Completely unplanned but in the past four weeks I have written about King David here, here, and here. You should have a read to learn and perhaps imbibe a thing or two from his life.
This week, I would still be sharing about David and his relationship with the Lord; but this time it isn’t an exactly sweet interaction between God and David. It all starts when David knowingly refused to do the right thing at the right time, he very well knew that he should have been out on the war front like other kings(II Samuel 11: 1). But for some reason, David decides to take a chill in his palace, it doesn’t stop there – he takes a stroll to the top of his palace on a fateful to have a feel of the beautiful air and scenery around. As he stepped out, taking in the beautiful scenery around him, his eyes caught the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. His eyes stopped in their tracks as they caught a glimpse of Bathseba taking her bath. “Oh! what a beauty! He must have said to himself. King David being the king who always gets the things that he wants, sent for Bathsheba immediately!. “I must behold closely this beauty”, he must have said to himself. Deaf to Bathsheba’s plea to let her be because of her union with Uriah, King David knew Bathsheba carnally. He slept with another man’s wife! In my opinion, a rather unspeakable thing to do, coming from King David as well “kinda” breaks my heart. But the story even gets better, or should I say worse.
Bathsheba becomes pregnant!!! King David did not think things through when he called on Bathsheba to sleep with her. He definitely did not think things through because his next line of action leaves me perplexed. He sent for Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband who was at the war front. Once Uriah presented himself to King David, he was asked to go home to his wife to “relax”. But unfortunately, David’s plan to get Uriah to have intercourse with his wife at that time did not work. Once he realized this, he settled to have Uriah murdered.
You know, it got me thinking about how the man who is always after God’s heart could so quickly lose touch with the father and sink so deep in sin. Even worse off is the fact that he did not realize the depths he had sank into until God reprimanded him. Before I go into how God disciplined him, I would like to reiterate how it all started – David chose to be idle when he should have been out with other kings fighting. The devil saw that opportunity and he quickly slid himself in to take advantage. In that split moment when David decided to relax from chasing God’s heart, the devil stroke and it just spiraled out of proportion. Or perhaps it was his flesh that may have been fighting the hardest to find expression through David. Either way, David experienced a moment of weakness which cost him a whole lot. A quick prayer before we proceed, shall we?
Lord, Jesus be my strength all the days of my life and in my moment(s) of weakness, please be my anchor to your path of righteousness for your name’s sake. Amen
To top it all off, David went as far as marrying Uriah’s widow. Yet within the space of nine months, it never occurred to David that God was unhappy with him. It blows my mind how deafening and blinding sin can make a human become. God was so unhappy with David and he just had to find a way to communicate with David (II Samuel 11:27). Imagine! A man who communicated with God expressly could not be reached by God because he was neck-deep in sin, sad in my opinion. May we not lose our touch with God in Jesus’ name.
Given the way things had turned, God sent the prophet, Nathan to speak with David about these unpleasant actions of his(II Samuel 12:6). And David’s reaction is one that melts my heart and reminds me why God gave the report about David as a man after His heart. It became even more evident that David was so clueless that he had wandered off slightly from God’s path. Immediately prophet Nathan pointed this out to him, and he repented there and then. He did not even try to hide things or feign oblivion, he poured everything out to the prophet there and asked God for forgiveness. Our loving God did forgive him but He is a God of justice and discipline still. Although the Lord blotted out the record of David’s sins, He still had to use the rod on David while He served justice – the Lord took away the son that was born to him by Uriah’s wife.
As I conclude, I would like to point to us how impartial and Holy God is. God is Holy and cannot behold sin regardless of His closeness and fondness for David, David’s sins somewhat hindered God from communicating with David directly like He used to. Therefore, He chastised him for doing the wrong things and sent the prophet to reroute him back to Himself. Furthermore, unlike humans who may try to bend their standards periodically- God is unbending with His standards and He upholds them to the letter.
Lastly, God tells us in Revelation 3:19 that He only disciplines and rebukes those whom He loves dearly. Therefore, when you get that rebuke from the Lord, count yourself blessed to be corrected by the Lord. And so instead of sulk, be in the know that He is trying to reroute you back to Himself, therefore earnestly make changes just as David did.