Sin Hurts

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. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, "This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite." 4 So David sent messengers to get 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. (2 Samuel 11:2-4)

David, the king, the one from whose lineage Jesus would descend, the "man after God's heart", was still a man, still a sinner. We can't tell the heroic parts of David's story without including the tragic parts. And we must honestly acknowledge that the pain he inflicted was not erased by his chosen-ness.

Although David had several wives and servants, he made a decision to abuse his power over Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. The king, after finding out who Bathsheba was and to whom she was married, had her brought to him with the plan to have sex with her and send her home to pretend nothing had happened. When she sent word to David that she was pregnant (likely months later when she began to show), his response was to have her husband return home and sleep with her. Uriah, however, had the honor that the king lacked. He would not consent to pleasure while his troops remained on the battlefield.

Of course there was no consideration of Bathsheba's mental or emotional well-being - the shame, the anger and betrayal she must have felt toward the king everyone else seemed to praise. The courage it took for her to utter the words that would have to be passed on to David, possibly through multiple messengers, can not be overshadowed even by the realization that, yet again she had no choice. And, if she was showing, others may have known or suspected that she was pregnant by someone other than her husband since he was away. So much pain was created by one man's selfish decision and the cascade of horrible decisions that followed.

David is not excused by Jewish tradition which proposes he knew Bathsheba was destined to be his wife so their eventual son, Solomon, could build the temple, or because those who fought in war divorced their wives to enable them to remarry should the soldier go missing. No excuses can make the wrong right. The effects of our sin reach beyond ourselves. Repentance will come. Justice will come. God moves even in the midst of our mess, but we can't ignore or rush by the fact that sin just hurts.

2 The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. 3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. 4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the LORD? 5 There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous. 6 You would confound the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge. 7 O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad. (Psalm 14:2-7)