Image: A field of hyssop herb plants.
The notes below are
adapted from the application from last Sunday morning’s sermon on 2 Samuel 11:
The account in 2 Samuel 11 of David’s adultery with Bathsheba
and his duplicitous plot to murder her husband could well be considered an
almost clinical account or illustration of how sin operates. Such an analysis might include the following:
Sin so often involves willfully being
in the wrong places at the wrong times (“But David tarried still at Jerusalem”
[v. 1]).
Sin so often involves the
entertaining, the feeding, the calculations toward, the planning, and the
orchestration of lustful pursuits (cf. “And David sent/said/wrote….” [vv. 3, 4,
6, 8, 12 , 14]).
Sin so often justifies itself by
straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.
The text says that David committed adultery with Bathsheba but adds that
she wasn’t in a state of ritual impurity (v. 4). This something like saying, “I am a bank
robber, but I never commit heists on Sundays!”
Sin gets progressively worse in an
attempt to hide other sins.
Sin is persistent. It does not easily give up and go away.
Sin is social. It involves others and drags them down with
it.
Sin is selfish and only protects
self-interests.
Sin sears the conscience and makes
one numb and insensitive to its hurt and pain (cf. David’s disingenuous words
to Joab at the death of Uriah: “for the
sword devoureth one as well as another” [v. 25]).”
But I think we might just as well say that this chapter is
not so much about the sin of David as it is the uprightness of Uriah.
Uriah thought not of the
satisfactions of his own lusts but of the honor of the Lord and the fellowship
of his brethren in arms (v. 11).
Where David caved in to sin, Uriah
said resolutely, “I will not do this thing” (v. 11).
Uriah, though he was not an Israelite
according to the flesh, was a true Israelite.
Let me also return to the final words of this chapter. The story is going to continue in chapter
12. But for now, it seems that David has
literally gotten away with murder. Read
through the chapter 11 and there are no moral judgments drawn along the
way. The facts and details are simply
described. But then we come to the final
words: “But the thing that David had
done displeased the LORD [But evil was the thing which David did in the eyes
(of the LORD)]” (v. 27b).
Dale Ralph Davis observes:
“the silence of God does not indicate the absence of God” (2 Samuel, p. 121). Psalm 11:4 says,
“The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven:
his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.”
Dale Ralph Davis continues: “Yahweh may be silent but he is not
sightless…. David may have Bathsheba’s
flesh and Uriah’s blood, but he will have to face Yahweh’s eyes.”
Finally,
there are two more things this account tells us:
First,
it is a warning. If a man like David
could fall into such sin, so might we.
The best of men are men at best.
Paul said:
1 Corinthians 10:12 Wherefore
let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall.
Second,
it is a reminder of our need for a sinless Savior. What David could not do and what even an
upright man like Uriah could not do—live a completely upright and godly and
completely consistent life—Christ has done for us. Compare:
2
Corinthians 5:21 For he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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