2 Samuel 11:1-17, 26,27 [Epiphany 6 CWS A]
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ February 16, 2020
A Horrible Story Told to You Out of Love My Friends in Christ, The goal of faithful preachers is to take a portion of God’s Word and proclaim the law of God in that lesson—the part that reveals God’s expectations—and then help people see how they have not lived up to God’s holy standards. This ought to lead the preacher and the people to repent of their sins and look to God for mercy. The faithful preacher also looks for the gospel—the part that reveals God’s love—and then help people see that God is loving and forgiving, and that he wipes away the sins of those who look to him in faith. The basis for this good news is, of course, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose from death to pay for the world’s sin. This gospel truth, or good news, was looked forward to by those who lived before Jesus. It is also a blessing for all who lived after Christ and look back on what he did. That includes you and me. I offer to you this little review of law and gospel and the faithful preacher’s job this morning in order to make a confession: the lesson from 2 Samuel 11 this morning is a little tricky…because it’s bad. It’s all bad. It all seems to fit into the “law” category. I rummaged through these words searching for the gospel part, the good news, the part that reveals God’s love or forgiveness or some looking forward to Jesus as our Savior. But it is really full of awful stuff! You heard the story—and for many of you, it was a review of an account you have heard or read before. If that is true, the ugliness of David’s heart and actions is probably the standout feature. If the details were not as clear to you before hearing the story this morning, I’m guessing that you were appalled by them too. How many problems with sin was David dealing with at this time? Well, in order to realize a couple of them, you would have to read earlier parts of this history and understand the first few sentences of our lesson. Everything was going well for David. He had enjoyed much success, but now he was complacent, even staying back at Jerusalem when he should have been out with his troops as they were in battle. He was neglecting his duty as king. Instead, he hung out at the palace, bored and idle. And at this time, his sinful nature combined with temptation to a sin he was prone to. It sounds weird that a woman was bathing on her rooftop, but you have to understand that rooftops were used for a number of things in Israel. The climate there is much like it is here in southern Arizona, so you can be outside most of the time, and the rooftop became an extension of the home. Since the typical house was windowless for security reasons, they were typically dark, so many things were done outside, even cooking. Rooftops were used for processing foods, relaxing, socializing, even sleeping— particularly during the hottest months.