Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good beautiful morning to you, dear ones.

Late again. But I pulled off a jog with the dog in a measure of fog. The fog’s all gone now and it’s crystal clear and bright out this window.

Once again, I’m really not wishing to get in anyone’s face with the devotional content given below. On the other hand, I think that too many of us humans, even within the church fence, become way too comfortable living with our subtle, carefully protected hypocrisies. Enough said…now the day before us…

I need to run. Blessings.

Love. Dad/Ray.

A valid way to edit that sentence is to render it, “David burned with hypocritical anger…” He didn’t realize at the time that Nathan’s story was a parable. He would have been happy to have Nathan proceed to tell him exactly who this lousy rich man was who did this rotten deed against the poor man, and have him executed. In other words, David would have preferred to cover his hypocrisy with continued hypocrisy. Hypocrisy upon hypocrisy—it sounds like a paradox. But it really isn’t. It’s the normal bent of a normal human heart that is “deceitful (hypocritical) above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). It’s very normal for a human heart to resort to all kinds of wickedness in order to cover their claim to innocence. Exposing this universal reality is one of the most common topics of human story-telling—a priority theme of Hollywood as they spin plots with juicy detail. In order to translate this account of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah into its most valuable form, it really should be one of our priority stories of WARNING. It addresses a broad spectrum of human depravity that man attempts to hide behind the façade of hypocrisy. If this truth does not come close to home, do you realize that you may be a ____________?

I’m guessing that most of the world approaches this story with discreet delight. For many, it actually becomes a form of entertainment. They’re happy to behold David’s stupid duplicity, because it kind of offers some Biblical sanction for their own. I use the word “stupid” since I can’t imagine a more accurate description. Whereas David already had a pile of wives—and he could have been in bed with any one of them that night—what in the world came over him to think he needed to mess around with another woman?—and a wife of another man at that?! I think it was Rockefeller who was once asked, “How much money does it take to make a man happy?” He responded, “A little more.” We could ask of David, “How many women does it take to make a man happy?” He would have to answer, “Another one.”

Is there any criticism of the church any more common than, “They’re all a bunch of hypocrites!” If we think carefully about it, the accusation is true—the church is “full of hypocrites!” That’s exactly where the Biblical Gospel begins—“For all have sinned (are hypocrites with Jeremiah 17:9 hearts) and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). What David said was true, you know—“…the man who did this deserves to die!”—even though there are some very nice sinner/hypocrites out there. But “whosoever believeth in him should not perish (die), but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Therefore, this chapter of David’s life should not be allowed to high-center us on condemnation, but to applaud God’s AMAZING GRACE. It offers hope for you and for me.