As the World Turns, Guiding Light, The Young and the Restless, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital. I’m sure just the mention of these names conjures up your own specific set of memories. For me, I can almost hear the theme songs of each as they would waft through the air on summer break. I grew up with no access to cable TV so during those odd mid-morning hours, these programs were almost all you could hope for. We know them as soap operas. As they began they were solely sponsored by soap companies, hence the nickname. In 1956, As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, both produced by Procter & Gamble Productions, debuted as the first half-hour soap operas on the CBS television network. And just about every day since, these shows have entertained countless eyes.
You don’t have to watch more than 15 minutes of any one of these shows to recognize the main ingredients. Turmoil, fights, cheating, lying, betrayal, scandal, murder, hypocrisy and well, basically sin. And when sin is present, chaos ensues. A lot of chaos. Did I mention that sin brings chaos?
2 Samuel chapter 3 reads just like a script for As the World Turns. It’s all in there, the same ingredients and those same ingredients bring the same results, chaos. You see, there is basically little difference between the drama in a soap opera and the drama in God’s Word. The reason? Well, the cast is the same…sinners. You see, anytime people are present in a situation, sin is present in the situation. Every single human that has been born since Cain and Able have possessed a nature that secretly yearns for the satisfaction of sin. And when you get people together, that sin shows up like a plane spelling out a message in a cloudless sky.
Saul is gone, David is king over Judah and Saul’s son Ish-bosheth is king over the rest of Israel. The kingdom of Israel is split right down the middle. Two sides that just cannot and will not get along. The situation soon erupts into civil war, with all of the fixings that go along with war. The chapter plays out in soap opera drama and as it does, it spells out the sins of man, one letter at a time. Let’s look at the laundry list of sins in the soap opera of chapter 3 and how we can avoid the same pitfalls today.
1) Polygamy/adultery. The chapter starts out with David having 6 sons by 6 different women. Folks, if you ever want to see real drama and chaos, find a guy with 6 different baby mamas. If you want to know how to find such a man, I recommend the Jerry Springer show. God expressly forbids polygamy. Yes, even in the Old Testament.
“He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.” Deut 17:17
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
Notice that one word in Genesis 2:24, wife…not wives. One man, one woman, that’s the way God designed it and if you don’t do it God’s way it’s the wrong way. You might say, Dan we don’t have that problem today, the law says you can only have one wife. Yet how many men and women today have a wife or husband and then another “spouse” on the side? Folks, marriage is one man and one woman being faithful to each other for as long as they live. No exceptions, no personal interpretations, no re-writing the rules…God has already written the rules on marriage, all you have to do is live them.
2) Murder/revenge. Thou shalt not kill. It’s not ok to kill when you are angry. It’s not ok to kill when you think mean people deserve it. It’s not ok to kill people when they disagree with you. We see in our chapter that Joab murders Abner because Abner had earlier killed his brother. A revenge killing. Joab nails a double sin here as he murders and does it out of revenge. Revenge is a sin. We are to let the Lord avenge us, not try to do it ourselves.
“It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." Deut 32:35
“Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.” Romans 12:19
3) Lying. That means no white lies. No stretching the truth. No lying by omission. No telling your altered version of the truth that just sounds better. Tell the truth, all the time regardless of your estimated outcome. Just do it. The great thing about telling the truth is that no matter how many times you tell it, it never changes. This is a biggie for us today. As we take it upon oursleves to personally “weigh” the sin in our lives, we deem lying as nothing more than a minor infraction. It’s really more of a half sin, right? Folks, all sin separates us from God. You can miss Heaven by telling one lie just as easy as you can killing 5 men. One sin = eternal separation from God. All sin is the same to God and lying is a sin. We see many examples of lying in chapter 6 and each one creates it’s own rabbit trail of chaos, damage and destruction. If you really want to simplify your life today…tell the truth.
4) War. War goes beyond just two nations shooting missiles at each other. I’ve seen wars between two people that rivaled some of the World Wars. Hate, anger, betrayal, and bitterness fired at the other with the sole intention of doing the most damage possible. Two people that out of boundless hate for each other attempt to recruit others to help in their personal war. And as they recruit, soon the war that began with only two grows in intensity. Folks, every war that has ever taken place in history, started with two people fighting. Civil war erupts in chapter 3, it erupts within the very people of God. Israel split in two. God’s people fighting God’s people. Hard hearts at war is hard to watch. Don’t fall into the sin of warring with others, forgiveness is the ultimate weapon, use it liberally today.
Folks, you get the picture. The soap opera of sin composes that sin into just that, an operatic symphony of lies, adultery, murder, and chaos. As we allow sin to run rampant in our lives, it will, on it’s own, create a symphony of destruction. Sin will alter, control, and decimate your life. That’s what sin does. Today, you must not tolerate sin. You must not accept it as OK. Satan will whisper to you that a little sin is acceptable. That a touch of sin is harmless. That just like a recipe, our lives cannot be complete without a little pinch of sin thrown in for fun and flavor. Don’t believe the lie. One small sin is the same as one big sin, they all will sow chaos into a life that doesn’t need it or want it.
Today, flee from sin. Refuse to let your life become a soap opera of sin.
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