Year 7, Day 328: 2 Samuel 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

David and Bathsheba is a classic story.  Many people lift up this story as David’s major flaw.  While David was an excellent ruler and quite the general, he did falter in his personal life, especially where women are concerned.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this story, though.  Remember the story of 1 Samuel 25 where David took Abigail to be his wife after he had her husband, Nabal, killed?  Don’t forget that at the time he was already married to Michal, Saul’s daughter.  David has always shown that while he seeks righteousness publicly as a ruler, he has a tendency to bend the rules a bit when it comes to his personal life.  He kills men to take their wives.  He is a polygamist.  There’s really no hiding that fact.

There isn’t any point trying to justify it, either.  Yes, he’s a king.  Yes, that was how kings acted.  Kings always have two faces: the political leader and the personal rule bender.  Kings have always been above the law.  While it is a reality, it is not an excuse.  If we are going to walk righteousness publicly we need to walk it privately, too.  If we don’t, we’re just hypocrites.

That brings me to my big learning for this chapter.  This chapter is always a humbling one for me.  It is so easy to look down my nose at David and fault him for his flaws.  While he is certainly guilty of such judgment, the reality is that I am just as guilty in my own way.  People see the public persona that I put on and, Lord willing, see a desire to walk in the righteousness of God.  But I’m flawed.  I have my own areas of weakness.  I may not kill me and take their wives, but I am not innocent of sin.  I do lust.  I do envy.  I do get non-righteously angry.  I don’t always respond in love, especially in my thoughts.

That’s no excuse for David, just like it isn’t an excuse for me.  In fact, it’s grace.  God loved David.  God called David a man after His own heart.  David sinned, but in that sinful shell was the heart of someone who truly sought God’s ways and repented when faced with his sin.  The fact that God loves a repentant sinner is always a word of grace in my book.

We don’t love the sin even when it points us to grace.  We mourn the sin and hopefully learn from it.  But that might just cause us to love grace all the more!

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