Theological Commentary: Click Here
What I spoke
about yesterday comes to light today.
David is caught in his sinfulness.
He thinks that he can hide his sin.
He tried by having Uriah sleep with his wife so that the baby might
appear to be Uriah’s. When that didn’t
work, he had Uriah killed in battle so that he could comfort Uriah’s mourning
wife. David has set up the world around
him to make it look like he’s innocent.
He cannot fool God, though. Nathan
comes to David and catches him in his sin.
There are
two things that I love about this story.
First, it shows us that there are consequences to our actions. Even though God forgives David, there are
still consequences to be dealt with. The
baby dies. David knows that Nathan will
always know his guilt. God foretells
David that his own wives will be violated by someone close to him. There are consequences to living a life where
we choose sin, especially when that choice is made in the privacy of our
home. Yes, there is forgiveness. But the consequences are not removed when the
guilt is removed.
The second
thing that I love about this story is that in spite of the consequences David
still goes out and makes life right. Instead
of being angry with God about the death of his child, David goes in and
consoles Bathsheba. In fact, he gives
her another son, a son who will eventually be king, even! David realizes his mistake at staying home
when his soldiers march out to war and he goes out to join them in battle as
they take the city. David accepts the
consequences and gets on with life. He
does a course correction, makes amends, and goes back to the pursuit of
righteousness.
That’s what
imperfect people following a perfect God have to learn how to do. We cannot continually condemn ourselves for
our mistakes. Mistakes happen. We are sinful beings. Accept the consequences, make amends, and
carry on the pursuit of God’s ways. That’s
how to be a person after God’s own heart even in the midst of our sinful
nature.
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