Overheard at Table 2: David and the Hittite

Yesterday the pastor was talking about David and Bathsheba, and we've all heard the story, right?  Bathsheba bathing on the roof, so hot he calls her over and does her, then he sends her husband off to get killed.  Simple.

But you know, I've read that story off and on for years but never read it like yesterday.  I guess I never read it at all.   But first he tells this guy Uriah to go home and schtup his wife, and Uriah's like "no man, I gotta stay with the troops.  Loyalty to the fighting men." Then David gets him drunk, and Uriah still won't go home and do his wife.  I'm thinking maybe David is saying if I can get him to do his wife then we won't know the kid is mine.  I dunno,

But then, he says fine, and he sends Uriah to the general with a note for the general which says, "Make sure Uriah gets whacked in battle." And so this general proceeds to send out a full troop of guys on a suicide mission.  Now get this, I'm no military expert, but the way it reads is that the general has to make the troops do something incredible stupid, like something you would never do in a war, and bam!  All wiped out.

The general then sends the messengers back to David, and he tells them, "OK, when you tell him what happened here he's gonna be pissed off, OK? But when you see him getting pissed off, just tell him 'Uriah the Hittite got whacked, too.'"

So they do, and when they give him the message that the Hittite got whacked, David said, "Well, hey, tell the general not to worry about the loss.  People get killed all the time,"

So the point is this, David's sin didn't just get the Hittite killed, it also got a whole bunch of nameless soldiers killed.  David's sin also made his general commit a sin.   Sin doesn't just end with us, it spreads itself out like a bad STD.