Despising God

From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own. [2 Samuel 12.10]

David's sin with Bathsheba, which became a physical violation against Uriah, was the least of David's concerns. David's greater concern was that he had despised God in so doing. 

Despising God is what Satan successfully convinced Adam and Eve to do in the Garden of Eden. It started with the seed-question: "Has God really said...?" That seed-question was germinated when false suppositions about God and His Word to man - suppositions of selfish human logic and reason - provided the nutrients for sin to sprout into existence and grow. Adam and Eve thereby effectively "idolized" their reason thus despising God's Word, none the wiser that the "plant" of sin they cultivated was an uncontrollable invasive species that would forever affect humanity on earth. David's story is just a pale shoot that grows dim against the forest of idolatry and sin documented throughout the Bible that has only spread uncontrollably up to this very day.

Words fail here to fully describe the mechanics of idolatry. However, it takes only a very few words to understand God's jealousy. David despised God by his adultery with Bathsheba provoking God to jealousy. In his physical adultery with Bathsheba, David committed spiritual adultery against God. Spiritual adultery is idolatry.

Why does this matter? Because idolatry is found negatively affecting Israel's relationship with God in the Old Testament which means it should be suspect #1 in negatively affecting relationship with God in our New Testament time. Idolatry is the universal and timeless root of the sin problem with mankind. Despising God and His Word is idolatry.

In David's reflection following Nathan's rebuke from God, he wrote:

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. [Psalm 51.17] 

It is here we are led straight to Jesus Who said:

“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” [Mark 1.15] 

Furthermore, God's jealousy and call for exclusive trust should not be mistaken in Jesus' words to His would-be followers:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)] 

The way of man is the way of selfishness - it is the way of idolatry that despises God. The way of God is recorded in all the Bible and is fleshed-out in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, being God in the flesh, jealously demands exclusivity and unquestioning obedience.

At its basest form, idolatry is man's selfish doubt/question of God's Word. Every sin of man grows and thrives from the resilient root of idolatry thus despising God.

Father, the sin-problem in mankind is indeed an idolatry problem. The idolatry-problem is indeed a self-problem. The self-problem despises You and Your Word. May Your Word so speak to our lives today that we see how we have despised You with all of our selfishness and the idols born of it. May we be found giving up our own selfish way, selflessly taking up our cross, and following Jesus. So be it.