Chronicles: David’s Sins
Why This?
Coming off a week where we discussed a lot about King David’s rise to power and how he was such a righteous leader, it is only fitting that we continue our look at David’s life by including all aspects of his kingship. As unpleasant as it may be, we must also look at the areas of David’s life where he missed the mark and disobeyed our Lord. Now why do we do this? Why not just take away the good from David’s life and leave it at that? A few reasons come to mind here. For one, looking at the areas where David falls short reminds us that he wasn’t perfect. The Doctrine of Original Sin is a teaching that applies to every human being throughout scripture and we can’t overlook David just because of how good of a king he was. But even beyond this, seeing how David falls short shows us how we ourselves should respond in times of disobedience to God. We saw last week how David was a righteous ruler by using the example of his repentance from the sins he committed with Bathsheba and we’ll go even further into this story in this post as well. Again, this may not be a fun topic to look at, but when we find ourselves in a situation similar to David’s, it will be a good reminder that everyone struggles with sin, and everyone needs to repent. I can’t think of a better reason to discuss this topic than by stating what Ligonier Ministries has stated about David’s sin. They mention, “A man after God’s heart loves the things God loves and the ways He prescribes. Though he may deviate from those ways at times, he will return—for God will not let him rest in his sin. All true children of God will be called back to Him when they wander.” With this in mind, let’s dive in.
One Sin?!
Now before we look at all the sins that David committed, we must address the elephant in the room. That elephant, of course, is found in 1 Kings 15:5 “David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and did not deviate from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.” Is this passage suggesting that the only sin that David ever committed was the sin with Bathsheba? Sure this might be a terrible sin to commit, but if it’s the only sin on your record, that’s pretty impressive! Let’s look at this in context though. As we know with Chronicles and many of the history books in the Old Testament, these sections of scripture cover large areas of time, including the books of 1 & 2 Kings. But in this section in Kings, we see a huge list of kings being recorded and placed in one of two camps. Those who did what was right according to God and those who didn’t. Some people in the entirety of the Bible only get this one statement, that they did what was right according to God. Now ask yourself this question, if the only thing that is written about someone in the Bible is that they were a good king and no sin is mentioned, does this mean they never sinned? Of course not! This just means that the whole life of this individual wasn’t recorded, including their failures. The same here applies to David. Yes, the only story of him sinning is the story of Uriah & Bathsheba, but this doesn’t mean that this is the only time he sinned. It could just very well mean that the rest of David’s sins had no need of being recorded for God’s glory. So if the sin that David committed with Bathsheba is the only recorded sin we have of David and we discussed that last week, what more is there to discuss?! A lot.
Deceit, Adultery, & Murder
The reason we still have much to talk about with David’s shortcomings is that multiple sins were committed during this one story. During this one instance, David committed adultery, murder, and ran from repentance as he tried to cover up his sin. This story is actually skimmed over in Chronicles itself but is believed to have taken place in 1 Chronicles 20. 2 Samuel is where this story goes into detail. David’s act of adultery obviously happens when he sleeps with Bathsheba but the others are found right after. 2 Samuel 11:8 tells us, “Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the king’s house, and a gift from the king was sent after him.” This scene takes place because David finds out that Bathsheba is pregnant so he recruits Uriah to come home from war in hopes that he will sleep with his wife and think that the baby is his. This is clearly deceitful and running from repentance which is what David does right before adding more sin on top of all this. When Uriah refuses to sleep with his wife while his fellow men are at war, David takes matters into his own hands and settles this issue for himself.
Instead of confessing to God and Uriah the sins he had committed, he decides to get rid of Uriah once and for all. 2 Samuel 11:14-15 says, “So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He had written in the letter the following: “StationUriah on the front line of the fiercest battle and pullback from him, so that he may be struck and killed.” As great and mighty of a king David has been, this story clarifies that original sin is indeed in the heart of every man besides Christ Himself. As terrible as these sins are, it’s important to realize that God still considers David a man after His own heart. The next time you fall short of the glory of God, I hope and pray that the story of David won’t lead you to cover up your sin, but rather approach God Himself for forgiveness and with a heart of repentance. Jesus Christ Himself has made this possible for us to do just as much as He made it possible for David to do. May this story of wickedness and sin encourage you to humble yourself before the Lord and lead you to glorify Him all the more.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] David’s Great Sin | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org. (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/davids-great-sin
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