Basic HTML Version
460
The Beginning of the End
The king’s answer was, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not
let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as
another.’”
According to custom, Bathsheba mourned for her husband an
appropriate number of days, and at their close, “David sent and
brought her to his house, and she became his wife.” He who would
not, even when his life was in danger, use his hand against the Lord’s
anointed, had fallen so far that he could wrong and murder one of
his most faithful, brave soldiers, and hope to enjoy the reward of his
sin undisturbed.
Happy are those who, having strayed from the right path, learn
how bitter the fruits of sin are, and turn from it. God in His mercy
did not leave David to be lured to complete ruin by the deceitful
rewards of sin.
How God Intervened
It was necessary for God to step in. David’s sin with Bathsheba
became known, and many people suspected that he had planned
[364]
Uriah’s death. The Lord was dishonored—He had exalted David,
and David’s sin brought disgrace on His name. It tended to lower
the standard of godliness in Israel, and to lessen in many minds the
perception that sin is hateful.
Nathan the prophet was given a message of reproof for David.
Though it was terrible in its severity, Nathan delivered the divine
message with such heaven-born wisdom that it caught the sympathies
of the king, aroused his conscience, and called from his own lips
the sentence of death upon himself. The prophet told a story of
wrongdoing and injustice that simply had to be made right.
“There were two men in one city,” he said, “one rich and the
other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds.
But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he
had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and
with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own
cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And
a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own
flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man