The Other Man

Introduction

Inevitable fact of the Christian life is that sometimes discouragements come. You ever feel like that no matter how hard you try, how hard you try to be obedient to the words of God, how hard you try to be faithful to his word, to be the type of man or woman in God that you ought to be, that the world just doesn’t appreciate it. That maybe even they despise it. And you ever feel that you just can’t really get ahead? Living the righteous life.

That the world does not see it, recognize it, and certainly doesn’t reward it. Well, that’s not just a feeling. It’s probably true. Tonight I want to talk to you about a man who could relate to that experience. And hopefully, as we go through this man’s life, what little we know about it, we’ll be encouraged to be men and women of faith, no matter what. Our text for this evening’s lesson is 2 Samuel chapter 11. My scientific research has told me that the average Christian will hear 238 sermons from 2 Samuel chapter 11 in their lifetime. Okay, I made that up. But it is a famous chapter. It probably rang a bell when I told you to turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11. If it didn’t, as soon as you got there, you got, oh, that chapter.

We know this as the story of David, King David, and Bathsheba. But tonight, in this 239th sermon from this chapter, I don’t want to talk to you about David or Bathsheba. I want to talk to you about the other man. I’ll talk to you about that man known as Uriah. I thought I would start with just retelling this story. But not telling it as the text tells it from the perspective of David. But let’s imagine this story being retold from the perspective of Uriah. Will you indulge me in a little bit of license in telling that perspective of the story?

1. The Story From Uriah's Perspective

Uriah is encamped on the battlefield with Joab and his fellow soldiers. It’s been a good spring. They’ve been successful in their battles against the Ammonites, and one last thing is done, and that is to sack the city of Rabbah. The siege has been set in, and it’s a time of rest for these soldiers, a time of maybe regrouping and healing of their wounds, as they have shut off the water and food supply, and they’re just waiting for the city to crumble. The soldiers see a messenger making his way onto the battlefield. The messenger goes to Joab, the commander of the army, and then Joab and the messenger make their way to this man Uriah. Where Uriah is informed that the king himself has requested his presence back in Jerusalem.

Joab surely scratched his head and thought, what? I’m leaving the battlefield to go all the way back to Jerusalem. Why? But a good soldier doesn’t question orders. He just obeys.

Why? What am I going back for? Maybe, we don’t know this, but maybe he thought I’m going back to get some kind of award for bravery on the battlefield. But whatever the reason, he makes his way back to Jerusalem. He has brought into the palace into the presence of the king himself. What an honor for a soldier to meet his king. But he’s not just meeting any king. He is meeting the most powerful man on the earth at this time. And not only that, he is meeting a great man. A man that Uriah has served under for many years and knows his reputation well. Maybe one day they’ll call this man, this great king, a man like unto God’s own heart himself. And so Uriah makes his way into the presence of David, and the king asks him three questions.

How’s Joab doing? How are the people? And how’s the war been going? Uriah answers those questions, doesn’t take him long. David says, Well, appreciate you coming, Uriah. While you’re in town, why don’t you go back home for a little while? Uriah leaves the presence of the king more confused than ever. He called me, one of the best soldiers of his old army off the battlefield to ask, How’s Joab? How are the people? And how’s the war going? A fourteen year old messenger boy could have told him that. Why call one of David’s most valiant men off the battlefield all the way back to Jerusalem to ask those simple questions?

But he’s a soldier. And so he obeys orders. Except for this one time. He doesn’t go home. We might speculate that his home is fairly close. There’s some indications in the text that where his wife was bathing was in sight of the king’s powerless. So maybe his home is very close. Maybe he’s he can even look down the street and see his home or see the road that turns that leads to his home. And no doubt there was something pulling him in that direction. But he just couldn’t do it. And so he lays there on the steps and spends the night with the servants. The next day he’s brought back into the presence of the king. And he thinks, surely then, okay, now we’re going to figure out why I’m really being called.

I knew it couldn’t be just for those three little silly questions. And he’s brought back into the king’s presence, and the king this time just simply says, Why don’t you stay another day and night? And while you’re here, we’re going to feed you and take care of you. And the king seems I don’t know. Uriah can’t put his finger on it, but there’s something different about the way the king is acting. He’s overly concerned with Uriah and what he’s doing and where he’s staying, and overly concerned with what he’s eating and particularly with what he’s drinking. And at the king’s insistence, Uriah becomes intoxicated. But still sleeps on the doorsteps.

Doesn’t go home. The next day a scroll is placed into his hands with the instructions that he’s to take this scroll back to the battlefield in Ammon and give it to Joab, the commander of the army. I don’t know what Uriah did with that scroll on the way home. I can tell you what I would have done with it back to the battlefield. I’d been kind of in there seeing if I can read some of the words in there. Maybe this is the commendation. Maybe it’ll be a battlefield commendation, a battlefield promotion that I’m getting. But I’m taking this back to Joab. And so he does. He takes the scroll back to Joab, gives it to him, and finds his place back in his camp with his fellow soldiers.

And I’m sure he was peppered with questions. Where did you go? I went back to Jerusalem. You went all the way back to Jerusalem. Why? King David wanted to see me. You got to see the king. Why? Well, he wanted to know how y’all were doing. No, really. Why? Why did you go back? No, really. He wanted to know how Joab was doing, wanted to know how y’all were doing, and we’ll know how the battle was going. Well, fine, don’t tell us Uriah. Soon, maybe the next day or the next.

Uriah and these other seasoned soldiers think, what? This is a suicide mission. Haven’t they heard about what happened to Abimelech and the rock just threw over the wall and crushed his head? But we’re soldiers, and we do what we’re told to do. And so there they go into the fiercest part of the battle. Arrows are flinging off of the wall. Uriah sees some of his fellow soldiers being struck down dead in this foolhardy charge. And he feels the sting of pain. One of those arrows has found its way into himself. He’s been a soldier for a long time. He knows what this means. He feels the blood flowing from his body. And the life leaving his body. Maybe he falls to one knee and then to the ground and thinks, okay, this is how it ends.

Maybe he thinks, I still can’t believe we did this. Maybe he has some flashing thoughts of the last couple days. Well, I’m glad I got to see the king. He’s such a noble and good man. It’s an honor to fight for him and even die for such a good, godly man. Maybe he thought of home. Maybe a tinge of regret that he didn’t go and see beautiful Bathsheba one last time. Been on the battlefield so long he can just barely remember her face. And her smell and the touch of her hand. He wonders how she’ll carry on without him.

2. Uriah Is a Good Man

Maybe he hopes that someday, maybe someday, she’ll get over this and she’ll be able to remarry. I loved her so, she’s been so faithful. And then he breathed his last. And he died. You see, the story is much different from Uriah’s viewpoint, isn’t it? Because Uriah is the other man. I want to draw some lessons from what little we know, to be fair, about this man known as Uriah. I would contend that the little information that we’ve been given, I would contend that Uriah is a good man. Everything that I read in the text leads me to the conclusion that this was a good man. Uriah the Hittite exhibited bravery. 2 Samuel chapter 23 will tell us that he was the top in the top 37 of the valiant men in David’s army.

This was a large army. One of the most powerful armies in the earth, and he is in the top 37. Modern day terms, he would be in the special forces of the army. He’d be a ranger or a navy SEAL. You don’t get to be in that position without being a man of bravery. Without fighting many fierce battles, risking your life for country and for your fellow soldiers. That tells me that Uriah was a man of tremendous bravery. The text also leads us to believe that he was a man of tremendous loyalty. Remember the two times that he refused to go back home, that one of the stated reasons was that Joab and his fellow soldiers were on the battlefield. I will not go home and rest in my comfortable bed and lay with my wife while they’re on the battlefield.

That took great loyalty. The text also tells us that he was concerned for the things of God. When David asked him on that second day, why didn’t you go back? Why did you go and see your wife? The first thing that he states, yes, he says Joab is there, yes, he says my fellow soldiers are there, but the first thing that he says in 2 Samuel 11, verse 11, the ark of God is on the battlefield. And so, King, as you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this. That shows some concern for the things of God. I won’t go home while the ark of God is on the battlefield. That tells me that this was a good man in a wicked world.

3. That Can Be You

And consider this. What was Uriah’s last name? The Hittite. He wasn’t a native Israelite. Here was a man, a foreigner. Now, how he got to be in Israel, how he got to be in David’s army, we do not know. But here is a foreigner inside of Israel who is brave, who is loyal, and who knows about and is concerned about the ark of God. That tells me that being, quote, raised in the church is not a requirement to be a faithful Christian. And to be a worker, an important worker in the kingdom of God. Well, I want you to know tonight that can be you. You can be brave. How many passages? You ever thought about this? How many passages in the New Testament either speak positively of bravery or negatively of cowardice?

Look with me at a couple of them in the New Testament. First of all, in 2 Timothy chapter 1. Among the many pieces of advice that Paul would give Timothy before his departure was for Timothy to be brave, to exhibit bravery. 2 Timothy chapter 1, look at verses 7 and 8. He says, first of all, Timothy, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Verse 8 says, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. Paul doesn’t use the word bravery, but it’s in every word in those two verses. Timothy, God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, and so don’t you back down, even though you might suffer.

What did Paul, this same Paul tell his Corinthian brethren in 2 Corinthians chapter 16, after telling them multiple times in this letter about what he had suffered for the Lord. Notice what he says in, excuse me, 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, short verse 13. He begins by saying, Watch, or be alert. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13, he says, Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Paul knew that these Corinthian Christians who were living in the most ungodliest of cities needed the intestinal fortitude to be able to do what they needed to do in the face of terrible odds. You can be loyal.

We need loyalty to God. We need loyalty to the church, and we need loyalty to one another. We need people like Uriah that says, I won’t let them down. And you can seek first the kingdom of God and all of its righteousness. You can be concerned about the things of God.

4. He Didn't Live in a Perfect World

But as we think further about this man, knowing what we know, or what at least I think we can know about this man from the text. If Uriah lived in a perfect world, what would have happened to a man of such bravery, loyalty, and concern for the things of God? Well, he would have risen in the ranks. He would have gotten that accommodation. He may, at one day, he may have taken over for Joab as the commander of David’s army. He would have been rewarded. But guess what? He didn’t live in a perfect world. And neither do we. David, acting wickedly, had schemed against this good man. He got him drunk. Notice this. He got him drunk in an attempt to lower his standards of loyalty and concern for the things of God.

There’s a lesson and a sermon in that alone. And when David couldn’t get him to lower his standards, he then had him killed because he refused to compromise. And you know, Uriah didn’t see any of that happen coming, did he? The most gullible, naive man in this whole story is poor Uriah. He didn’t know what was happening at home. No indication that he knew what David was really up to in all of this scheming. All indications are that he died not knowing what was really going on. You know, so many times, righteous people. Because maybe because of their goodness and their trusting and loyal nature, righteous people are so often naive to the schemes of the wicked.

I’m a good person.

People appreciate that.

All I’m trying to do is serve God in its simplicity and live the good Christian life. Even wicked people will appreciate that. How can anybody be against that?

But understand this. That the bad things that happened to Uriah didn’t happen in spite of his goodness. They happened because of his goodness. If he’d have lowered his standards just a little bit, he would have been none the wiser, but he would have still lived through it all.

But he was destroyed because he was brave and he was loyal, and he was concerned for the things of God? I’ve got bad but not surprising news for you tonight. That too could be you. You do what you need to do in service to God? And people will try to get you to lower your standards. They’ll try to get you to compromise. And when you refuse, they may seek to destroy you.

5. Would You Do It Again?

What would Uriah say? Given the scant information that we have about Uriah, and if our estimation is of it is correct. If Uriah, after his death, found out what was going on, and we said, Uriah, if you would have lowered your standards and been a little less brave, a little less loyal, and not so concerned about that ark of God, you could have lived through this. Do you think he would have changed? What would you do differently, Uriah? Would you be less brave? Would you be less concerned about your friends and fellow soldiers? Would you forget about that ark of God just for a day or two? The question is, what about us? Will we serve God? Will we do what is right no matter what?

Even if there’s no immediate reward for doing the right thing, will we do the right thing? Even, take it a step further, even if there’s immediate punishment and retribution for doing the right thing, will you still do the right thing? And understand, this is more than theoretical. The winds of change are coming. In fact, they may have already been here. Where it comes a time where we’re going to have to make the decision that we’re going to stand or fall regardless of what man will seek to do to destroy us. Morality has changed. How will we react? Abortion, homosexuality, male and female roles, sex outside of marriage, morality in general, the exclusivity of Christ and Christianity, the authority for the scriptures. Will you stand? Will you do what is right?

No matter what the cost.

Destroy you. Will you stand? Like I said, we don’t know much about Uriah, and to be frank, there’s some speculation. So let’s think about some other. What about the apostle Paul? Paul gave those two catalogs of list in the book of 2 Corinthians that talked about all that he went through in being a preacher of the gospel. He talked about the hardships and the difficulties and the stonings and the beatings and the imprisonments and the shipwrecks and the being left for dead. In fact, he would tell the Galatian brethren, in the most literal sense, I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ. If we could have Paul’s ear tonight, Paul, if you had it to do over again, would you still do it? Would you still suffer all the slings and arrows?

Would you let those people mistreat you like that? What about these? Turn over to Hebrews chapter 11.

In the bulk of this chapter, but look toward the end of it. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32.

Hebrews 11, verse 32. In his conclusion to this chapter, he says, What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they may obtain a better resurrection. Still had some had trials of mockings and scourgings, yes, of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, of whom this world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and dens and caves of the earth. All these having obtained a good testimony through faith that did not receive the promise. God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. If we can have a short audience with all of those people that endured all of those things this night, and we said, Would you do it again? Look how you were treated for doing what was right, for obeying God. Would you do it again?

We know their answer. And maybe they wouldn’t just say, I would do it again. Maybe they would say, You can do it. Finish the reading, chapter 12, verse 1. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul. These stories of not only faith, but of endurance and hardship are recorded for a reason.

Conclusion

Because our all seeing and all knowing God knew that we would go through it too. And we needed a crowd of witnesses to tell us that it doesn’t matter what you’re going through. It doesn’t matter how hard it is to live the right godly life. You can do it. The other man. He had a hard life. He wasn’t rewarded for doing what was right, not in this life at least. But he was brave. And he was loyal. And he was concerned for the things of God. May we have a little of that bravery and loyalty tonight. May we take that heart with us as we go out into this world that cares little for God and again let our light shine. May God help us to endure to the end.

And now it seems almost ironic that I’m going to invite you to become a Christian. To voluntarily sign up in this army, to maybe be tempted and abused and maybe even destroyed for the faith. But there’ll come a day in eternity, that maybe somebody will ask you, would you do it again? And without hesitation. You and all the faithful surrounding you will say, gladly. But you become a child of God tonight, or maybe you’ve done that, and the difficulties of this life have just beat you down and weakened your faith. Don’t give up. Come back and begin again and be brave and be loyal. If we can help you in your obedience to the gospel, let it be known right now, as together we stand and as we sing.