Except in the Matter of Uriah

Earlier in the week on the Get Up sports talk show on ESPN several commentators discussed the fans storming the basketball court at Wake Forest University after Wake Forest upset eighth ranked Duke on Saturday, February 24th. One of the Duke players was injured when he was knocked down by the fan mob. The commentators discussed the problem of fans rushing the playing fields after football games and basketball courts after basketball games. All agreed that it was a problem that needed to be addressed. They could not come to an agreement on what should be done about the problem.

One of the commentators said the storming of the basketball court was a moral and ethical problem. By storming the court, fans were saying, "You cannot restrict my freedom. Your safety as a basketball player on the visiting team is none of my concern. If I knock you over and injure you, that's your problem." For this one commentator the disregards for rules and lack of concern for the players and other fans was a moral and ethical issue.

The other commentators on Get Up seemed to be caught off-guard by their fellow commentator's view. None registered any strong agreement as to the storming the court being a moral and ethical issue. Certainly, none saw addressing it as such to be a practical solution.

Was it a moral and ethical issue? Perhaps, we should not be so quick to dismiss or ignore moral and ethical components of life. We may be guilty of underestimating the impact of the presence or absence of morals and ethics in our world today.

The title of this blog is all about morals and ethics. This title "Except in the Matter of Uriah" is taken from 1 Kings 15:5.

Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

If you are a student of the Bible, you are probably familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba. It is a somewhat lengthy story found in 2 Samuel 11,12. In summary David sent his soldiers out to do battle in the spring of the year while he stayed at his house. One night he went out and walked on the roof of his house. While on the roof he saw a very beautiful woman bathing. Immediately, he inquired as to who she was. He was told that her name was Bathsheba. She was the wife of Uriah, one of the men away on the battlefield. David sent for her and had her brought to his house. He slept with her, and she became pregnant.

The news of her pregnancy was not news that King David wanted to hear. Immediately, he began to plot a plan to cover up his sin and the fact that he had slept with the wife of Uriah. He sent word to Joab, the commander of the army, to send Uriah to him. When Uriah came David inquired about the progress of the battle, how the troops were faring and how Joab was doing. Then in what appeared to be a display of kindness and appreciation to a dedicated soldier, David told Uriah to go to his home and spend some time with his wife Bathsheba. David's scheme was to have Uriah sleep with his wife while at home on leave and believe that he was the father of the baby Bathsheba was carrying. There was one big problem with David's scheme. Uriah was a man deeply committed to living a moral and ethical life. He went to his house but did not sleep with his wife. In Uriah's mind and heart, it would have been an immoral act for him to sleep with his wife while his fellow soldiers risk their lives on the battlefield, deprived of the opportunity to be at home and sleeping with their wives. David did not count on Uriah having such high morals and ethics. David was determined. He adjusted his scheme. The next night David invited Uriah to enjoy a meal with the king and drink with the king. David was able to get Uriah drunk from the alcohol consumption. David then sent Uriah home to spend the night with his wife. Even though he was drunk, the morals of Uriah were stronger than the effects of the alcohol in his body. He did not sleep with his wife.

At this point the lack of moral and ethical consideration on King David's part is glaring. He sent Uriah back to the battlefield with a letter to be given to the commander Joab. Uriah had no idea he was delivering his own death sentence when he gave David's letter to Joab. The letter instructed Joab to place Uriah in the most dangerous position on the battlefield where he would have the highest probability of being killed. Joab followed David's instruction and Uriah was killed in a battle. Joab then sent word to King David that his instructions were obeyed, and Uriah was dead. The depth of David duplicity and utter lack of moral considerations is seen in the message that he sent back to Joab.

"Then David said to the messenger, 'Thus you shall say to Joab: 'Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.' So encourage him'"(2 Samuel 11:25).

From this contemptible response of King David, you would think he had no part in Uriah's death. Uriah's death was just an unfortunate fact of war. David would discover that this was not the end of the matter. God sent a prophet named Nathan to tell David a story which is recorded in 2 Samuel 12. There were two men who lived in a city. One of the men was very rich with many flocks and herds. The other man was very poor. He had no flocks or herds, but he did have one little ewe lamb that had grown up with him and his family. The family loved this little ewe lamb and cherished it as a part of the family.

A traveler came to see the rich man. Desiring to a good host the rich man decided to provide a sumptuous meal for his guest. For this meal he needed a lamb. What would he do? The natural assumption is that he would select a lamb from one of his many flocks. What he did was an extreme opposite. He went and took by force the poor neighbor's one ewe lamb. The rich man took what the poor man and his family loved the most, prepared it and served it as a meal for his traveling guest.

As David listened to the prophet Nathan unveil this story, his anger began to boil against the rich man who was guilty of taking the poor man's family pet rather than selecting one from his own flock. His response is recorded in 2 Samuel 12:5, 6, "So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, 'As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.'"

What came next should not have been a surprise for David but was most likely totally unexpected. Nathan told David,

"Then Nathan said to David, 'You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon'"(2 Samuel 12:7-9).

In his words to King David, the prophet Nathan exposed David's immorality and lack of ethics. He went beyond the mere facts of the story to shine the light of morality and ethics on David's actions.

David played the polka with morals and ethics. I'm not a polka dancer but I know that it has something to do with putting the right foot in and taking the right foot out, placing the left foot in and taking the left foot out. I think you may do the same thing with the hip and shake it all about. When David was lusting after the beautiful woman Bathsheba whom he saw bathing and then had her brought to him, slept with her and conceived a child with her, he conveniently left moral and ethics out. When he schemed to cover it all up and deceive her husband into believing he was the father of the unborn child, he had no moral or ethical considerations.

When the prophet Nathan told David the story about the ruthless rich man who in a blatant power play stole the poor man's ewe lamb and slaughtered it to provide a mean for his traveling guest, David morals and ethics kicked in in full force. He clearly saw the lack of morality and ethics in the rich man's actions.

Uriah was the one person in the entire story who displayed consistent moral and ethical behavior. His morals and ethics were so strong that some might say he went overboard. One thing is for sure, he acted in a moral manner and did not compromise his moral convictions.

Ethics and morals must not be ignored. We can never overstate their importance. In the verse from 1 Kings 15:5 which I quoted earlier, David was portrayed as a great man. He was someone who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that God commanded him all the days of his life. Yet, God held him accountable in the matter of Uriah. Surely, God is looking at our would today and we are accountable for how we regard the moral and ethical components of our lives.

Two responses to morals and ethics are needed in our day. Both are readily available to all of us.

• We need to give serious attention, consideration and commitment to morals and ethics. In the presidential primaries that are being held now and will be held leading up to the presidential election in November, voters are often asked to rank the issues. In some of the recent polls on the issues, things such as immigration, the economy, healthcare, policing and crime, abortion and the environment rank the highest in importance. Morals and ethics rarely if ever make the list of important issues. By being oblivious to the importance of morals and ethics, we may engage in conduct and take actions that are reprehensible to God and destructive to us as individuals and the society in which we live. In addressing morals and ethics we need to establish consistency. We cannot condemn one person's immoral and unethical behavior while we totally ignore or justify the same behavior in our conduct and actions. The standard that applies to one individual or political party equally applies to the other. Anything less is hypocritical and will leave us in a moral and ethical morass. We cannot do the polka with morals and ethics. If there is any desire left in the hearts of Americans to what is right in the eyes of the Lord and not turn aside from the things He has commanded for our lives, we must once again raise morals and ethics to the highest position in important issues. Furthermore, the best way to address the other listed important issues such as immigration, the economy, crime and drug overdose is by incorporating morals and ethics into addressing the problem and finding a solution. There will be no solution if we strip out morals and ethics.

• We can choose to be moral and ethical in living our lives. Such a choice may not place us in the mainstream or majority in today's world, but it will place us in the company of people like Uriah. When we choose to be moral and ethical in how we view life, we will react to the rich exploiting the poor. Schemes and scams by preachers or politician will grieve our hearts. We will not justify sinful actions as just the way things are or look for some kind of tradeoff such as a lesser of two evils to compromise with corruption. If enough Americans elevate morals and ethics to their rightful place, we can change the course of our nation. For the sake of the land we love, we do not have time to waste. We need to act now in a moral, ethical way.

Our lives do not have to be defined by one mistake or one experience. This is one of the important lessons that we can learn from this story of David and Bathsheba. David acted in an immoral and unethical way and paid a tremendous price for his failure. Yet, the Bible recorded David as a man after God's own heart. There was the matter of Uriah in David's life, but he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed God's commands. To see how David ultimately dealt with his failure in the matter of Uriah, read Psalm 51. This Psalm is David's prayer to God after the matter of Uriah. He confessed his sin as being against God, pleaded for forgiveness and cleansing and a restoration of a vital relationship with God.

The prayer of my heart is that all of us will realize the vital importances of morals and ethics and elevate them to a priority in all of life. I also am asking God to help me always be moral and ethical in every detail of my life. God grant it, I pray!