Sin Begets Sin

2 Samuel 11:6-17

⁶So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. ⁸Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. ⁹But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” ¹²Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. ¹⁴In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” ¹⁶And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.

Have you ever noticed that the worst thing about doing something wrong isn’t the deed itself but rather the fear of getting caught? Sin always causes us to go ‘underground’ with the action so that no one sees what we have done. My mother-in-law told once of a pie that needed to be tasted; just one little tiny sliver. No one need ever know until she had ‘slivered’ her way around half the pie! Then the crime was too big to hide anymore. And that is where David finds himself in our reading for today. Proof of the crime is going to get bigger for the next nine months and then it can no longer be hidden. Caught!

What comes as a surprise in this story are the lengths to which David will go to hide the sin. When the simple plan doesn’t work, more devious plans are hatched. There is no remorse for the crime. And that is shocking as well. Up to this point, David has behaved well. At times he has certainly been shrewd, but not really devious. Maybe it is important to point out that the crime of sleeping with a married woman is fierce; death by stoning for both parties! Adultery was not taken lightly by God or by the Children of Israel as a nation. This was serious and David and Bathsheba know it. Having Uriah come home and take responsibility for the child seems like a great way to cover this all over and everyone moves on none the wiser. But juxtaposed to David’s lack of integrity, we have the character of Uriah. He refuses to enjoy the comforts of home and wife because his men back in the thick of battle do not get to enjoy such things; even when inebriated Uriah holds onto what he values and because of that ends up carrying his own death warrant back to Joab. For David, the plot to cover his sin seems to have worked! He will not have to face the people and explain this sin and apparently, thoughts of God’s judgment haven’t even entered his mind. Our hero has fallen.

Of course we know that our attempts to cover over our sin are useless. We may in fact fool many of the people around us. But God is never fooled. We know that, and yet we try. Remember what Adam and Eve did in the Garden. They covered themselves with leaves in order to hide their shame; and when God did arrive, they hide in the bushes. The propensity to hide goes all the way back. And in hiding we find our greatest problem, for in hiding we become separated from God and from others. Do you suppose those slivers of pie were eaten in front of the whole family? Probably not. Are your secret sins performed in the public arena? Probably not. But they have impact on our spirit and on our hearts. They decrease our love and our faith. They wear away at our peace like a slow drip on rock. Eventually you have a little hole in the rock and it begins to degrade. At every point in this story, David could have repented and turned back to God. Full restoration always awaits those who turn away from sin. But the story goes on a bit further and God continues to pursue David, just like He pursues us. Those sins committed secretly are known to God and He does not just let them go for He is a good, just, and merciful God.