“Do not take the matter to heart;
the sword devours now one and now
another. Attack the town in greater
force and destroy it.” –2 Samuel 11:25
It is interesting to me, how David’s sin hardens his
heart. The town he speaks of destroying
in the verse above is to be destroyed after it has done exactly what David
wanted done. The archers of the town have killed Uriah, who David wanted
killed; he has even ordered his general to arrange it. And of course, that
leads us to ask: why does David want Uriah dead? Because Uriah might discover
and reveal David’s sin; that David has slept with and impregnated Uriah’s wife,
Bathsheba.
The story of David and Bathsheba and Uriah is an
astonishingly complex story. And the whole thing is related in one short yet
very profound chapter (2 Samuel 11). It
begins by telling us that it was the time of year when kings should be off
leading their armies in battle, but David stayed home resting and strolling
around the palace. One day while strolling on the roof he spies a beautiful
young woman bathing, and instead of averting his gaze, he sends for her and
soon she is pregnant. To cover up what
he has done, David sends for her husband who is off fighting the king’s battle
(which is where King David should be). And to cover up his own sin, he tries to get
Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba, but his loyal subject won’t do that. While his
fellow soldiers are sleeping on the ground, he refuses to accept the comforts
of home and wife until the battle is over.
He is behaving as David should, with purity of action and intent.
Commitment. Whereas David is strolling and relaxing and seducing other men’s
wives while his army and the Ark of God are out in the open, risking themselves,
revealing themselves. Of course, on some level, that is exactly what David does
here (though unintentionally). The more
he tries to hide his sin, the more he reveals his sinfulness.
It starts with sloth, David unwilling to do his kingly duty,
but grows into lust, then adultery, then the attempted cover-up (false-witness),
and finally murder; all because David stayed home when he should have gone to
work and grew restless with too much time on his hands and… well, in the end,
because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he did wrong.
In the end, he wants Uriah killed because Uriah can reveal his
sin; but the desire is only intensified when Uriah acts righteously. For David this is a kind of prophetic witness
against him. He sees in Uriah an example of the man he
should be: selfless and humble, and he cannot bear it. It only hardens his
heart. How many times have I felt the
sting of my own hypocrisy intensified by witnessing the simple kindness or
selflessness of another? When we are in
sin, we don’t want to see good in the world. It sickens us, in a sense, because
it challenges us to rise up and be better. It bears witness against our excuses
and justifications. When I am fallen into sin and I see someone else do good,
not only does it bother me, but it makes me a little jealous. And what do we often do when we are jealous
of another? We try to tear them down.
And so, David tears down Uriah. He plots his murder, and plots it in
such a way that it will seem that he was merely a casualty of war.
And it is in this context that this familiar story suddenly
caught my attention anew. When the messenger comes bearing news of Uriah’s
death, David at first “flies into a rage” over what sounds to him like a
terrible military blunder: “Why did you go near the ramparts?” (11:22) He is ready to go all Harry Truman on Joab (his
personal MacArthur) when the messenger adds that there were some casualties,
including “your servant, Uriah the Hittite.” (11:24)
And suddenly David is all soothing words and encouragement.
He tells the messenger:
“Say this to Joab: Do not take the matter to heart…
Attack the town in greater force and destroy it.”
David’s words to the messenger sound, on the surface as
encouragement to Joab to proceed with the original plan of attack. But taken in the context of this chapter
(this story) we may hear in them a kind of bitterness. Just as David has
destroyed Uriah, he now will destroy the inhabitants of this town –who, quite
literally, have served him quite well. One might imagine that they deserve at
least a little mercy, for having rid David of his guilty conscience. Yet, no.
Now he wants them eradicated, too. Sin begets sin, as the old saying goes (cf
James 1:12-16), and David’s lust has lead to adultery to false-witness (trying
to trick Uriah), to plotting a murder and now to wishing the destruction of a whole
town. Sin begets sin. And it grows and
grows.
Often we hear in the news, that --with politicians-- it isn’t
usually the crime that gets them, it’s the cover-up. Well, that seems to be exactly what we are
seeing here with David. The original sin is bad, but the cover-up is
horrifying. But why is that?
And that is how I feel about my own sins. What I do (gossip, lust, selfishness,
gluttony, cruelty) may be terrible, but
what I do to keep others from knowing about it is always worse. Because
covering up our sin, trying to hide it, requires us to harden our hearts to the
truth of it. Often, it’s in the cover-up
that we begin the process of justification and rationalization. I had to do this, because… and people won’t understand, so I should hide
the truth from them…
In this one brief chapter we get this wonderful fearful story;
this powerful and horrifying vision of the power of sin. We read of a good man
making bad choices and how private sin that begins in human desire, and personal
choice comes to completion in public horrors (murder and destruction).
So, the next time someone tells you something is only a small
sin (a white lie, so to speak), remember this story of David and his seemingly
small sin: sloth… he just didn’t want to do his job. It all began with a king
feeling a little restless, lazy… slothful.
Even the smallest of sins, can open a door that leads to destruction. And as this chapter ends we get that final
frightful line that tells us the real import of all David’s actions; not that he has done evil or destroyed lives, but that he had damaged his relationship with God:
“What David had done displeased the Lord…” (11:27b)
David, Israel’s hope, God’s beloved, has turned away from the
Lord. And though that may seem just another
matter of personal choice, a matter of personal beliefs, a matter that may have some personal repercussions, but what this little chapter teaches us is that
no matter how personal or private our sin seems, it always ends up with very public
repercussions, not because people might find out or might hold us accountable, but, because:
Sin begets sin and the fruit of sin is destruction. --James 1:15
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