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David’s Sin of Adultery and His Repentance
This chapter is based on 2 Samuel 11; 12.
The Bible has little to say in praise of human beings. All the
good qualities that people possess are the gift of God; their good
deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ. They are
only instruments in His hands. All the lessons of Bible history teach
that it is dangerous to praise people, because when we lose sight of
our entire dependence on God, we are sure to fall. The Bible teaches
distrust of human power and encourages trust in divine power.
The spirit of self-confidence and exaltation prepared the way for
David’s fall. Flattery, power, and luxury had their effect on him.
According to the usual customs among Eastern rulers, crimes that
were not tolerated in common people were overlooked in the king.
All this tended to lessen David’s sense of the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. He began to trust in his own wisdom and might.
As soon as Satan can separate a person from God, he will arouse
the unholy desires of man’s carnal nature. The work of the enemy
does not begin with something sudden and startling. It begins in
apparently small things—neglect to fully rely on God, the tendency
to follow the customs of the world.
Before the end of the war, David returned to Jerusalem. The
Syrians had already surrendered, and the complete defeat of the
Ammonites appeared certain. David was surrounded by the fruits
of victory and the honors of his wise rule. Now the tempter seized
the opportunity to occupy his mind. In ease and self-security, David
yielded to Satan and brought upon himself the stain of guilt. He
himself, the Heaven-appointed leader of the nation, chosen by God
to uphold His law, trampled on its precepts. By his own act, he who
should have been a terror to evildoers strengthened their hands.
Guilty and unrepentant, David did not ask guidance from Heaven,
but tried to disentangle himself from the dangers in which sin had
involved him. Bathsheba, whose fatal beauty had become a trap to
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