The order of God and His redemptive work by Rev Stuart Simpson
Sermon 16th June 2013
2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26 - 12:15
Luke 7:36-8:3
We have only heard part of the story of King David in the reading today
It is today that we hear of a man who, as King, should have been fighting alongside his men
Instead we see him staying behind
While his men are fighting and dying he is lusting over women, one in particular
This doesn’t really seem like the King David I heard about when I was younger
The hero who defeated Goliath the Giant
The one whom God found favour in
"I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who
will do all My will."
Maybe in this story David is just having a bad day like many of us do
Maybe the beautiful Bathsheba led him on
If we watched the movie with Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward
We would be led to believe that Bathsheba knew what she was doing and that the couple were
really in love
And yet in reality this can’t be true
David, the King is the one with the power
King David is the one that calls Bathsheba to share a bed with him while her husband is away
Can she say ‘No’ to the king?
There is no mention of love
The only words uttered by her in this story is ‘I am pregnant’
The narration does not provide any details of her state of mind, not even “I am pregnant with your
child.”
Simply a fact that will change her life
This man with all the power has had her husband murdered by guile
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And has lustfully raped her, making her pregnant
No! King David made a mighty mistake and the consequences of that mistake will soon be played
out
What then are we to make of this story?
I want to talk about how God has set up boundaries that if crossed cause certain consequences and
yet at the same time God’s redemptive action continues
I want to highlight that even with our freedom to choose to stay within those boundaries or go
beyond them God is there
God still loves
And God acts to redeem
Even within the consequences
If we go back to the story
We will first see in verse 27 that Yahweh does not act. Rather, “the deed” is subject to the verb.
The deed did evil “in the eyes of Yahweh.”
Yahweh does not act or move or intervene or assert himself
He is simply there
Bruggemann suggests that the eyes of Yahweh refers to the benevolent ordering of life which
humankind can trust in, to which they are accountable and which they violate at great cost
This order is reflected in the Torah and in the wisdom literature which tries to discern where the
boundaries are which we much honour
The boundaries are from Yahweh (God), but they are experienced in the process of life itself
God does not capriciously adjust and modify them
We can count on them because God is faithful
David in this story has violated healthy social ordering which Yahweh guarantees
And because of this he has now placed himself outside the protection of that ordering
Therefore God is simply there but does nothing to punish the action of David
The awful consequence of David’s choice is the death of his child dying
I don’t know about you but I do find this part of the story pretty hard to swallow
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Why should the death of the child be the consequence instead something should happen to David
himself?
First I’m sure the death of the child affected David deeply
Second, if we agree that God has set up boundaries for our good and the good of society, can God
simply step in and correct all the consequences of our actions and our freedom when we cross those
boundaries?
What kind of world would we live in if God simply ignored the rules and boundaries He put in place
every time we decided to
go our own way,
seek our own pleasures
abuse others
David it seems knows what he had done when he is face to face with Nathan and hears the story
He knows that in freedom he has chosen to go outside the protection of God’s ordering
“I have sinned against the LORD.”
There is no blame
No anger at God
Sure there is grief, grief at how his actions have hurt others
But he does not shake his fist at God and cry out ‘How can you do this!’
He knows what he had done and in deep grief accepts the consequences of his action
And yet the consequences don’t stop God’s redemptive action in the life of David and the nation of
Israel
God continues to redeem, right through David’s lineage, to the birth of Jesus
Ultimately in Jesus, God steps into the world to redeem us all
from the consequence of our choices
God takes the consequences onto Himself
If we bring these two things together
First, that (Yahweh) God is there and sets boundaries and yet continues to redeem
Second that David (and us) have freedom to live within those boundaries or not
This is what we get
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Yahweh is there as guarantor of order and maintainer of boundaries
David and others in this narrative have enormous power and freedom to act, but they are not free to
act as though Yahweh were not there
He is there, and because he is there, there are givens and boundaries and limits which must be
honoured
the given is that the man intended to bring life (the king) is accountable if he brings death
the given is that Yahweh’s promise, his will for life, outlasts foolish choices for death
and therefore he loves the son born to this doubtful relationship 12:24 (Solomon)
these are the theological boundaries and contexts in which life must be lived
and no one can successfully transgress those boundaries
Not David in his cunning lust
Not even Nathan in his words of judgement
There is an order and a given-ness which must be honoured and taken seriously
And to affirm and accept these givens is faith
And yet at the same time, even with some awful consequences, God continues to redeem
So what does this mean for us today?
It means that we live within certain boundaries, whether we like it or not, which are created by God
so we can fullness of life
It also means that if we choose, in our freedom, to step out of those boundaries, there will be
consequences and for the most part God will not act
Neither to punish or to take away the consequence
And yet God continues to love, weep with us, laugh with us, comfort us, and ultimately save us from
the consequences of being out of relationship with Him
As God’s people let’s seek, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to live in the boundaries provided by God
And in doing so we will hear God say to us
“I have found these people, people after my own heart, who will do all my will.”
Question: If we are the ones with the power and choose to use it in the wrong way what do we do
with the consequences?
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