Distraction Leads to Cover-Up

Attack of the Puppet People. That’s probably not a movie most are familiar with. However, it may be solely responsible for uncovering one of the greatest scandals in American history. On June 17, 1972, Alfred Baldwin was on “spotter” duty at a Howard Johnson hotel across the street from the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. His only job was to watch for police officers if they were to arrive on the scene while a crew hired by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President was stealing files and setting up wiretaps. Instead of doing his job, he got distracted watching a movie about a mad scientist who, in a rage of passion, shrank people to the size of puppets. Due to his love for sci-fi, the Watergate Scandal was uncovered.

Of course, this was only the beginning. Over the next days, weeks, and months, there were multiple cover-up attempts. Lie after lie was told until the reality of fines and prison time were imminent. All of those involved began to turn on each other, refusing to go to jail for a lie, eventually ending with the impeachment and resignation of President Richard Nixon. One thing proved true as it does every time: deception and lies turn to more deception and lies.

One story from the Bible perfectly shows how toxic this can become and the lives that are left in the wake. In 2 Samuel, we read about King David’s ultimate failure and the lasting effects it had on him, those around him, and his kingdom as a whole.

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
2 Samuel 11:1–5

Most of us have been taught that this could’ve all been avoided if David hadn’t been staring at a naked woman. Truth be told. David’s problem came before that. Kings of that time never stayed home when their armies went to war. They went with the army. David, for some reason, didn’t go. He wasn’t where he needed to be. This definitely came back to bite him. Just like Alfred Baldwin not spotting from the window, David was wasting time because he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to do either. The result? The scandal that led to the most difficult period of David’s life. 

Once Bathsheba was discovered to be pregnant. David had to cover it up. He had to find a way to make it look like Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, was the one to get her pregnant. When David brought Uriah back from the battlefield to sleep with his wife, Uriah’s honor wouldn’t allow for him to have that kind of pleasure while the other soldiers were in the midst of war. Now David had a real problem.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.
 2 Samuel 11:14–17

Uriah wasn’t just another soldier. He was one of David’s mighty men, roughly 30 men who were the cream of the crop when it came to the soldiers of Israel. In order to cover up his evil, David was willing to put his army and kingdom at risk. Unfortunately, now that David’s plot to kill Uriah was accomplished, he now had to figure out his next move.

When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
2 Samuel 11:26–27

At this point, I’m sure that David felt like the cover-up was complete. Unfortunately for him, God knew everything that was going on, and He wasn’t going to let David get away with it. God sent His prophet, Nathan, to speak with David. He told David the story of a rich man who took another man’s only lamb to feed a traveler who came to his home. This story infuriated David. He couldn’t believe the audacity of this rich man. In his anger, he was not ready for what he heard next.

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ”
 2 Samuel 12:7–12

As David realized quickly, you can’t hide sin from God, and what is hidden will come to light. As I’m sure we all know, we can try our best to cover up our sin, but it usually takes more sin to cover up that initial sin. Deception quickly becomes the pattern and we find ourselves in a very dark place. Over the next few decades, David suffered greatly. First, he and Bathsheba lost the child that she was pregnant with. His grief was intense and it consumed him. He had a son who did horrible things to one of his own sisters and even conspired to kill David. All of this was due to not being where he should be.

So what is the lesson we should learn here? God has a plan for us. It’s our job to be where he wants us to be. When we think we have a better plan than God, we will inevitably realize we are sorely mistaken. Sin is separation from God, and when we go a different way or separate ourselves from God’s plan, the temptation for sin will always be greatest. So let’s do ourselves a favor a be where God wants us to be. When we eliminate unneeded distraction, we won’t have anything to cover up.