Even though the remaining six commandments pertain to how man is to live in relation to his fellow man, our violation of any of these commandments is a direct sin against God Himself and it is critical that we grasp the importance of this fact.
Often, when we have conflicts against our fellow man, we think it is just that: two humans having a problem with each other over some reason or another. How can we be acting against God? It's just a conflict between two humans, God isn't all that much involved.
We forget that each of us is God's creation and therefore God is sovereign over each of us. And what we do to one who belongs to God we do against God Himself. And more importantly our actions towards one another bring reproach to God's name (blasphemy) and that in itself breaks the commandments against God.
King David is a very meaningful example to us of one who sinned in so many ways against his fellow man, breaking several of the commandments in the process. God's response to David's sin and David's response to God are both equally valuable to us to better grasp the importance of what we do when we sin against our fellow man. But before we look at that example, let's just review the last six commandments again:
- Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Keep these in mind as we look at David's sin.
The story of David and Bathsheba can be found in the 11th and 12th chapter of 2 Samuel. The stage has been set because King David, normally leading his men into battle against other kings, has decided to stay in Jerusalem rather than be where God has anointed him to be. That's his first mistake.
The next thing we see is Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop, David witnessing the bath and lusting after her, David having her brought to him (knowing that she is married to Uriah, currently a soldier fighting in the battle David himself should be at), David having sex with Bathsheba, and Bathsheba becoming pregnant and telling David so. David then has Joab, his general, retrieve Uriah from battle, and under pretense of inquiring about how the battle goes, tries to get Uriah back home to Bathsheba quickly, thinking that if Uriah sleeps with Bathsheba soon enough, then the birth of the child will appear to coincide with Uriah's night with his wife. Uriah, however, being an honorable man and soldier, refuses to lay with his wife and enjoy that pleasure when his fellow soldiers are in serious battle. A frustrated David then instructs Joab to return Uriah to the front lines of the battle and to make sure he is in a position where he is most likely to be killed. In other words, if Uriah won't cooperate in David's scheme to cover up his sin, then Uriah must be disposed of. All goes well with Plan B; Uriah is killed. David marries Bathsheba. Their son is born to them.
The finer nuances of the story will be lost to you if you do not read it for yourself; the parts where you see the wheels turning in David's head, deceiving himself, rationalizing his sin – such as we all do when we sin. We might think of David as a horrible man, but we ourselves have done no different than him in so many ways, as we will soon see, for the story (a true story) did not end there.
"And the Lord sent Nathan [a prophet] unto David, and he came unto him and said unto him. There were two men in one city; the one rich the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up…" and Nathan went on to say how the rich man coveted the little ewe lamb and took it from the poor man…."and David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David:
Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife or Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die." (2 Samuel 12:1-14)
Do you see David's sin? He coveted, he stole what was not his, he committed adultery, he killed or had killed (same thing). But what he did most of all: he "despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight" and he gave "great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme" – to reproach God because of the actions of one that belonged to God. He brought shame and reproach to the name of God….and which commandment did that break amongst the first four commandments? In fact, in one form or another, David broke all ten of the commandments by his actions. But the most important thing to remember here, is that he sinned against GOD. As do we also, when we break any of the commandments, whether they pertain to our relationship with God, or our relationship with man, it is all about GOD. We MUST remember this.
Tomorrow we'll get into the penalties of sin.
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