The Sin before the Sin

Scripture: 2 Samuel 11: 1-13

Sermon: The Sin before the Sin

Topic: Bathsheba, Adultery, Sin, Sloth

Preached: November 8, 2015

Rev. Mike Abma

2 Samuel 11:1-13

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. ³David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’

 ⁴So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. ⁵The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’

6 So 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 and the people fared, and how the war was going. 

⁸Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house, and wash your feet.’

Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. ⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance 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, ‘You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?’ ¹¹

Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah remain 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 such a thing.’ 

¹²Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, ¹³David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and 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.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

Imagine that rooftop scene for a moment.

It is late afternoon.

David is surveying the city the below,

and suddenly he sees the stunning Bathsheba.

We see this as the tipping point,

the time when everything begins to go downhill:

David’s obsession with identifying her,

getting her,

using her.

We see this as the tipping point,

after which David ends up breaking

most of the 10 commandments.

But I would like to freeze that rooftop scene,

and rewind just a little.

Just before walking on the rooftop,

what was David doing?

He was getting off the couch

after taking an afternoon nap.

Perhaps he was still in his bathrobe and slippers

after lounging around the palace all day.

Now, let’s pull the camera back.

Let’s zoom out from that rooftop scene.

There is David, on that rooftop,

looking at Bathsheba.

As we zoom out further, there is the city of Jerusalem.

As we zoom out further yet, we can see the River Jordan to the east.

And as we zoom out further yet, there we see the Israelite army,

surrounding an Ammonite city, the city of Rabbah,

less than 50 miles from Jerusalem.

These are the two images we have:

all the fighting men of Israel risking their lives against the Ammonites;

and King David, yawning after his late afternoon siesta.

The Israelite army, this band of brothers, ready to lay down their lives for

the soldier next to them;

and King David, bored and ready to steal away the wife of one of his own

officers.

SIN OF SLOTH

Am I being too hard on David?

I do not think so.

Just read this text.

Everything that is hinted at in the beginning is reinforced in the rest of the chapter.

David is the lazy lounger.

David is the lascivious leerer.

David is the abusive monarch.

David is the chronic liar.

And Uriah, …Uriah is an officer and a gentleman.

Uriah is the dutiful soldier;

Uriah is the loyal husband;

Uriah is the obedient citizen.

The sin before all the other sins that David commits in this chapter

is the sin called sloth in the middle ages,

a sin the French would call ennui,

a sin we might call boredom.

At its root,

it is a sin of neglect:

we neglect what we should be doing

and we are easily distracted by what we should not be doing.

David should have been out there in the field of battle with his men.

But instead, he wants to end a pretty boring day

with some excitement.

David had at least 7 other wives.

Why go after Bathsheba?

Here is what I think —

relationships are complicated.

relationships take work.

David did not want the complications of an actual conversation

with one of his wives.

David did not even want the complication of an actual relationship

with Bathsheba.

No, he wanted none of the effort that real love demands.

For David it was simply: “Get her!”

And after he was done: “Send her home!”

NATURE OF SIN

The reason I want you to see the sin before the sin,

is so that you can understand more clearly the nature of sin.

Sin has a way of feeding on itself.

Small moral compromises give birth to bigger moral compromises.

We rarely commit big sins out of the blue.

What usually happens is that we walk through a number of doors

each leading deeper and deeper into the darkness.

For David,

first the neglect and boredom,

then the lusting and coveting,

then the abusing and lying,

and then…the murdering.

ROOFTOPS OF OUR LONELINESS

So what does this sin before the sin

this sin of sloth, ennui, boredom,

look like today?

The main character of the 2009 movie, Up in the Air,

is Ryan Bingham played by George Clooney.

Ryan Bingham has all the trappings of a successful executive:

well-tailored suits

Always flies business class.

always stays in 4-star hotels.

always eats in posh restaurants.

But there is an emptiness to him:

He has no home, only hotel rooms;

He has no wife, only so-called casual relationships.

He has no deep relationships at all.

In fact nothing grounds him.

He is literally up in the air,

far removed from the effort it takes,

and the messiness it involves

to get close to people,

to love people.

His rooftop, his place of escape,

is 35,000 feet in the air.

Let’s take a look at another character, an imaginary character.

Let’s call her Jacqueline.

For Jacqueline, her rooftop of escape is behind a computer screen.

When Jacqueline was a young mom, she was vivacious, energetic, a doer.

She was a soccer mom,

leader of a Bible Study,

had a full-time job.

She seemed to have it all.

There was that jingle she thought fit her:

I can bring home the bacon,

Fry it in a pan

And never, never, never

Let you forget you’re a man.

But now, years later,

the kids are grown and out of the house.

Work is just work.

And as for her marriage – there is hardly any warmth in those embers

anymore.

Jacqueline feels tired, empty, alone.

She doesn’t seem to care about the things she used to;

doesn’t seem to care about much at all.

The rooftop she climbs up on to

in order to be far removed from the hardship and messiness of her world,

is planting herself behind her computer screen,

browsing Pinterest

staring at the lives of other people on Facebook

And when people ask her to

join something or volunteer for something

she is quick to say she is too busy.

We live in a society of Jacquelines, and Ryans —

weary, empty, bored people

spending too much time on the lonely rooftop of their choice.

People who,

when they finally get home from

what they feel are their dead-end jobs

or their useless classes

do not turn to their spouse

or to their kids

or to any of their flesh and blood friends

or to God.

No, they climb up to their rooftop to be alone –

Binge-watching whatever is on Netflix

just to distract them from the things they should be doing;

just to escape from the things they should be facing.

SPIRITUAL SLOTH — AFFAIRS

I have been a pastor for a while.

When you are a pastor, you learn things.

You learn about people who have had affairs in their marriage.

Usually it is not because they were so unhappy in their marriage.

If they were truly unhappy, they would seek a divorce.

Often the reason for the affair is because

they are bored,

they are lonely,

and they are weary.

But they do not want to face the hard work

of making their marriage better.

Instead,

someone comes along who

presents them with an easier path —

a path that avoids the harder work love requires.

Someone comes along who makes them feel like a man again.

Someone comes along who makes them feel beautiful again.

PERSONAL

Am I preaching like someone who seems to know this sin a little too well?

Paul in his letters talks about living a life of faithfulness as

fighting the good fight

and running the good race.

And we Pastors feel the obligation to

lead the charge,

set the pace,

always being faithful,

always being hopeful,

always being full of energy.

But the truth is,

when I get home,

the couch looks pretty inviting.

Netflix is pretty alluring.

The latest murder mystery novel I’ve picked up is pretty distracting.

When I am about to sleep,

and Shirlene, my wife,

turns to me in our bedtime ritual,

and says, I think it’s your turn to pray tonight”

I think, “What, I have to pray again….”

I have called it a rooftop of loneliness in this sermon.

In other places in the Bible it is called a wilderness, or a desert:

a place of emptiness, barrenness, tiredness;

a place where temptations come.

Jesus knows what it feels like to be in that desert,

in that wilderness of temptation.

He was lifted up to a rooftop.

He was even lifted up to a mountain top.

And each time he was given an easy way out —

Path of pleasure instead of the path of pain;

Path of safety instead of the path of danger;

Path of power instead of the path of weakness.

Because Jesus loved us so much,

he refused the easy path each and every time.

Because Jesus remained faithful and diligent and dutiful

he remained on the road to the cross

so that he could save, and forgive, and strengthen

weak-willed sinners

like King David

and me

and you.

CONCLUSION

The truth is,

when we are on the rooftops of our boredom and loneliness,

we are there partly to escape other people,

and partly to escape God

We know we have messed up.

We know we have failed.

We simply do not want to face anyone,

especially not God.

But turning to God is the one thing we need to do

Repentance is the one thing we need to do.

because there is no escaping God.

He knows us – our weakness, our loneliness, our emptiness, our failures.

Here is the thing — God loves us so much,

that he accepts us just as we are

and no matter what we have done or left undone.

God loves us so much he accepts us.

But God also loves us so much,

he refuses to let us stay that way.

He loves us and forgives us

So that we can turn to our spouses,

and begin the hard work of reconciliation.

So that we can turn to our kids

and begin the hard work of connection.

So that we can turn to our neighbors

and begin the hard work of hospitality.

So that we can turn to ourselves

and realize we have been washed, and cleansed, and forgiven

to begin the hard work of being holy

even as God is holy.

Amen