David’s Sin of Adultery and His Repentance
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The king’s answer was, “Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not
this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well another.”
Bathsheba observed the customary days of mourning for her hus-
band, and at their close, “David sent and fetched her to his house, and
she became his wife.” He who would not, even when in peril of his
life, put forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed, had so fallen that
he could wrong and murder one of his most faithful, valiant soldiers,
and hope to enjoy undisturbed the reward of his sin.
Happy they who, having ventured in this way, learn how bitter
are the fruits of sin, and turn from it. God in His mercy did not leave
David to be lured to utter ruin by the deceitful rewards of sin.
How God Intervened
There was a necessity for God to interpose. David’s sin toward
Bathsheba became known, and suspicion was excited that he had
planned the death of Uriah. The Lord was dishonored. He had exalted
David, and David’s sin cast reproach upon His name. It tended to
lower the standard of godliness in Israel, to lessen in many minds the
abhorrence of sin.
Nathan the prophet was bidden to bear a message of reproof to
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David. Terrible in its severity, Nathan delivered the divine sentence
with such heaven-born wisdom as to engage the sympathies of the
king, to arouse his conscience, and to call from his lips the sentence
of death upon himself. The prophet repeated a story of wrong and
oppression that demanded redress.
“There were two men in one city,” he said, “the one rich, and the
other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: but
the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had
bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with
his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and
lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a
traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and
of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto
him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was
come to him.”