Year 1, Day 328: 2 Samuel 11

How We Talk About Sin

There are many great books out in the world to read.  But there are some significant differences in the books that are written by the hand of men and those written by the hand of God.  One of the primary differences is in the way our culture talks about sin verses the way that God’s Word talks about sin.  As you read in this chapter – and the next chapter – the Bible certainly does talk about sin.

Quite often when something in our culture talks about sin the end of the story revolves around justifying the sin.  In today’s culture, much of our life revolves around making sin acceptable.  Think about how many television shows made today has a “character flaw” that the Bible would classify as sin.  Yet, how many times is the television show attempting to demonstrate that the person’s flaw isn’t really a “flaw” as it is something that we should embrace, welcome, support, etc.  Our culture is about expanding our acceptance.

How the Bible Talks About Sin

But the Bible does not do this.  Here we have a story about lust.  David liked women – the amount of wives he took and the means in which he took them proves this much!  David sees a beautiful woman and lusts after her.  He lusts after her enough to send out messengers – not even willing to do the dirty work of his own sin himself.  And what’s worse, the Bible tells us specifically that the messengers “took her.”  Sure, some translations say they “got her,” but really the word there is “took” in the Hebrew.  So they took her and brought her to David so that he could sexually have her.  Let’s be blunt here, right?  This is sin in its purest form.

Let’s remember, what do the last words of this chapter say?  What David had done displeased the Lord.  There is no cute, “But it’s okay, this is just David’s character flaw.”  No.  What David did displeased the Lord.

But David isn’t done.  David finds out that the woman he took for sexual entertainment is actually pregnant.  So he conceives a plan for Uriah to come home and spend some time with his wife.  David schemes to cover up his sin.  He doesn’t tell Uriah what he’s done.  He doesn’t ask for forgiveness.  He continues to scheme, adding lying and deception to the web of sin he’s weaving.

But what does the Bible say about his actions?  What David did displeased the Lord.

But David still isn’t done.  When David finds out how loyal Uriah is to the king and to Joab his general, David sets up a plan to get Uriah drunk.  David tries to lead another man into sin!  And when that doesn’t work, David plans to have Uriah killed.  If David can’t cover up his sin by having Uriah have sex with his own wife and thus throw the identity of the father into question, then David will have Uriah killed so he can take Bathsheba as a wife.  Yes, David is attracted to Bathsheba; but killing Uriah is more about not having to confess his sins in front of Uriah than it is about taking Bathsheba.  This is about David trying to get away with sin without having to confess that he’s done anything wrong.

Now that we have gone the whole way through the story, let’s remember something again: what David did displeased the Lord.  Under no circumstances will David get away without confessing what he has done.  God is not fooled.  The Bible is clear on this fact.  There is no way to talk about this story in a way that lets us think God “accepts David’s character flaw.”  God neither celebrates nor embraces David’s action.

How We Should Talk About Sin

Before leaving today’s passage, let’s talk a little bit about what got David here.  First, David was at home while his armies were out on the field.  He is not being the leader that got him to be king.  David used to lead the troops into battle; now he’s at home unsupervised when the men of the town are all away.  Next, David was overconfident, living the life of luxury as king rather than remembering God had gotten him to this position.  Third, David let himself bask in the lust of his eyes.  He came under the effect of temptation and fell.  He did not turn to the Lord and ask God to help him overcome the temptation that he was feeling.  He plunged headlong into what his flesh desired.  In a word, he became a self-monger.  He became more interested in his own desires than living according to God’s ways.

What David did displeased the Lord.  God does not desire for us to abandon His ways.  We are not to celebrate those who abandon His ways.  We are not to embrace the ways that they take when they abandon God.  What are we to do with those who abandon God’s ways?  Well, we’ll save that for the next chapter.  We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

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