2 SAMUEL 11 - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
2 Samuel 11
The chapter begins with this ominous statement:
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Sin most simply defined is seeking to live outside the order that God has created and ordained. The seeds of all sin begin in our heart, as Jesus told us, as we seek that which was first promised in the garden of Eden—“For…when you eat from it…you will be like God” It is that thought that begins the downward cascade of every sin. It is the desire to, if I may misquote Frank Sinatra, “do it my way”. And what God warns, and history proves, doing it our way always leads to destruction. And the temptations that so often start us down the path leading to tragedy, are seemingly small and inconsequential.
For David, it was simply being where he should not have been. When David should have been off at war, he has remained behind in Jerusalem. This simple failure to fulfill his responsibility, to be the leader he has been called to be (for we are told it was the time when kings go out to battle), will lead to betrayal, adultery, and finally murder. The downward spiral of sin.
James spells this out for us in James 1:13
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
As Adam and Eve found in the Garden the simple bite of the fruit of temptation begins an unstoppable descent that always leads to death. And soon David will also find this out.
Jesus compared sin to yeast, a small amount of which is enough to make a full loaf of bread rise and grow. And God warned Cain (and us) that sin crouches at our door and would seek to control us, but we must rule over it. Yet as Paul teaches in the New Testament, and as David is about to find out, without God’s grace and the power of His Spirit, man is powerless over sin.
David is given multiple opportunities to escape the path down which sin is leading him. First he could have simply shut his eyes. But rather instead of fleeing youthful lust (as we are encouraged to do in 2 Timothy 2), he engages it. Having spied Bathsheba bathing, instead of averting his eyes, he instead takes in and becomes engrossed in her activities noticing that she was “very beautiful”. And still he could have repented here and gone on about his day. But, instead, he inquires about this woman as he becomes engulfed in the heat of the lust he has ignited. And yet, God in His mercy will provide David with additional means of escape, as promised in 1 Corinthians 10:13. David will be told, this is not just any woman, but the wife of Uriah the Hittite, numbered among David’s 30 mighty men. This is not just a matter of adultery, but is now a matter of betrayal against a faithful servant, known to the king for his loyalty and bravery. And yet, even this knowledge does not stop David. David’s desires have consumed him, given birth to sin and already produced in David a dead conscience.
And this is the unfortunate state of all mankind.
As Paul tells us in Romans 7:19-21
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing….. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
Paul in these scriptures enlightens us to the reality that mankind has become slaves to the very sins we despise. And Paul concludes, and cries out,
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Paul answer’s this cry with the reality of the good news:
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Chapter 11 ends with the ultimate problem of sin. The issue of sin, is not just that it is wrong. It is not just that David betrayed a friend. It is not simply that David took what was not his, another man’s wife, or even that he took the most precious thing known to man, a human life. No, the ultimate problem was that “… the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.”
We cannot live a life displeasing to the source of life and expect life to be anything other than disastrous. Unlike David, we don’t have to be trapped by the sins that crouch at our door. God offers us freedom from the compulsion of sin, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In repentance and surrender to the Spirit we become free from the power of sin and are given the power to serve God.
Who, indeed, will deliver us from this body of death? May we all cry out like Paul, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”