Sin and Boredom

I've been reading some of Dale Ralph Davis's commentaries on the Old Testament history books (which incidentally, I would struggle to recommend highly enough), and I've been struck by his highlighting of the "boringness" of sin. Particularly noticeable in Judges and the books of Kings, the reports of the sins of the nation of Israel soon become repetitive and boring. Think of the refrain in the epitaphs of the Kings of Israel in I and II Kings, such as this example from I Kings 15:33-34:

"In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all of Israel at Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin."

It's same old, same old. New guy comes in, and does the same thing as the first king of Israel did as he made the nation sin. I picked this example because that's the first passage my bible opened at, I could have taken my pick from a number of others. Similarly, the book of Judges has a similar pattern of boredom, the phrasing at the beginning of chapter 4 says much:

"And the people Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died."

There's a sense of frustration in the tone, "after this guy died, they just went back to what they did before...". Davies's claim is that this is very deliberate, there is no creativity that arrises from rebellion against God, just a lukewarm rehash of what has come before.

As I've been studying Romans recently, part of what I was reading in Romans 7 resonated with this feeling from the Old Testament:

"What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness."

Romans 7:7-8a

These verses give me the mental picture of me wanting to rebel, but not being able to think of a way to do so. In the end, my sinful nature has to wait until I hear the law before I can find a suitable way to be rebellious! Sinfulness can't think for itself - it needs to react to something good, such as God's law, before it can get inspiration to rebel. There is no originality, sinning is going to be the same old, same old.

Davis goes on to point to show that the real points where the narrative gets exciting in the history of Israel is when we encounter characters living in God's service, thinking of episodes such as Joshua's initial conquest of the land, the often intriguing and exciting saving actions of the Judges and the reigns of the Godly kings of Judah such as Jehu. This shouldn't be surprising, to follow the creative God, the God who brings all things into being, is inevitably going to be exciting, yet if we rebel against God how can we expect anything other that creativity to flee from us? In the words of Jesus,

"The thief comes only to steal and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly."

John 10:10