WEDNESDAY
In 2 Samuel 11-12 we read of David’s truly horrendous sins. He sleeps with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, while Uriah is out at war fighting for him. When she becomes pregnant he devises a plan to cover it up. He brings Uriah in from the battlefield and hopes that he will go home, sleep with Bathsheba, and therefore everyone will assume the child is his. However, Uriah proves to be an incredibly honorable man. He refuses the comforts that his fellow soldiers on the battlefield cannot share and doesn’t do what David suggests. So, David tells Uriah’s commanding officers to send him to the front of the line, move too close to the archers then back away so that Uriah will be killed. This plan is successful and David brings Bathsheba into his home as one of his wives.
God then sends the prophet Nathan to David to reveal that He is aware of what David has done and pronounce judgment on him for this grave sin. After hearing all of this from Nathan, David confesses and repents. He doesn’t deny, deflect or ignore it. He simply confesses it.
2 Samuel 12:13–14 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of confession and repentance after this incident.
When God’s judgment is enacted and the child becomes sick, David goes to the Lord in fasting and prayer:
2 Samuel 12:16–18, 20 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. 18 On the seventh day the child died… 20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.
David knew that he was called to “be holy as God is holy.” (1 Pet. 1:16; Lev. 11:44) He failed in this, as we all to some extent. When he did, his resilience in faith was displayed. In the face of such a harsh judgment from God, many would be tempted to run away from God. David runs to God. Instead of retreating into anger and bitterness over the harsh punishment he received, he confessed and repented, accepting the judgment of God.
David also didn’t remain in the guilt of his sin. Judging from the rest of his life, he seems to have understood and accepted the grace of God that God had “taken away his sin.” (2 Sam. 12:13) I’m sure this was a wound he carried all of his life, but because of his resilient faith, it didn’t cripple him completely.