“YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY”

a 10 Commandments series - #6 a
2 Samuel 11:1-4

I have never understood the appeal of death-defying thrill-seeking stunts that present tremendous long-term
risk for the instant moment of thrill. I guess I just don’t see how great skydiving is, to spend $2000 to go up
thousands of feet in the air and jump out of an airplane. In my mind, there are so many things that could go
wrong. The chute might not open. It might open at the wrong time and get tangled in something. The jumper
could land in some trees and tumble to the ground. There are even statistics that record how many people die on
impact, because they landed the wrong way or because they underestimated their weight, picked the wrong chute
and came down too hard. To me, the risk is not worth the reward. The instant thrill is not worth risking serious
injury or even death.
I would imagine that the vast majority of us would cringe at the thought of jumping out of an airplane
because it could be very dangerous and we could be seriously hurt. Why, then, do we not cringe at thoughts, images
and actions that threaten to destroy much more than just one life, but in fact cut to the very core of the family
model that God established even before the fall into sin?
Yes, today we forge ahead in our series to the 6th commandment that deals with God’s protection of his gift
of marriage, and specifically addresses the loving aspects and blessings of the foremost human relationship, that of a
husband and wife. I pray that we are able to see the vast destruction that can be caused when God’s gift of marriage
is not upheld with the utmost respect and honor, when we become oh so willing to accept instant gratification
without consideration for the long-term, and even eternal damage that sinful behavior against this commandment
causes. On the other hand, I also hope that we learn what God’s intention for marriage is, using the pattern that has
been given by our Lord Jesus Christ in his relationship with the Church, the ultimate model for the relationship that
exists between Christian husbands and wives. “You shall not commit adultery.” Luther explains the 6th
commandment in the following manner, “We should fear and love God that we lead a pure and decent life in words
and actions, and that husband and wife love and honor each other.”
Next to the initial tragedy of the fall into sin, this account in 2 Samuel 11:1-4 is probably the most well-
known and most shocking fall – David’s fall into adultery with Bathsheba. One has to wonder, “Where is the
David that stepped into the valley of the shadow of death to face Goliath for the Israelites? Where is the one who
sang psalms of worship in the courts of King Saul, and refused to take out his anger against the Lord’s anointed,
even though he was given the opportunity?” Time and again David is presented in Scripture as a man after the
Lord’s own heart, a man of integrity, wisdom, courage and faith.
But on the night in question, he was none of those things. Take the name “David” out of the divine text,
and he could be any of the pagan rulers that dotted the landscape of human history, just another man in a position
of power and authority getting what he wants when we wants it without being cognoscente at all of the real
ramifications of his lust-driven thoughts and actions, no different than any other wretched, perverted man who gave
himself over to the burning desires of his flesh.
How sad! After all, this King David, he was the Lord’s anointed! He was set apart by God to be the
“Shepherd King” who would shepherd the nation of Israel to a right faith and life with the true Savior God. He was
a man after the heart of his heavenly Father, a man who served as a type of Christ in so many ways. Yet, here, he is
not so kingly, is he? Not so godly! Not so righteous! Not so wise and faithful! Dare I say, just another pervert, who
saw an opportunity for instant gratification, taking advantage of the power and authority God gave him to indulge
his flesh in a feast of disgraceful and lewd perversion.
How far the Lord’s anointed had fallen! This account of David and Bathsheba has been glamorized in
cinema, mirrored in novels, and some people even see in this section of Scripture an exciting love tale. But we
don’t, and we can’t! What we see is the great biographer, the Holy Spirit, showing us how vulnerable we are, even if
we spend our whole lives in service to the God of all grace, showing us how even the great men and women of the
Bible, heroes of faith, committed unthinkable sins, so that we might learn just how devastating and destructive sin
can really be, and how powerful and mighty the forces of evil are. Oh, how the mighty and the faithful fall! Is there
any other need for us to be reminded that, as Paul says to the Ephsesians, our battle of faith is not against flesh and
blood, but against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms?
Dear Christians, those same powers are battling against you with all their might! The devil and his minions
invite you to go and take a walk onto your terrace and peep at the alluring beauty of the world, promising you
whatever your sinful heart desires if you will only lend him an ear, if you will only turn your heart away from the
Lord’s will. That crafty serpent of Eden wants to show you how readily accessible and acceptable perversion is, and
how gratifying it can be in the moment! Like all temptation, the devil works to coax us to believe his abundant lies,
so that a sinful inclination for instant gratification soon causes massive destruction in your lives and in your homes,
and ultimately in your relationship with God. James pictures this well: “But each one is tempted when, by his own
evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-
grown, gives birth to death!”
What a high price to pay! Understand that, when the devil places his wares in front of us, the reward is
never worth the risk, and especially here in the 6th commandment, we see the great risk of destroying God’s gift of
marriage and our relationship with him as our God if we give our attention and trust to the lies that are placed
around us daily. In the Large Catechism, Luther is very specific, “With respect to no other blessing can one do greater
harm than here, in the dishonoring of another’s marriage partner.”
David gives us an unfortunate example of what it means to dishonor God’s gift of marriage. But, as with all
the commandments, there is a positive encouragement for all of us, to honor, respect and protect God’s gift of
marriage by emulating in our marriages the relationship that exists between Christ and his bride, the Church. St.
Paul spends a bit of time discussing the marriage relationship and explains the connection:
“24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the
washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any
other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who
loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the
church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his
wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. “
Simply put, the way that Christian husbands and wives honor each other and glorify God in their
relationship is to put into practice the kind of love that Christ showed to his bride, the Church. He was selfless,
self-sacrificing, willing to do all things necessary to ensure the eternal welfare of his bride, even being willing to lay
down his life as the payment that the Father demanded for the sins of the world. Jesus as the bridegroom, guarded
and protected his bride, the Church, by providing for her continued vitality – the means of grace, the gospel in
Word and sacrament, so that she may continue to live in the peace and security of faith until the great
consummation of the whole Holy Christians Church in the eternal wedding feast of heaven.
Now, I know that’s difficult to grasp, because this section of Ephesians is quite deep in its theology. The
connection to Christian husbands and wives is this: Jesus dealt with you, his bride, on the basis of his grace, his
undeserved love for you exhibited so clearly and concisely at the cross of Calvary, where he paid the bride-price for
you for eternity. Pass along that gracious spirit to your spouses, not willing to hold things against them, not willing
to make them earn your love and your respect with good deeds, because our Savior has not required that of us in our
relationship with him. Show the kind of love to each other that is self-sacrificing, willing to forgive wrongdoing,
willing to seek reconciliation, willing to exchange the sense of having to “be right” all the time for the practice of
being helpful to one another. Learn to submit to one another in humble service, as the Lord Jesus did for the
Church in his life and death, working together to build each other up in your marriage relationships, and ultimately
in your relationship of faith in your Lord Jesus Christ. Because then, when husbands and wives are mutual helpers
to one another in the true faith, leading each other and their families to the cross of the Lord Jesus, then...the model
for marriage that God established in Eden, which is so often crushed in a world of instant gratification, will serve its
temporal purpose for our eternal good.
What a sordid set of events we see in 2 Samuel 11, as the Holy Spirit, the Divine Biographer lays out before
us not just a picture of David, but a picture of ourselves and our own vulnerabilities. Pray, by the Spirit’s guidance
and power, that in our world that sees all kinds of perversion as right and acceptable, pray that we may be
strengthened to stand up for the pattern and model of marriage that God has set from creation. And give thanks
today and every day for this most precious gift of marriage which God himself in this commandment, honors,
praises and richly blesses. Amen.