II Samuel 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD…
What is the biggest sin you could commit? Now that is a terrible question, and I don’t want you to imagine that overly much. But what is the worst sin you have ever committed? The fact is, that there is forgiveness, healing, and restoration if you will come clean with God and other people whom that sin has affected, but sometimes what we think of as the greatest sin may be well mistaken.
In II Samuel 12 we find what many people think of as David’s greatest sin. He had murdered Uriah, stolen Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and he had done this as a king. Then he had been confronted by God’s prophet Nathan, who pointed the finger of guilt at David and said, “Thou art the man.” David acknowledged his sin at this point and said, “I have sinned against the LORD.” David had sinned against Bathsheba and certainly against Uriah, but ultimately, David had sinned against God. He acknowledged this in Psalm 51.
So, what was David’s greatest sin? It is interesting, we yawn at adultery, but murder is still a crime. Both of those begin in the heart. In II Samuel 12:9, Nathan says to David, “Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight?” He had belittled God and His commandment. It continues, “Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife.” So, the sin actually is characterized as murder first and adultery second. Both of them are sins in God’s sight, and at least one of those continues to be a criminal offense in most societies.
What was David’s greatest sin? Sometimes people commit some sin that is socially shameful or has social consequences and we think to ourselves, “What were they thinking?” Well, you do know that most sins, certainly sins like adultery, are sins you don’t think about, they just happen. You are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, thinking the wrong thing, and almost involuntarily commit some sin. It may be some sin well shy of adultery, but we often ponder, “What was this person thinking when they committed such a terrible sin?” Well, it may well be that criminal negligence or sinfulness carelessness is the greatest sin of which we are guilty.
How did David get to the point where he murdered a faithful man named Uriah? In II Samuel 11, you see a progression. It ends with David murdering Uriah in II Samuel 11:15. Before that, you find in verse 14 that David tries to get Uriah drunk. Uriah is brought back from the battlefield as a pretext for the child that Bathsheba is now expecting by David. David tries to make it appear as if it is Uriah and Bathsheba’s child. But because Uriah is an honorable man, he does not want to go back to his house because his fellow soldiers are in the field fighting Israel’s battles. He says, “I will not do this.” So, David makes him drunk.
Before that, in verse 6, David sent for Uriah. Before that, he took Bathsheba. Before that, David sent and inquired after Bathsheba, and before that, he saw Bathsheba. Before that, in verse 1, the Bible famously says that “at the time when kings go forth to battle…David tarried still at Jerusalem.” There is a progression. He tarries, he sees, he inquires, he takes, he then tries to cover up the sin and ends up murdering Uriah.
So many of the things that David did before the adultery with Bathsheba were not against the law of God per se. They weren’t shameful per se. Not all of this had a devious big picture, and by themselves none of these are in and of themselves sins. There is a really big one in II Samuel 5 where it talks about the establishment of David’s kingdom and it mentions, almost in passing, that David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem. You have to ask yourself, “What is one more Bathsheba to a man who has a whole harem?” The clarity of the sin is muddied at the very least by having a harem.
The point is, that sometimes criminal negligence is the greatest sin that we have in the heart. We see sin and identify sin when it is something shameful. It happens in the moment, we are carried away with the moment, and we do something we shouldn’t do. But so many times there are willful, deliberate decisions that we make before that point of temptation that are not themselves sinful but are perhaps the greatest crimes. They are what lead to the sin that everyone sees.
That makes a couple of things important. It makes fences very important. David was in a bad place because there was no one he could look to as his boss. He was the king. He had a harem. There were no fences. Once he crossed the fence of having more than one wife, it was easy to then cross the fence of having concubines. Then he crossed the fence of taking another man’s wife. It really is murky where the real sin begins. It is all bad, all sin, but David was lulled into this great sin by knocking down fences along the way. Once those fences are broken, who is not going to wander?
Attitudes are important and vital. There may be some law in the land and even some institutional rule where you are, but sometimes we don’t stop to say, “Why is this rule here?” We can keep every rule in the book and every law that God has made, but if we don’t stop and think about what is actually behind this law, the heart of the law, then we really haven’t helped ourselves. There is no way you can have a law against every possible vice that a person may have.
Deliberation is also very important. Deliberation about the decisions that David made before the sin with Bathsheba were where the real level of evil, choice, and thought was.
So, take a moment, stop and think, “What am I doing in my heart and mind to protect me from the sins which would reveal themselves as such?” It may well be that today the greatest sin is one’s heart and mind is criminal negligence, sinful carelessness, and not taking heed to our way.