Like David? Not!
But didn’t King David of Israel commit adultery and
murder? He wasn’t deposed from being
king, was he? Shouldn’t there be
forgiveness of sins and mercy?
A certain famous civil rights spokesman recently compared David’s sin
to the present occupant of the White House, and suggested that there were
parallels.
I would suggest that there are some superficial similarities, but the
differences are much more striking. The
story is recounted in II Samuel 11 and the following chapters. Nathan the prophet rebuked David for his sin
and pronounced the judgment of God:
“The sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast
despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, “Behold, I will raise
up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before
thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in
the sight of this sun. For thou didst
it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”
What did David do? He was
stricken with remorse and confessed: “I
have sinned against the Lord.” It is
also significant what David did not
do. He did not make excuses; he did not
try to divert attention away from himself; he did not attack the prophet. Taking responsibility for his actions simply
meant that he took the blame upon himself.
God Himself commuted David’s capital crime. Adultery and murder were capital offenses and demanded death,
according to the Law of Moses. Nathan
announced the commutation from God:
“The Lord hath also put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou has given
great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is
born unto thee shall surely die.”
This did not mean that the original sentence of Nathan was
commuted. David knew great trouble and
sorrow in his house. A daughter was
raped, three sons were slain, Bathsheba’s baby died, and continual insurrection
troubled his reign, just as the prophet had said. Repentance saves the soul, but does not always remove the earthly
effects of the sin. God is not only the
Savior of the soul, but He also is the wise governor of the world. In this case, He sends a message to the
heathen kings surrounding Israel that even His favorite David, a man after His
own heart, would not be exempt from consequences of his evil deeds.
Later David was to write his repentance in the great 51st
Psalm. “Deliver me from
bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing
aloud of thy righteousness.” (Ps. 51:14)
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
(vs. 10) David did not pretend that his
crime was a private matter, and ask people to put it behind them. He recognized that his crime was against
God, and he was guilty of capital crimes:
“Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou
judgest.” David called it sin, not
inappropriate.
Emperor Theodosius was very angry with the city of Thessalonica and
ordered a massacre of its inhabitants.
Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, rebuked and excommunicated the
emperor. When Theodosius appealed to
the example of David, Ambrose retorted, “Thou hast followed David in his sin,
now you must follow him in his repentance.”
Good advice.