Of Mud and Weirdness

Gentle Reader,

David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, I pray you take away the guilt of your servant, for I have done very foolishly…I am in great distress; let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great…”

Extol the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

– 2 Samuel 24:10b, 14a & Psalm 99:9 (NRSV)

This is a strange story.

The author of 2 Samuel tells us that it was God who prompted David to conduct a census. The author of 1 Chronicles tells us that it was Satan (or, more correctly, ha satan, the adversary, because satan is a title or descriptor rather than a proper name). And then God gets angry and tells David to choose what punishment God is going to inflict on the people because of David’s actions. A bunch of people die.

What is this?

Up front, I’m not sure I can answer that question to anyone’s complete satisfaction, including my own. I came to this scene in my chronological read through Scripture today, and I’m as…well, honestly, weirded out by it now as I was the first time I read it. Did you know it’s okay to admit that the Bible is weird sometimes? If you didn’t, now you do. There’s just so much we don’t know. So much the original hearers and readers would have taken for granted that’s been lost to time and changing culture. Beyond this, we’ll never get a full handle on God. God is present, as close as your skin as my six-year-old goddaughter says. God is also God. Totally Other.

Here’s what we do know:

God is not the author of sin. God does not tempt people.

Theology develops. Unfolds. The people of ancient Israel didn’t have the entire Bible dropped in their laps. They lived and worked this out in real time.

Right away then we can deal with the “God or the satan?” question. At the time of 2 Samuel’s writing, the people understood God to be behind the action. This does not mean that God was evil or directed David to do something evil and then became more benevolent later. When we fast forward on the timeline to the writing of 1 Chronicles, we see that there’s been theological developments. The concept of God’s sovereignty has shifted from one that is (arguably) pretty deterministic (God is in control of all things in such a way that you have no choice ever, whether for good or evil) to something wider, allowing for human choice and the existence of the adversary. So ultimately, it’s really about David making a bad choice.

But why is taking a census a bad thing?

It’s not. Census taking isn’t among the sins listed in Scripture. The sin seems to be related to something within David himself. Pride? Greed, since a census would be related to a possible tax (either new or increased)? Avoiding something he was actually supposed to be doing? John Wesley writes that David conducted the census “without any colour of necessity, and out of mere curiosity, and [with] ostentation.” There are many possibilities.

But why do other people suffer because David is full of himself?

Again we’re left to wrestle with possibilities. The latter part of David’s reign is messy, to say the least. His first ridiculous and arrogant move was marrying more than one woman, the children of whom battled with each other. One son even went so far as to rape his half-sister, which set another son on a path toward attempting to overthrow their father. (Remember, just because the Bible records something does not mean that God is okay with it. God is not okay with any of this). Each of us is responsible for our own decisions, but a leader does set the tone. Perhaps the chaos of David’s family impacted the kingdom itself. As people watched the great warrior-poet morph into a ruler who looked much like all the other kings and queens of the region, maybe they began to wonder why they ought to stick with God and stay on God’s path. David didn’t seem to. Still, a plague and death as holy punishment – that’s difficult to accept.

It’s all speculation. We just don’t know. It’s hard to sit in the unknowing. Hard to admit that there are things we’ll just never pin down.

What I think matters most in this story is that David knows who God is. David strayed from God and returned to God more than once. Here we witness him turning back again. I can see the color drain from his face as he is confronted with the reality of his sin. He doesn’t mince words about it. He freely, even bluntly, calls himself a fool. He asks God for mercy. David knows he doesn’t deserve it. I suspect he even knows at that point in his life that there will be consequences for what he’s done. He’s experienced that reality. He’s also sure that God alone is the one who can forgive him.

This is foundational to faith. God is God and we are not. We are ridiculous and arrogant, and God alone can forgive us. We don’t deserve that. We can’t earn it. We will experience the consequences of our actions nine times out of ten, and maybe even ten times out of ten. But if we will freely, even bluntly, call our own selves out for being foolish, and then turn and seek God’s mercy, we’ll find it.

One of the things that I appreciate about the Wesleyan theological tradition is that it’s full of optimistic grace. God can and does enter into our lives in such a way that we can stop being ridiculous and arrogant people. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live as God wants us to live. I love that. I need that. I also need this weird story that leaves me with more questions that answers. I need to know that when I am foolish, I can just admit it and that God will meet there in the pain of the admission and help me to get going on the right path again. No, habitual sin is not a burden we have to bear by the grace and presence of God. But when we do fall, when we do find ourselves face down in the mud and the muck that we hoped to never see again, God will forgive us.

May you live in that reality today.

GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,

MARIE

Image Courtesy of Sandie Clark