2 Samuel 11:1-15 NIV
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." 6 So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 10 When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?" 11 Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!" 12 Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home. 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."
“Cover Up”
It was time for the annual cake sale at a Presbyterian church not much different than our own. Ms. Billings always made the most beautiful cakes… she was expected to make another one this year. However, Ms. Billings was a very busy woman with the time she spent with her family and the time she gave to her community. She put off making the cake this year thinking she could put it all together at the last minute.
When the cake came out of the oven, Ms. Billings was horrified to see that the cake had fallen. She didn’t have the time or the ingredients to make another one… she panicked. Franticly, she devised an ingenious plan. She would find a way to “fix” the cake… then she would be the first one to the sale and buy her own cake back.
She looked around the room, trying to find something that she could use to “prop” the cake back up… and then she found it. A roll of toilet paper… was the perfect size. So she put it under the center of the cake and the cake looked perfect. She decorated it bright yellow… and took it to the bake sale. Then she stuck around until the bake sale started.
She was the first in line when the doors opened; she smiled to herself about how clever she was. But then… there was a terrifying horror crawling up from within her… she looked at every single table… no… yellow… cake! Someone had snuck in before the sale and purchased it. The helpers couldn’t remember who had purchased it either… there was so much going on.
She went home and felt absolutely horrible. That was it… they would find the toilet paper in the cake… trace it back to her… and ban her from ever cooking ever again… except for potlucks.
Well, she didn’t have a whole lot of time to dwell on it, like I said she was a very busy woman. She was going to a reception that the Mayor’s wife was holding… and she was already a little late.
When she got there, she almost died right where she stood… because there, at the center of a brilliantly decorated table… was a bright… yellow… cake. She debated all of her options… grab the cake and run… changing her name and moving to Tahiti… calling in a bomb threat… or telling the hostess. It was a dead tie between calling in a bomb threat and telling the hostess… when she decided to muster up the courage to tell the Mayor’s wife of the horrors that awaited inside the yellow cake.
But as she got up to tell the hostess about the cake, she overheard someone complementing her. “That is simply the most beautiful cake I have ever seen!” To which the Mayor’s wife replied, “Thank you, I made it myself.” Ms. Billings sat down and enjoyed her fruit salad.
Today, we are starting a new series called “Prison Break: It’s time to break God out of Jail.” Throughout this series, we will discuss the crime, the cover up, the conviction, the penalty… and finally the great jail break. We will do this by following the central character of King David. To get us started today, we will be focusing on David’s crime and his cover up… and see how these are the first steps in putting God behind bars.
Our scripture text today tells the story of David and Bathsheba. One thing that amazes me about this story is that it exists at all. David was God’s chosen. David was the anointed one. David was the king! You would thing a guy like that could make sure that this story stayed out of the bible. But it is here, in vivid color and striking detail… to show us that no person is too big to fail, that in the end… it is God’s righteousness that is upheld.
Now the events leading up to David’s fall could be called a series of unfortunate events. I’m sure that is how David would want us to look at it. If only the Ammonites had accepted David’s sincere offer of peace… there would be no war. Without any war… Uriah wouldn’t be away from his home. Without Uriah away from his home… Bathsheba would not have been left alone and available. In other words… David couldn’t avoid it could he? David couldn’t help himself… right? After all, he’s only human… right. Self justification… instead of repentance. And the first bar falls into place… separating us from God… putting God into a jail of our own making.
It gets worse before it gets better. David finds out that Bathsheba is carrying a child and his sin would soon be public for the entire world to see. Kind of like a hostess cutting into a bright yellow cake with a roll of toilet paper inside… you can’t miss it. Instead of recognizing his sin, confessing it, and repenting… he tries to cover it up. David calls Uriah home to hear reports on the war… then sends him home, “Why don’t you spend the night with your wife.” But Uriah was a righteous man who had been consecrated for battle… and that special blessing that covered him and the troops underneath of him would be broken if he slept with his wife before the battle was over… so Uriah slept on his porch that night. This just wouldn’t do.
David invites… really, implores him to stay one more day, and Uriah does. That night David get’s Uriah drunk… hoping this will loosen his sensibilities. “Uriah, why don’t you go home and spend the night with your wife.” But Uriah was a righteous man… and he slept on the porch again that night. The next day Uriah went off to war… never having slept with his wife. There would be no fooling anyone into thinking this baby was Uriah’s. Instead of admitting his sin, confessing it, and repenting… David went through this grand act of trying to cover everything up. And another bar slips into place… separating us from God… putting God into a jail of our own making.
Yet still, David is convinced he can cover this up. Amazing isn’t it! You almost want to go slap some sense into him don’t you? Can’t he see this isn’t working?! Can’t he see he is only digging himself deeper and deeper. In fact, I’m going to lift this up as our focus point today… when you find yourself in hole… STOP digging. I want you to turn to someone next to you now and tell them, “When you find yourself in a hole… STOP digging.”
That’s what David should do… stop digging. But we find him pushing it even further. He pushes it as far as he can push it… if Uriah won’t work with his plans for the cover up… then he will just have to get rid of Uriah. He orders him to be volunteered for a suicide mission and be left all alone right in front of enemy fire. And David covers up his great sin… by committing another sin. And the final bars fall into place, separating us from God… putting God into a jail of our own making.
Someone needs to explain this one to me because I don’t get it. Cover up sinning with sinning. As if God will be fooled. Yet you and I can’t claim innocence here… how often have we done something we weren’t supposed to and tried to cover it up by lying? That’s just covering up one sin with another sin! We do something we aren’t supposed to and we try to dress it up… to make it look better than it actually is. Sin covering up sin. We do something we aren’t supposed to do… and we bury it out back where no one can find it. Brothers and sisters, if we go through life trying to cover up our sin… to bury it… we are going to need a much bigger shovel.
The truth is, there is only one way out of our sin… only one way to stop ourselves from digging deeper, and deeper, and deeper. And that lies in simply telling the truth, admitting our sin, confessing it, and asking forgiveness. Until then, we are simply placing one bar after another… separating ourselves from God… putting him in a jail of our own making.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
