Jump Start # 3866
2 Samuel 12:13 “Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.”
The other day I preached about David and Bathsheba, called “Then it happened.” 2 Samuel 11, where the story is found, begins with three simple words, “Then it happened.” Then it happened, what telling words. Things are going great and “then it happens.” I was all set to retire, someone says, “and then it happened.” All the plans were in place, a young bride declares, “and then it happened.” Then it happened, usually precedes bad news.
In the story of David and Bathsheba, the “then it happened” came before some poor, foolish and sinful choices of David. He caused the “then it happened in his life.” There are a series of five steps that unfold through chapters 11 and 12. They all have the connection of the letter “S.” So, preacher-like.
· David saw
· David sought
· David’s secret
· David’s silence
· David’s salvation
It’s the last point that is most interesting. The broken and contrite David begs God for forgiveness, that’s Psalm 51. God forgives him. The same verse, 12:13 that contains David’s confession, also declares David’s forgiveness. It seems quick. Maybe too quick for our liking. Maybe David ought to think about his choices as he cools his heels in a jail cell. Maybe David ought to be exiled for a few months. But none of that seems to happen. It’d make sense to us. A confession and a rapid forgiveness.
I like David’s confession. Both here in Samuel and in the Psalms we read about it. None of this, “If I have offended anyone, I am sorry.” What if no one is offended? Then you aren’t sorry? Are you only sorry because what you did bothered someone? David didn’t use the word “if.” And, David’s confession wasn’t to the prophet, his wives, Joab, his servants, the city, or the nation. David confessed to God. That’s where our confession needs to be pointed to. Have we gotten the idea that if the church, the family or others say, “It’s ok,” then that makes it “ok?” It’s not ok. It’s sin against God. David got that. David confessed to God.
Now, here’s what I don’t get. I understand the David/Bathsheba story. But in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead because they lied to God. No prophet was sent to them with the intention of getting them to confess. In David’s story, there is immediate forgiveness. In Ananias’ story there is immediate death. Why one and not the other?
Now, some among us try to read things that are simply not in the text. David’s heart was not as rebellious as Ananias’, some say. David had a moral lapse, and Ananias tried to be God, others profess. Side by side, David committed more sins than Ananias did. Side by side, adultery, murder, drunkenness seem a lot worse than lying.
This has led some to start measuring how bad bad is. Some sins are bad and others are really bad, is how they see things. Others seem to think God’s grace covers some but not all. It looks like God gave David a second chance, but Ananias didn’t get a second chance.
Now, this is the kind of topics for stuffy theological books and long and boring lectures of which people say things which they do not know what they are talking about.
Here’s my take on all of this:
First, we often put stories like David’s sin next to Ananias’ sin and try to make conclusions and reasonable assumptions about the nature of God. Problem is, what we put side by side, God may not. Look at the stories independently. Learn lessons from both. Times, situations, where people are on the journey and especially their hearts are things that we may never get from a few sentences in our Bibles.
How easy someone could conclude that lying is worse than adultery. They’d say that from comparing the two stories side by side. That would be a false conclusion. Be careful about pulling all the stories together.
Second, aside from a paragraph in Acts, we don’t know anything about Ananias. We make judgments but our conclusions may not be the true story. And, we can do the same with each other. We see each other in a moment of time. We often do not know, nor understand the journey that some have taken to get where they are with the Lord. The battles they fought, the lessons they have learned, what they have gone through is often unknown to us. We see them now. And, from what we see now, we make judgments. God sees the whole journey, not just a moment in time.
Third, God does not owe us an explanation for what He does. That’s what comes out of the book of Job. Job thought God ought to tell him why disastrous things happened in his life. God wouldn’t explain Himself to Job. Nor, does God have to get our approval or explain things to us. David forgiven and Ananias struck dead. I have my ideas and think-sos, but that’s all they are. From both stories, I learn that God wants me to be righteous and make righteous choices. Stealing a neighbor’s wife is not righteous. Trying to buy the power of God is not righteous. Neither story justifies me living unrighteously. Neither story gives me hope that God’s grace will allow me to stay in the land of wickedness. If that’s what one is trying to find, he’ll come up short. Ananias was a fairly new Christian. King David was on top of the nation. No one is excluded from following the law of God. No one gets a pass to do whatever they want.
A person can make the Bible say more than it as intended to say. May we be careful…
Roger