Year 7, Day 341: 2 Samuel 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

2 Samuel is such an odd story upon which to end the story of David.  Granted, we do nominally continue the story in 1 Kings for a little bit, but it is really only to transition to Solomon.  As far as the genuine story of David goes, this is just about how the story ends.

There’s something cool about this.  We end with a sin of David.  We end on a bit of a sour note.  David sins and 70,000 people end up dead because of it.  Granted, there is nothing cool about people dying.  What is cool is that in this story I see proof of the truth and genuineness of God’s Word.  What human author, especially from a population of people who idolize David, would put this as the climax of David’s story?  Human beings just don’t do it this way.  History is always written by the victors.  People who idolize David wouldn’t have naturally made this the end of his story unless it was God who wanted truth to be told!

There’s another cool part to this story.  The reason that this is a neat ending to David’s story is because David’s life ends on a note of repentance.  David makes a poor decision and people die.  David could have been angry.  He could have accused God of being unrighteous.  He could have denied involvement.  He could have transferred responsibility to something or someone else.  He could have done a myriad of other things. What does David do?  David owns his action and repents of it.

As I’ve been saying all along, this is why David is a man after God’s own heart.  He’s certainly not perfect.  His mistakes, when he makes them, tend to be rather huge.  But he’s a man after God’s own heart because he acknowledges his faults and repents.  That’s what makes David great in the eyes of God.  That’s why this is an awesome concluding story.  The story is awful and tragic, but  this story is a great story about how God loves a repentant heart.

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