To Encourage You

2 Samuel 11:22-25 “So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.  The messenger said to David, ‘The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.  Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’  David said to the messenger, ‘Thus shall you say to Joab, “Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.”  And encourage him.’”

I remember a phrase I learned in my high school French class.  It was “comme ci, comme ça.”  In English we’d say it this way – “it was so, so.” When we say this, we mean it wasn’t really good or really bad.  It’s an expression of indifference.  For example, someone might say about how their dinner was at a local restaurant, “comme ci, comme ça,” i.e., it was just so, so.  It’s that expression that came to my mind when I read the account above from 2 Samuel 11. 

Here we have the report that Joab sent to David after he had done exactly what David had commanded, for he had sent Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, into the thick of the battle and then drawn back from him so that he would be killed. It was all part of David’s despicable cover-up of his adultery with Uriah’s wife.  As a result, several of David’s soldiers were killed along with Uriah.  It was all planned, and it was very evil.  But when the messenger brought the report to David from the battle front, David’s reaction was, essentially, “comme ci, comme ça.”  He tells the messenger in so many words that that is just the way things go.  Don’t let it upset you.  It’s just one of those things.  

It is in this reply that we see the utter callousness of David’s heart.  As he sends word back to Joab to not let this situation bother him, David’s own conscience should have surely bothered him! But that’s the effect of sin on a life. As we pile one sin against another, the convicting effect that our sin should have on us becomes dulled and we become less able to feel the spiritual pain. But pain is a gift of God. It’s a warning that things aren’t at all right in our world, and it’s a warning from Him that some changes are necessary. 

An example is the pain that comes from touching a hot stove.  Immediately we know something is wrong, and that we need to remove our hand.  Otherwise, an even greater injury will result.  That’s exactly the way it is with spiritual pain, and if we fail to react to it as we should, the effects get ever more severe.  Eventually we can see our sin as if it was “no big deal.”  We can have a “comme ci, comme ça” attitude about it all.  And we can fool ourselves into thinking that our sin isn’t anything that we or anyone else should worry themselves about.  However, that’s not the way God, the One we are most directly offending, sees it.  So, although David didn’t see his sin as anything to worry about, God was at that very moment preparing to send Nathan to David to rebuke him and to pronounce judgment on him that would affect him the rest of his life.  

So, what about you and what about me?  Do we have a similar complacency about our own sin? Do we see the things in our life that are a violation of God’s Law as not that big a deal, for the world’s not perfect, you know, and it’s just one of those things? Well, if that’s our attitude, it may just be an indication that the same callousness that affected David’s heart is affecting our heart as well.  And it may just be that we are in need of a real wake-up call before we bring even greater negative consequences to ourselves or others in our life.  

The Bible talks about those who “have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Ephesians 4:19). It’s a condition no believer should ever find themselves in. It’s a tragedy to have a “comme ci, comme ça” attitude about sin. May God keep us from such complacency.  May He keep us from the complacency that David had towards Uriah who died as a result of David’s sin. May He keep us from complacency towards God’s own Son who died as a result of the sin that was ours.