could feel that weight of guilt just leave my shoulders, like I could finally breathe easily for the first time.

Hear me — if you're a Christian, do not forget what Jesus has done. Do not go back. The forgiveness that Jesus gives absolutely cleanses us of all guilt. Hebrews 10 says:

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Everyone has sinned. Everyone has felt the guilt for what they have done. But the good news is that for everyone who confesses their sins and brings them before God through Jesus Christ, we can be cleansed, our consciences free from that weight. Do not hold on to it, do not go back to it. Run away from temptation — it will bring you nothing.

What amazing reasons we have to not sin, and what an incredible hope we have when we do. Christian, if you're here today, keep away from sin because God has a plan for your life. Because you have been called to represent him. Because the freedom from guilt is a beautiful thing. But when we do sin, remember we have a perfect savior greater than all that we may feel. 1 John 3 says:

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.

We can trust that God is greater than the worst guilty conscience, that the salvation of Jesus can deal with the worst of all our sins. The grace of Jesus is greater than our sin. Trust him.

And as Abigail comes and confronts David with his sin and all the reasons why he should turn back, here is why David is such an incredible man — not because he has never sinned, but because he repents. David is an incredible man because he repents quickly. Verse 32:

David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion, blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand.

David ends in praising God for stopping him from committing sin, for sending Abigail to hold him back. Hear me — let us turn away from our sins and let us help one another. Let us be Abigail to one another and hold one another back, pointing back to the grace of Jesus over and over again.

And here is where I wish the story just ended — this would be a great spot to stop. But the story keeps going, and I think it's to remind us that salvation is always by God's hand.

After this, Abigail returns home and finds her husband completely drunk — she can't talk to the man — so she waits till the next morning where she explains everything that she did. He's shocked. His heart died within him. Some suggest he actually had a heart attack, and it could well be, because he dies 10 days later. God was going to deal with Nabal. David just needed to trust God and say, all right, God, you're the one in control, I don't need to take this on my own.

David, recognizing that Abigail is now a widow — and as wise and capable as she is, that's quite a desperate situation for a woman at this time — sends for her and says, come, I'll marry you. It's very fitting. David will save the woman who has just saved him. Beautiful.

The only problem is, David is already married. David, what are you doing? In fact, verse 43 gets even more troubling. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michal, his daughter and David's first wife, to Palti, the son of Laish. David's first wife has been sent off somewhere else, and David marries two more women. David, you were just stopped from sin — what are you doing walking right into another one?

Yes, this would have been common during the day, but God had already told them not to do this, especially for the king. Deuteronomy 17:

The king was not to acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

David, you are kept from one sin only to walk right into another. David is meant to be the king of Israel who shows us a picture of Jesus, and yet in this he fails us twice — first in what he was going to do, and then in what he does.

You could say it's a tragic ending to the story, or you could recognize that actually this is God's hand to remind us that salvation only comes through him. All of our heroes will let us down. None of us are perfect. That's not where we are to search for our salvation — not in what other people can do, nor even in what we can do. Our salvation is not found because we have fought hard enough against our sin or resisted enough temptation. No, salvation is found in what Jesus has done and in him alone. Ultimately, that is where we are to place our trust. That is what we are to point people to — the salvation of Christ, not us.

2 Corinthians 5 says:

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

Salvation is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus alone. He is the only perfect savior. He is the only one who will not let us down. May our trust always be found in him.

The reason we should fight against temptation is because of what Jesus has done. The problem of our pride is that it will destroy not only ourselves but others. Praise God that he gives us a way to escape, to run from our sin, trusting that Jesus has paid the price for our sin, that we might share our perfect savior. We have a perfect savior in Jesus who forgives our sins and gives us the strength to fight all temptation.

Let's pray together.

Our heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the salvation that is found in Jesus. Lord, we confess we are not perfect people. We confess that we have sinned, we have done what we should not have done, we have broken your law — and though we have deserved nothing, you have so graciously lavished on us grace, mercy, and forgiveness, not because we have been good, but because Jesus was perfect. Father, thank you for sending Jesus, our perfect savior. Thank you for the reminder that all our trust can be in him alone. May we fight to make your name known in our lives and through our words. We ask all this in your name. Amen.