Faithfulness: Bathsheba
The Mystery of Sin
2 Samuel 11:1-15
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. July 25th, 2021
We began this series through the life of David with the people asking for a king, like the other nations. Samuel warned Israel what a king would be like. He would take. He would take their lands, the fruit of their toil, their daughters, their sons. Israel decides this is a small price to pay for having a king to fight their battles for them. So Samuel anoints Saul king, who very quickly falls into sin. Samuel anoints David to succeed him. Thus far David has been an exemplary king. He has been faithful, courageous, loyal. He has shown himself to be the man after God’s own heart.
But even David can fall.
Today we hear about David’s famous sin, a sin that will have consequences for the history of Israel. Israel wanted a king to fight their battles, but it is the war season and David remains at home. Late one afternoon David goes on his roof to cool off. It is there that he looks through a window and sees the beautiful Bathsheba bathing. He is smitten. And he is king. So he orders that she be brought to him. And he lay with her. The Bible leaves it at that.
David the king takes the wife of Uriah the Hittite. After a time Bathsheba sends word to David that she is pregnant. So David calls for Uriah the Hittite to be sent from the front. It appears David tries to appease Uriah with gifts and feasts. Perhaps his hope is that if he wins over Uriah’s favor, Uriah can forgive him for taking his wife. But Uriah is a righteous man who refuses to eat feasts or receive presents or sleep with his wife when the men of Israel fight in tents. Ironic, isn’t it? Just last week we heard how David was concerned that he lived in a house while the Ark of God dwelt in a tent. Now David is more than satisfied living in a house and feasting while his soldiers dwell in tents along with the Ark of God. Time has changed David.
Since David can’t appease Uriah, he decides he will have to get rid of Uriah. So he bids Uriah leave to the front, and sends with him a message to Joab the head of Israel’s army. The message is Uriah’s own death warrant. On top of his adultery, David has Uriah murdered in the heat of battle. His stratagem, sending forces out into the hardest fighting and having them draw back so Uriah is killed, threatens the lives of other soldiers. It also potentially threatens the success of the battle! But David does not care. He must take Uriah’s life, he must save his own skin.
Why does David do this? David, after all, has been richly blessed by God. He has known victory in battle, wealth, the joy of the Lord. More than that, he is the man after God’s own heart. David’s relationship with God is close. If David can fall, none of us are immune. He had every reason not to do what he did, but he did it anyway. Such is the mystery of sin.
Sin is a mystery because it is rebellion against God. When we sin, we choose to put ourselves and our own desires above God. It is a disease of the will, that choses the evil rather than the good. Or, in the words of the psalm this morning, when we sin we are like fools who say in our hearts “there is no God.” The psalm is not taking pot shots at atheists. There weren’t really many atheists back then, if there was a single one. Rather, the psalmist tells us something about the mystery of sin. That with sin there is a sort of practical atheism, whatever we might believe. When we sin we act as if we were to say “there is no God.” “God does not matter.” “God does not care.” We take matters upon ourselves. And we further separate ourselves from God.
David’s sin is disastrous. I’ll talk more about the consequences of that sin next week. But it also frays his own relationship with God, and also frays his relationships among his family and nation. That’s what all sin does. When we seek to place ourselves above God, and above God’s will, we fray the whole fabric of relationship. We set ourselves against God, and we set ourselves against friend, family, and neighbor. This is why sin always leads to a suffering, of a sort. Because sin always brings its own consequences.
But God will not leave us to our sins, again, as we will hear next week. God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. It is for this reason that Jesus came to us. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I am only speaking of the human condition. But Jesus would forgive us, raise us up, join us back into relationship with his Spirit, and lead us in the way to life.