But the Lord has forgiven you. 2 Samuel 12:13

Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.  He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”  Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home.  Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”  2 Samuel 11:2-5

The chain reaction of sin.  David, “a man after God’s own heart,” sinned willfully.  Does that make him not a man after God’s own heart?  Does that alienate him from God?  His sin does not negate his relationship with God, but it does alienate him for a time until he repents and asks for forgiveness.

David continued his sin by trying first to conceal his sin, then by having Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle.  When Nathan confronted David, helping him to see that David would not have tolerated anyone else doing what he did, David was remorseful.  David confessed saying, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  (2 Sam 12:13)  He didn’t say that he sinned against Uriah or Bathsheba, but the Lord.  I think there is a huge lesson in this.  As God is the only morally perfect being, only he can set the “rules” of what is right and wrong.  It is God’s standards we follow, not man’s.  Therefore, we can really only sin against God.  However, we offend others.  This is a big point to me, maybe it isn’t to others, I just don’t know.  Too many people get wrapped up in, “you sinned against me…”  (Sorry, I got side tracked.)

Nathan’s response, also in verse 13 and extending into verse 14 was this, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.  But you have given the enemies of the Lord great opportunity to despise and blaspheme him, so your child will die.”

I can’t even begin to understand this punishment, I simply accept it because it was what God decreed.  So I’ll leave it at that.  So then, why was David considered a “man after God’s own heart?”  (1 Sam 13:14, Acts 13:22)   I would simply say that it is because whenever he recognized sin in his own life, he immediately confessed, repented and turned from his wicked ways. 

Think about it for a minute.  David, a man after God’s own heart, sinned.  David repented and asked for forgiveness.  David was restored to God.  I don’t claim such greatness in my life.  But, if David, a great man of the bible and a man after God’s own heart could sin so devastatingly and still be called God’s friend, a man after God’s own heart, then there is hope for me. 

I know that I am no where near perfect.  I know that I sin, that I fall to temptation and that there are some sins that I harbor for fear of anyone else finding out (including myself - that is called self deception).  But, I also know that as the Lord confronts me we each of these sins in my life and my heart, I have a choice.  It is the choice that I make that puts me on par with King David.  I can choose to bury my head in the sand, or I can choose to repent and ask for forgiveness.  Sometimes I bulk and stall, but, since I have such a soul deep desire to be more like Christ and live my life for Him, I usually do repent and ask for forgiveness.

There were many similarities between the beginning of David and Bathsheba’s relationship and mine and my husbands.  (The situation and details are not identical, just some similarities.)  And now, though we started in sin, having been forgiven by our confessions to the Lord, the Lord has now turned our ashes into beauty.  We have beautiful children, we are married and growing together and we are closer to God.  We can’t escape the consequences of our sins, but we can be forgiven of our sins.  The Lord has forgiven.  The Lord has blessed us.

May God provide the increase.