Whenever
I hear preachers talk about David’s adulterous relationship with Bathsheba,
they invariably point out to the dangers of sexual sins. Whenever any prominent preacher falls in
sexual sin, s/he invariable cites David’s example and start confessing. If the sinning preacher finds in danger of losing
the ministry position, s/he would go so far as to say “David confessed to God,
God forgave him, so why should I be subject to any kind of disciplinary action?”
Countless times, I have heard David’s
fall as a warning against sexual sin.
While
sexual sin is so heinous and so destructive in itself, God’s anger against
David was not so much for his sexual impurity but against the injustice he committed
against a loyal and defenseless man Uriah.
Through Prophet Nathan, God rebukes David, “I
gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I
gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would
have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by
doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite
with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the
sword of the Ammonites” (2 Samuel 12:8-9).
The
evil in the eyes of the Lord David committed is not so much the adultery but
the injustice against an innocent man.
David had plenty of women in the palace to satisfy his lust. This was not a sin committed by impulse and
lack of judgment due to the blinding passions aroused by the naked body of
Bathsheba. It was a sin deliberately
committed after carefully investigating and knowing who she was. David investigated her background, found out
whose daughter and wife she was. Instead
of respecting, protecting, and honoring the loyalty and the service of Uriah,
David was overcome by the lust for the beauty of Bathsheba. Instead of being the protector of his servant
Uriah’s property, David committed covetousness against a helpless man.
He
takes away everything Uriah had. To
cover up his sin, he commits another heinous crime; he kills Uriah. Covetousness led to murder. It was the worst kind of injustice one can
imagine. A poor man, a loyal shoulder, a
person willing to lay down his life for the king was mercilessly robbed and
brutally killed by a powerful man who was supposed to protect him. This was the sin God counted against David
for the rest of his life.
In
Christian missions and charitable organizations, there is so much injustice committed
but hardly anyone talks about it.
Orphans, widows, elderly and the helpless from the poorer nations are
paraded and sold in the market places of the affluent nations in the name of
charity. Evangelists, pastors,
missionaries working in some of the most difficult places on planet are auctioned
in the churches and Christian marketplaces in the affluent part of the world
in the name of supporting native missions. But only a fraction of what is collected in
these endeavors ever reaches to those who are being sold. The agents in the charities are paid salaries
like as if they are working for multinational financial corporations. The mission agents gather all the money that
comes in the name of supporting native missions and in no time they become
businessmen, entrepreneurs, bankers, realtors, politicians and you name it.
The
orphans, widows, elderly and the helpless only exist in papers and videos
provided to the donors who pride in their charity while the middlemen/women
turn themselves into millionaires. The
sincere evangelists, pastors, and mission workers continue to labor for their
Lord in spite of lack, need and suffering while the money that came in their
names goes into enriching the clever and donor connected leaders who are busy
in fabricating stories like David did to cover up his sins.
This
is injustice in its most despicable form.
Like Habakkuk, we need to cry out and ask God “how long O God?”
(Habakkuk 1:2).
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