Today on Disciplers Convocation, we are looking at something very short but I want us to meditate on it even from the beginning. We are considering: Anointed but Convicted. I don’t know how this message is going to land on the soil of out heart, but the purpose of God stands sure. God said in Isaiah “I have purposed this; I will also bring it to pass.” Let us go to 2 Samuel 11, I will love us to read the entire chapter as the Lord gives us speed. Starting from verse one, the Bible says: “It happened in the spring of the year…” and I want us to note this, “in the spring.” I don’t know those who understand the time or the seasons that we are right now. I don’t know if we are in the spring, but this happened in the spring of the year.
You know, for so many countries in the world, their seasons is broken into four components at least. You hear “spring, winter, summer and autumn.” Although this isn’t applicable in most countries in Africa, we only have the dry and wet seasons. But there was a season in the life of a man called David, Bible called it the spring of the year. It reads further: “at the time when kings go out to battle.” At that time of the year was normally a period when kings go for warfare. So, if you have been appointed, ordained a king, the responsibility that is upon you by the season is that you go for warfare. So, it looks as if once you are appointed or anointed, whatever the occasion demands, you are expected to respond, otherwise, it would become an irresponsibility on your part.
Bible says it was the time of the year that was called spring and the moment in time that kings go for battle. But see what David did: “that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.” Now, when you note the word “but”, you know it normally introduce to us a negative occurrence. This was a moment in time when kings go for battle. Now, instead of the king David to go for battle, he sent Joab and other servants to represent him. They got victory as a people, but the king was in a wrong place at the right time. He was anointed and appointed for a responsibility but he failed at that moment to live up to his responsibility. He began to do something else.
Let us see it, the Bible says: “But David remained at Jerusalem.” Then it happened one evening…” Because the king had decided to remain behind, something happened. For the Bible to talk about “one evening” here, it then means David had been around for several days before this fateful evening we are about to see. “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” Normally, David wouldn’t have seen this if he was on the battle field. But because he was not where he was ordained and appointed to be, he began to see a wrong thing. It is difficult to be in the wrong place and find the right thing.
Once the first decision is wrong, it is difficult to have the right decision built upon it. So, when the Bible says “if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The first step which is foundation, is already wrong. The likelihood for the building to be wrong is very strong. Note the sequence of events, David was walking and then He saw, and then he concluded that what he saw was very good, beautiful to behold. In verse 3, the Bible says: “So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Now, at this point, assuming all was well with David, assuming David was the David that we knew, he would at this time, back out, haven been rightly informed that the lady in question was married.
But instead of backing off, he went ahead. We are looking at David as a missionary also because he had a mission. For every anointing of God is a mission of God. We remember in Isaiah 61, the Bible says “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to…” The anointing of God is always like a precursor for a mission. There is something that you are meant to do, so, you are anointed to do it. So, when the anointing come, lands and remains on you, and you fail to do what you have been called and anointed to do, there is a problem is looming. So, because he already failed to do what he was called to do, he was exposed and in that state of exposure, which we could also call a moment of his life that he was weak, instead of him to sense danger, he embraced danger.
At what point would a man or woman anointed by God embrace evil? Now when we see a man or a great woman of God, so much anointed, once could assume that all is well. One could also assume that this man or woman of God knows what to do and he or she does it. We assume a lot of things beautiful about them. The same thing was assumed for David and I am sure that beyond his cabinet, even his citizens assumed that their king was a righteous judge. This is what anointing does for you: It gives you that aura and makes people to presume and assume that all is well with you.
Now when God was talking about Job to Satan, He said “have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him, he shuns and eschew evil” and all of that! You know the Bible also says “flee from all appearances of evil.” But what happens to a man or woman who once was used to running away from evil, who now begins to embrace evil? Anointed but convicted! Something was happening which produced this. That was why I said this matter is something to meditate upon even from the beginning. As soon as David enquired about the woman and he was rightly informed, see what he did: “Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her…”
What did David do? He lay with her; he committed adultery. Adultery is a sin! The Bible calls it in Galatians the work of the flesh and anything that is a work of the flesh, is an evil act, an evil thing before the Lord. You know the days that David would enquire of the Lord “Should I pursue, will I overtake, will I recover all” and all of that, and God would give him the assurance to go ahead and he would come back victorious. But there was nothing between him and God on this matter because he knew it was a journey not to Nineveh, but to Tarshish. Every time a man is moving away from the assignment of God for his life, he does not even ask God for questions.
How can you ask God: “This evil I want to commit, how should I go about it?” So, in those moments you don’t go to God, it looks as if God does not come to you. And because God does not come to you as a man or a woman, you think all is well with you. The question is: In your heart, do you think about God before you commit the act? There was no mention of God in this matter, David simply called people and said “go get this woman for me” and as soon as they got her, he lay with her. Let us see what happens next: “for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.” So, David quickly committed the act and pretended like nothing happened. The woman was called, the act was committed, what God would eventually call evil act, and then, everybody did as if nothing happened.
The woman kept quiet; the man kept quiet. The woman kept quiet not because she was pleased, but because of her life. The king used his position of authority to make her do it. But the man who had authority whom we are dealing with today is David, and not the woman. The Bible never told us that she was anointed, so, she is outside our equation. We are looking at the anointed man David who used his position as the anointed one to compromise and to corrupt. Because when we look at the mission work today, and we ask question: Why are there so little done in spite of the spread of the church among the cities and nations? Why do we have the church of Christ everywhere and yet, the power of Christ is hardly visible? What was it that the apostles of the lam did that we are not doing that is not making us to be effective, even though we are many? What were the things that they shunned that we are embracing because this matter is a matter of A or B.
You either shun evil or you embrace evil, you cannot shun and embrace evil at the same time. You won’t find evil with God, and if you are a servant of God or an aspiring servant of God, you must come to a point in your life that you would decide that evil must not be found around you. You can be anointed and you can be convicted by God who anointed you. And if God should convict you, who will show you mercy? That was why we were looking at why you should fear God at some point in our meeting. Knowing fully well that God who has anointed you, coincidentally a judge and the judge of all, you must be careful. He is the one who can pronounce you guilty, and also discharge and acquit you. That is why you have to be careful.
For David, he was anointed by God for a responsibility. But outside God, he began to function on some other things, he began to achieve his own personal agenda based on the position that God has given him. This message is to men and women that have been called by God, position by God and they carry title behind them. Now, the people may not be able to judge you because they may not know that something is wrong, the people cannot judge you because they cannot see you. But the God who gave you the responsibility is the one who is able to judge you right or judge you wrong. For David, he did what was evil but he kept quiet about it. Bible says, as soon as she has committed the adultery, she went to her house. Nobody knew about the evil that had been committed by David and the woman except God.
Now, in case you have committed an evil, and God is keeping quiet over it, wherever you could be place in the society or in the church, it does not mean that the silence of God is ignorance of God. And we will find out what happened, now let us continue. Verse 5:
“And the woman conceived; so, she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So, Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him.”
At this point, if you look at king David, you would assume he was a good man. Haven committed an action, there was a consequence. The woman he committed adultery with has then conceived. There is now a fruit for the work that they have done. Now, haven realized what happened, David ordered for the husband of the woman to come home quickly and help him to make the matter secret forever. The man has left his wife for a long time, if the woman gets pregnant, everybody in the neighborhood would know she has committed adultery. So, in order for the matter not to become exposed, the king thought it wise: Let me make it look like it was the husband who impregnated her. So, he went from a lower level of sin to a higher level of sin.
Initially, he was not supposed to see the woman in the first place. He then took advantage of that situation and committed an act. To cover it up, he then decided to lie. And so, what did the man do? Let us find out! “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.” Don’t forget, Uriah was a soldier, and there were other people who were serving Joab, the commander of the entire army. So, instead of going to sleep with his wife, eat good food and merry; he decided to sleep with those people. “So, when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
I am sure previous we have examined “The Heart of a Missionary.” Uriah in this place, was a missionary. But you know, in the work of ministry, there are missionaries who work under other missionaries. This is the picture that is playing here. And so, look at the heart of Uriah and see if there is a lesson for you there. Verse 11: “And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live (in your righteousness, dominion and truth, Uriah assumed all these), and as your soul lives, because don’t forget, the battle was not Uriah’s decision. Uriah did not wake up to go to battle, it was the king that commanded him so. I will not do this thing.” Do we see his heart? This was a man whose interest was put below the interest of the leaders he was following. He would rather discomfort himself than disappoint the expectation for his life
Now, was that the situation for his master David? David would rather enjoy himself than disappoint the expectation of God for his life at that moment. It was the duty of a king to go for battles, that was God’s expectations for his life. But instead of going for battle, he stayed behind. Instead of Uriah to go to his house and merry, he decided to stay behind. Hope you see the contrast? This is how you can check your heart in ministry. And you can see that these things build up. The retrogression builds up and the progression also build up. If you will rise in God, it builds up, and if you will fall from God, it also builds up, from one level of sin to a different level of sin. Everything culminates to the downfall of a man or a woman of God and yet, before God, everything is clear and plain.
This is a message to us. If we will not end up becoming toothless bulldog or become people that just make noise, empty barrels making the loudest noises in our societies, we must start checking ourselves. There are certain things that men of God cannot do in their congregation because their secrets lie with different women in the society. At what point will a man of God speak against injustice when there are people in the church that know about the injustice of the man of God and they have been threatened to be quiet. And so, shall we continue in this sin and still expects the grace of God to abound upon us? Shall we continue to cling on our anointing and say “you cannot speak evil against God’s anointed?” And then we continue behind to commit atrocities that even the young believers in Christ do not commit.
Let us continue from verse 12:
“Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So, Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk…” So, in a desperate bid to cover up his tracks, Uriah was made drunk by David. But in that state of drunkenness, let us see what happened. “And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house…” This was a man that was drunk yet he knew the right thing to do. So, you would see that the condition of the man called David had degenerated to the serious level, before he committed the evil he committed. The question is: how come he got to that point? This is why anointed men and women must be careful. It is easy to fall, because very few people will be willing to correct you.
How many people wants to call the General Overseer to order? When a Sunday School teacher is misbehaving somebody can call him/her and tell him/her “you need to be careful. The Pastor can punish you.” But what do you say to the General Overseer who is even doing in it in secret that you don’t even know about it? Let us continue in verse 14: “In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die…” Can you see the kind of message David sent? Uriah received his own death letter but he did not read it. He was so faithful to God and his master that he refused to compromise his own integrity because if he had read it, he would have run away.
But he didn’t read it, he took it to the man that will execute him. And lo and behold, as the message was delivered; he was later killed. To cut the long story short, as soon as the man [Uriah] was killed at the battle front and the message was sent to David, he was not so much perplexed because he knew what he had done. Have you seen Pastors transferring their junior Pastor to a different branch, and not because God has commanded it, they call it “necessary evil?” “His “gragra” is too much, he is doing as if he is the only one that can preach, let him go to the village.” You know in your heart you are doing evil, but you call it a “good evil.” Is there any good evil, are there any good sins? Can any sin be good before God? As soon as the woman was told her husband died, the Bible says “she mourned about her husband.”
Let us see 2 Samuel 11:27 together. The Bible says: “And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displease the Lord.” The matter did not displease the people. The congregation were not aware, so, they were not displeased. And since they did not know they were not able to judge the man of God unfaithful. The man of God was judge by God Himself. The question is this: The Bible says “David called for her, slept with her and then she conceived and bore a son. Did all these happen one day?” That a man/woman of God is committing an atrocity in the secret and years are going, and months are passing, the man of God is not convicted by God does not mean God is ignorant.
For every action of a man or woman of God, there is always consequence in God for that man. You cannot do something and wish away the consequences. God may be quiet and silent, but God could be displeased. There are moments when we think God is not aware of the corruption going on in our nations, God is aware. God is displeased. Every time they are embezzling your money, the money that some of us should graduate and get jobs and enough capital to start businesses, but we cannot. The corruption in the society is not something that God is not aware of. When you get to get aware, you are protesting. But God has been aware and He is displeased. The judgment of God is looming over them.
When God came to deal with this matter, God did not call the council of the people. The matter was done in the secret and the judgment of God came over his life in the secret place, but the execution of that judgment became a public matter. When the politician who has been corrupt all his life is suddenly found dead, he is found dead in the secret, but the death is now a public news. There is noting a man does against the people of God, in the land of the of the living that will go unpunished. So, let us see 2 Samuel 12:1. The Bible says:
“Then the Lord sent Nathan to David…” The Lord, the one to whom the evil was committed sent Nathan to David. Nathan was a prophet of God. Don’t forget David was a great man of God, he was a king over the people of God, he was a prophet and a priest as well. So, a prophet was sent to him. If we are looking at hierarchy in the kingdom of God, we could say then that one who was lesser was sent to him. But the message was higher. Let us read further.
“And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveller came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”. 5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die…”
David heard a message and the anointing of God upon his life came to life. He wanted to judge as a judge, he wanted to do the right thing. Then David said: “So, David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die…” David’s judgment to the man who has done that is death. The matter looks like a mere animal discussion, was it not? So, what was supposed to be pronounced on David? Death! So, what would be pronounced on the leaders of God’s people, corrupting and stealing and doing evil? Death! If a judge pronounced death sentence, it is not because she loves death that’s why she pronounced it. But it because somebody had committed an act that demanded it.
David said further: “And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus, says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.” 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Do we see the heart of God? For the anointing of God in your life, there comes from God provision because everything is for a mission. So, if you require more from God, you demand from God. What David did was an evil, because if he had desired a wife, God would have given him.
“Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight…?” So, now we see that what David did was an evil. “You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’” 13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die. 15 Then Nathan departed to his house.”
The judgement came, and the product of David’s harlotry didn’t live. In the book of Acts 13:19-37, but verse 36 says: “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; 37 but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.” Now, if we pick that phrase out of context so to say and use it for our discussion, we can see that David was walking on the roof of the palace house and he saw a woman that was bathing and he concluded she was beautiful. And haven seen corruption, he spoke corruption, the Bible says “David sent and enquire about her.” You can’t enquire without opening your mouth. David saw corruption, spoke corruption and he did corruption.
Another way we can put it is this: He saw evil, he spoke evil, he did evil. In Philippians chapter three, Apostle Paul said “I do not count myself to have apprehended, and this one thing I do, I put behind me everything that I have achieved or seen, I press on.” That attitude is required in the work of missions. If you will not be like David who will be walking on the roof top when you are supposed to be at the battle front, you must press on. The success of yesterday could become a matter or a factor for your complacency today. So, you must leave it behind you and press on. There is yet an inheritance and there is yet a rest for the people of God. There is yet an experience in God for you.
If you have knowledge there is more knowledge that you require. If you are a man that have seen the wonders of God on your life, so much wonders you must see. You cannot afford to plateau at this time. You cannot afford to rest. You cannot say “God has helped me, I don’t need to pray, fast or preach” the messages are coming, that is the beginning of the fall; “for pride comes before a fall.” So, the message of God is press on. Apostle Paul said in a place, “I die daily.” In Galatians 2:20, he said: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” We must learn from this! I am crucified with Christ, in another place he said “I die daily”, in another place he said “I press on.”
It is a good time to pray!
