“THIN AIR THINKING”
I love the mountains. I love to hike, particularly at the top of mountains. The view from the top of Hurricane Ridge, for example, is absolutely amazing! Who's been there lately...? You gotta go!
But here's the thing. Here's what I've learned with all the mountains I've been on – from the Olympics, to the Cascades, from the Rockies to the Appalacians, to the Alps, one thing any mountainer can tell ya, is that one must be careful. It's entirely possible to climb too high for your own good.
The first time my family went to the rockies we stayed in a cabin at the foot of Mount Meeker, near Estes Park. The second day we went on a drive that took us to the very top, up above the tree line where there is only tundra. As a thunderhead rolled in, my sister's hair stood on end....!
It's entirely possible to climb too high for your own good. When I was in high school I hung out at my friend, JOK's house. His parents were divorced. Less rules. We even would climb out on the roof of their house and throw acorns at the crows. She'd yell: 'Come down before you fall down...!'
It's entirely possible to climb too high for your own good. Linger too long at high altitudes and two of your senses suffer. Your hearing dulls for one thing. It's hard to hear people when you are higher than they are. And two, your eyesight dims. It's hard to focus on people when you are so far above them. They appear so small, and insignificant. One's senses grow thin on thin air.
Well, by this time, David's been breathing it in for years. Last week we read how David was initially crowned king when he was thirty years old. Now it's between 15-20 years later. David is at his peak. The country is prospering. Israel is expanding. In two decades on the throne he has made a name for himself in history as a warrior, escape artist, poet, musician and now king. His boundaries stretch some 60,000 miles. With no defeats on the battlefield he is loved by his soldiers, adored by his people, feared by his enemies and destined to be remembered for all time....! He's at the top....!
It's quite the contrast to when we first met him, isn't it? Digging in the dirt for five smooth stones, he who bore nothing more than a staff and a sling, now bears the responsibility of being Israel's greatest king. There he stands, at the pinnacle of his career, standing at the highest spot in his kingdom - on a balcony overlooking his capital, the city of Jerusalem. Our author wants us to ask our selves a question. What is David doing there? He's a leader – a warrier king! He should be with his men fighting their foes when weather allows, astride his steed leading his men and his country to victory!
But he isn't.... “In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites, while he stayed behind at home in Jerusalem.”
(2 Samuel 11:1)
David was a brilliant military tactician and born leader, but he wasn't using his gifts. He was making leasure and pleasure his greater priorities. It's a classic case of “Idle hands make idle minds.”
He's lolly-gagging on his balcony when his eyes fall upon a beautiful woman as she bathes. Was she there because she wanted to be noticed? Some movie makers have suggested no less but the text doesn't actually say so. We do know that David likes what he sees so he inquires about her. A servant offers some info: “That woman is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite.” (11:3)
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The servant laces his info with a warning. It's God providing a way out of the temptation just like Paul wrote about centuries later. The servant gives not only the woman's name but her marital status and the names of her husband & father. Why provide their names if David doesn't know them? He does of course; the man works for him. He's part of David's fighting elite. A man of faith & resolve
But David ignores the nudge and heads down a slippery slope indeed. For the second time in so many verses we read of a David in action very different from the kinds of actions we looked at last week. Instead of seeking God's guidance and seeking to do God's will David has gotten distracted with the view, as it were, and not only the beauty of a naked woman's body, but of what he feels entitled to.
“David sent messengers to bring Bathesheba to him. (It's a power move! What's she going to say? He's the king!) When she came to him, he had sexual relations with her.” (2 Samuel 11:4)
Jerk! Sorry.
It's interesting. Here, for the second time in so many verses, we're told of how David sent some-one to do something. He sent Joab to battle in verse one. He sent the servant to inquire about Bathe-sheba in verse three. He sends for Bathesheba, compelling her to visit him at the palace. When David learns of her pregnancy, he sends word to Joab to send Uriah back to Jersalem to send for pizza!
No, but really. He's constantly sending people. In passages we skipped he sends Uriah to wine and dine his wife to cover his tracks, to which Uriah declines. David then sends Uriah to the front lines to ensure his death and thinking his cover-up is complete, sends again for Bathsheba, to marry her.
I don't know about you, but I'm not liking this David so much. It's a bit off-putting to see him sending and so demanding like this. I prefer the David with the lamb in his lap - or the dashing David, hiding from Saul, couragously sparing his enemy's life, or writing psalms and dancing in worship!
So what happened to him? What ferreted the fall? Simple. Altitude sickness. Write that down! The thin air has messed with his senses. He can't hear the warnings of his servant, or the voice of his own conscience, nor especially that of the Lord. Sitting at the top, sending others off to do his bidding, has dulled David's ears, and blinded his eyes. Did David really see Bathsheba? He saw her body. He saw a conquest but did he really see Bathsheba, the human being, wife of Uriah, daughter of Eliam?
No! The story of David and Bathsheba is less a story of lust, and more a story of power. It's a story of a man who got used to looking down..., who needed to hear those words: 'Come down before you fall...!' “First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.' (Proverbs 16:18)
Ironically, David's son, Solomon, wrote that. He also had problems with thin air sickness.
Any way, God sends Nathan to David. Nathan, serving as a prophet in service to the Lord, is one brave dude. To go to David with a word of reproach in light of David's recent temperament. Yikes!
Nathan shows up with a story under his wing. It's a story that David connects with, that of a poor man with a family lamb. They treat it as a beloved pet, as David must've the way he fearlessly protected them. But this lamb is served up for dinner by the man's rich landowner. “What?”
David is outraged! 'What kind of story is this?! What kind of ending is that, Nathan? Is this for real? Is this an actual landowner in my kingdom?! ...It is?! Then I tell you, by all the power in-vested in me as King of Israel, Sovereign Lord over all of Judea - This man deserves to die!
So let it be written, so let it be done! I threw in a little Yul Brynner there for effect! Who is he?'
'David.' Nathan, quietly says. “Yes?” David replies. “You...are the man.” (2 Samuel 12:5,7)
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(jaw drops, put hand to ear) Did you hear that? That was a pin dropping. David's face pales. His Adam's apple bobs. A bead of sweat forms on his forehead. And no, it's not the peppers.
Nathan's story cuts him to the quick. David has no reply. But God is just clearing his throat. “I made you king over Israel. I freed you from the fist of Saul. I gave you your master's daughter and both Israel and Judah to rule and to bless, and if that hadn't been enough, I'd have gladly thrown in much more. So why have you treated the word of God with brazen contempt, doing this great evil?”
(2 Samuel 12:7-9 MSG)
God's words reflect hurt, not hate; bewilderment, not belittlement. “Beauty populates your palace. Why take from someone else? What were you thinking? Did you think you were entitled?”
Actually, yes. King! It's the mindset that's full of thin air thinking. And it's so prevalent now-a-days, as well. It's no longer just a break that we're convinced we deserve today, as another king tried to sell us years ago. You don't have to be a king to think you're more important than others. We do so when we're short with the waitress who we feel is slow in serving us. We act like we're more important when we don't really listen to those around us, or by the way some of us use social media or by treating others as inferior simply because of their skin color, social status or gender .
Some times God allows us to fall from our proverbial balcony overview in order to restore us. Some times we need to be jolted awake. In David's case, it took nearly a year, but then Nathan's story sank in and set David's hair on end. In his case, there was a real good chance of being hit by lightning. The Law of Moses was clear! “Then David confessed to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord!' Nathan replied, 'Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won't die for this lethal sin.'”
(2 Samuel 12:13)
Interesting. David sentenced the lamb chop villain to death while God, in turn, showed David undeserved mercy. David, like so many of us, was hungry for justice when it came to others, even tho he was desperate for mercy in the end & God put away David's sin. Rather than cover it up, he lifted it up, made it known, and then upon David's admission, he put it away. As David put it: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgresssion from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:12-13)
The story of David and Bathsheba, and Nathan and David, reveals the danger of becoming high and mighty. It's a story of the dangers of thin air thinking, of acting entitled. But above all, it's a story revealing and foreshadowing the grace of God, his undying compassion for His children, of his heart to put away sin, once and for all. Which means we can forgive ourselves as well. That's also the beauty of David's story. He fell from grace but not far enough for the God of grace not to pursue him and win him back by convicting him and then liberating him from his thin air thinking. As Paul put it so well:
“Don't copy the behavior & norms of this world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Don't think you are better than you are. Be honest and humble in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:3-4)
If God were to hold up a mirror to you today..., what would he show you? What would you see? If the bottom line of Jesus' ministry is really about loving others as he loves you, where could you use a little work, a little lightning bolt jolt into being a little more humble and little more merciful?
Let's pray about it....