Known as the man after God's own heart, David. His amazing story so well documented in the 1st and 2nd book of Samuel, has many lessons for the 21st century Christians. One of them is recorded in the 2nd book of Samuel 11. You may ask; of all the things that one can say or highlight about David's life, why choose to speak of his sin? well ... here is why: This story profoundly illustrates the understanding of worldly and Godly sorrows.
For the benefit of those that have not read the story, here's a summary: so David is king of Israel. One evening he finds himself walking on the roof of the palace and sees a married woman (Bathsheba) bathing. He sends for her and sleeps with her. The woman conceives and sends a message to David about her pregnancy. Now Davids first response to the news is to hide/cover the sin. This is not a new thing, the common man's first instinct is to cover the sin so that nobody finds out about it. We can wrap it up as a mentality that says; "how can I can sin, get away with it and still be 'saved'". Its a mentality that is more worried about what the people will say and seemingly forgets that the Father in heaven sees all things. More worried about the consequence of the sin than the sin itself. Any person who thinks like that does not truly repent but makes him/herself feel better by making a "1John 1:9" prayer. Don't get me wrong, there is power in the word of God and yes He forgives us, but wouldn't it be better if you meant it and was not just saying it to make yourself feel better. I think God honors that. Story continues ... David sends for the woman's husband Uriah who is fighting in battle with the Ammonites. David's plan was to get him to sleep with his wife so that it can look like he impregnated her, but Uriah being a noble man did not sleep with his wife. This left David with one option ... to kill him. So he sends him back to the battle with a letter that commands Joab to put him at the heat of the battle so that he can be struck dead and so it happens, just as he had planned. Now, our current generation of people have the kind of mindset that suggest that "the end justifies the means". This kind of thought says that it doesn't matter how you get what you want, as long as you get it. So whether you sell drugs to get rich, sleep with the boss to get a job, pay a bribe to get a job, etc. it doesn't matte because you got what you wanted and nobody will know or can tell what you did to get what you have. We see in this story that this was the same mindset of David, his need to satisfy the flesh made him to disregard the importance of obeying God's commands and value human life. So for as long as one can sin, get away with and still call themselves a Christian in the name of "we all sin", there will never be true repentance.
I am happy that the story does not end there, because what happens afterwards is what God is seeking from us. After all this has happened, God sends Nathan to David to rebuke him of his sin. David then fasts and lies on the ground in repentance. Psalm 51 is said to be the words of David to God after being confronted by Nathan. And although it is not recorded in the book of Samuel; I suspect that he said the words in that psalm during the time of prayer and fasting. In verse 4, David says: "Against You - You alone have I sinned" and I reckon if he had known that before, he wouldn't have had to cover his sin because he would have understood that it's no secret to the One who matters most. God.
So as we wrap up this 2 part series on Godly sorrows, let us walk by faith with the knowledge that worldly sorrow lead to death, death of the conscience because there is no repentance. Godly sorrows leads to repentance and life, because a total turn around from what is evil brings us closer to God, and the closer you are to God, the more you are like Him. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
God Bless you all and thanks for reading.
Sorry to all the regular readers the delay, hope I'm forgiven and that we will continue to grow as I seek to share my lessons from God's word wit you.
Got stax of love for all of you ... Peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment