Sex and the Sinner

I have chosen the alternate Old Testament text for Sunday:  2 Samuel 11.1-15, the story of David and Bathsheba.

For those who aren't familiar with this lurid tale (one of several equally lurid tales in the Old Testament), King David catches a glimpse of his neighbor's wife bathing in the courtyard of her house, sends for her, lays with her, causes her to get pregnant, and eventually has her husband killed in order to hide his infamy.

See?  You don't have to buy the National Enquirer to get this stuff.  It's right here, and it's a story about the most honored of Israel's kings.  In fact, YHWH promises that an offspring of David will always sit on the throne.  [You can see where the title Son of David is important when applied to Jesus.]  Throughout the Bible, we watch God using flawed, sinful individuals to bring about God's will.

In this story, we have the perfect storm of lust and power; not unusal then nor is it unusual now.  Wrong then; wrong now.  It is ironic, however, that this lesson coincides with the announcement of the NCAA penalties against Penn State and the removal of the Joe Paterno statue from the front of the college stadium. 

There are many ways to talk about this story.  Here is the first.  Sin lies deep within the heart of every single one of us (and some of us, it is not so deeply seated).  Power / prestige often functions as the accelerator to sinful behavior.  I am speculating when I say that King David was so full of himself he had little space to consider the other.  He chose to respond to the announcement of an imminent birth of a child with the order for the imminent death of the husband. 

Never found yourself in that position?  Really?  Never thought you were in the right and you had the power to make the other person agree with you?  Your child?  Your spouse?  At work?  At the check-out?  Desire and power, a volatile combination.