MY SHORT REPORT 1 SAM 21 - 2 SAM 15
The link that brought you to this page and the page title are a bit of a misnomer, because this short report is not long enough to cover so many chapters of the Bible. What the link and the title do, however, is track where we are in our plan to read through the entire Bible in 1 year. May each report pique your interest and help you to draw near to God. The Bible, James 4:8, tells us if we do so God will draw near to us. Works cited are at the end of the report. Internal links provide additional information.
BIBLE READING—WEEK 14—1 SAM 21 – 2 SAM 20: Last week I looked at a key verse, 1 Samuel 15:22, as it applied it to King Saul, who got off to a good start but finished in tragedy because he “feared the people and obeyed their voice” (15:24). This week’s Short Report looks at King David’s darkest moment, including the consequences of his sin, his confession, and the forgiveness he received.
David is one of the most beloved characters of the Bible, and for good cause. One reason is he loved and was loyal to King Saul and always acknowledged him as God’s anointed (24:6; 26:11). And although Saul hunted David with plans of murdering him (1Sam 19:1; 23:8), David spared Saul’s life when he achieved the upper hand (1Sam 23:10; 26:8-9). Another reason he is so loved is because he is known as a man after God’s own heart (1Sam 13:14). This must be because he had the mind of Christ (cf. Phil 2), loved God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself, as we all should. Also, David is loved because he is the author of so many psalms that open our heart to God, like Psalm 23. In addition, David was Israel’s greatest king; he united the Northern and Southern Kingdoms (2 Sam 5:5), established Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (5:7), and expanded their territory while subduing their enemies (2Sam 8 and 10).
But, oh, how the mighty have fallen. After some time King David did not always join the battles with his men. Perhaps this was because of his men’s concern for his life (cf. 2Sam 18:2-3; 21:17). Nonetheless, one spring evening while his men were off to war he took his eyes off of God and, from his palace roof, looked down to notice Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
King David knew Uriah; he is listed as one of David’s mighty men in 2 Samuel 23:39. The NIV Study Bible offers this insight about Uriah: “His name suggests that even though he was a Hittite, he had adopted the Israelite faith (Uriah means ‘The Lord is my light’)” (Olive Tree). If that is the case, Uriah was more than a brother in arms; he was a brother in the faith.
Uriah’s murder was well thought-out and executed. He died a victim of a foolish battle plan that David, nor his commander, Joab, would never have approved if not for his need to move Uriah out of his way because of David’s sin of adultery (2Sam 11:14-25). No doubt, Uriah’s murder also led to the slaughter of many other innocent men that day.
After the time of mourning for her husband, Uriah, was over, David brought Bathsheba to the palace and she bore David a son. Perhaps David was thinking, “All’s well that ends well,” but God sent Nathan to say, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife” (2Sam 12:9).
David coveted Uriah’s wife, conflicting with the Tenth Commandment; then he committed adultery, contrary to the Sixth Commandment; and next, breaking the Fifth Commandment, David murdered Uriah. So God sent Nathan to give David correction. He used a short teaching story that aroused David’s sense of decency as well as his anger. When Nathan exclaimed that David was the man in the story and reminded him of all that God had done for him, David confessed his sins, and was immediately forgiven: Nathan said, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (2Sam 12:13).
Teaching about the temptation to sin Jesus said, “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3). And in 1 John we are told, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). This is not to say that we may sin without suffering the consequences of our actions. Hebrews 12:3-11 speaks of the discipline that comes from God. Verse 6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Because King David used the power of his office and violence to take what he wanted, he was told, “The sword shall never depart from your house” (2Sam 12:10). In short order David and Bathsheba’s son died soon after birth (v. 18). His daughter, Tamar, from another marriage was raped by Amnon, one of David’s sons from yet another marriage, and Tamar was avenged by her brother Absalom, who murdered his half-brother, Amnon (2Sam 13). Years later Absalom would conspire to take the throne from David, which he held briefly. He would later die by the hand of David’s commander, Joab. (2Sam 15 - 18).
One reason God disciplines us is because He is holy and requires us to be holy, also. The problem is, like all of God’s people David was a sinner. This brings us to two very important words: justification and sanctification.
The Lutheran Difference explains that justification is when “God declares sinners to be just or righteous for Christ’s sake; that is, God has imputed or charged our sins to Christ and He imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to us” (p. 578). This is followed by a process called sanctification, which is “the spiritual growth that follows justification by grace by faith in Christ. Sanctification is God’s work through His means of grace: Word and sacraments” (p. 585).
As we saw with David, being justified and sanctified before God does not give us permission to sin. Rather, in His time and way God will correct the situation. Proverbs 3:12 assures us, “For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” And Psalm 118:18 is appropriate, some say it was penned by David, but it is not among those attributed to him; it reads, “The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.”
In conclusion, we know King David as both a great man of God and a fellow sinner. For a short time David lost his focus and one sin led to another until God intervened with forgiveness and a firm hand to put David back on track, which included dealing with the natural consequences of his sin.
It may be difficult to say whose sin was worse Saul’s (here) or David’s, but when it was all said and done David returned to his senses and humbled himself before God, as he did in his youth, and God kept His promise to David when He told him, “your throne will be established forever” (2Sam 7:16), as we are told in Luke, King Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam, and the son of God (Luke 3:31, 34, 38).
David is one of the most beloved characters of the Bible, and for good cause. One reason is he loved and was loyal to King Saul and always acknowledged him as God’s anointed (24:6; 26:11). And although Saul hunted David with plans of murdering him (1Sam 19:1; 23:8), David spared Saul’s life when he achieved the upper hand (1Sam 23:10; 26:8-9). Another reason he is so loved is because he is known as a man after God’s own heart (1Sam 13:14). This must be because he had the mind of Christ (cf. Phil 2), loved God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself, as we all should. Also, David is loved because he is the author of so many psalms that open our heart to God, like Psalm 23. In addition, David was Israel’s greatest king; he united the Northern and Southern Kingdoms (2 Sam 5:5), established Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (5:7), and expanded their territory while subduing their enemies (2Sam 8 and 10).
But, oh, how the mighty have fallen. After some time King David did not always join the battles with his men. Perhaps this was because of his men’s concern for his life (cf. 2Sam 18:2-3; 21:17). Nonetheless, one spring evening while his men were off to war he took his eyes off of God and, from his palace roof, looked down to notice Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
King David knew Uriah; he is listed as one of David’s mighty men in 2 Samuel 23:39. The NIV Study Bible offers this insight about Uriah: “His name suggests that even though he was a Hittite, he had adopted the Israelite faith (Uriah means ‘The Lord is my light’)” (Olive Tree). If that is the case, Uriah was more than a brother in arms; he was a brother in the faith.
Uriah’s murder was well thought-out and executed. He died a victim of a foolish battle plan that David, nor his commander, Joab, would never have approved if not for his need to move Uriah out of his way because of David’s sin of adultery (2Sam 11:14-25). No doubt, Uriah’s murder also led to the slaughter of many other innocent men that day.
After the time of mourning for her husband, Uriah, was over, David brought Bathsheba to the palace and she bore David a son. Perhaps David was thinking, “All’s well that ends well,” but God sent Nathan to say, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife” (2Sam 12:9).
David coveted Uriah’s wife, conflicting with the Tenth Commandment; then he committed adultery, contrary to the Sixth Commandment; and next, breaking the Fifth Commandment, David murdered Uriah. So God sent Nathan to give David correction. He used a short teaching story that aroused David’s sense of decency as well as his anger. When Nathan exclaimed that David was the man in the story and reminded him of all that God had done for him, David confessed his sins, and was immediately forgiven: Nathan said, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (2Sam 12:13).
Teaching about the temptation to sin Jesus said, “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3). And in 1 John we are told, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). This is not to say that we may sin without suffering the consequences of our actions. Hebrews 12:3-11 speaks of the discipline that comes from God. Verse 6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Because King David used the power of his office and violence to take what he wanted, he was told, “The sword shall never depart from your house” (2Sam 12:10). In short order David and Bathsheba’s son died soon after birth (v. 18). His daughter, Tamar, from another marriage was raped by Amnon, one of David’s sons from yet another marriage, and Tamar was avenged by her brother Absalom, who murdered his half-brother, Amnon (2Sam 13). Years later Absalom would conspire to take the throne from David, which he held briefly. He would later die by the hand of David’s commander, Joab. (2Sam 15 - 18).
One reason God disciplines us is because He is holy and requires us to be holy, also. The problem is, like all of God’s people David was a sinner. This brings us to two very important words: justification and sanctification.
The Lutheran Difference explains that justification is when “God declares sinners to be just or righteous for Christ’s sake; that is, God has imputed or charged our sins to Christ and He imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to us” (p. 578). This is followed by a process called sanctification, which is “the spiritual growth that follows justification by grace by faith in Christ. Sanctification is God’s work through His means of grace: Word and sacraments” (p. 585).
As we saw with David, being justified and sanctified before God does not give us permission to sin. Rather, in His time and way God will correct the situation. Proverbs 3:12 assures us, “For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” And Psalm 118:18 is appropriate, some say it was penned by David, but it is not among those attributed to him; it reads, “The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.”
In conclusion, we know King David as both a great man of God and a fellow sinner. For a short time David lost his focus and one sin led to another until God intervened with forgiveness and a firm hand to put David back on track, which included dealing with the natural consequences of his sin.
It may be difficult to say whose sin was worse Saul’s (here) or David’s, but when it was all said and done David returned to his senses and humbled himself before God, as he did in his youth, and God kept His promise to David when He told him, “your throne will be established forever” (2Sam 7:16), as we are told in Luke, King Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam, and the son of God (Luke 3:31, 34, 38).