Another lesson from David...

The Big Idea I want to develop here is how different sorts of people can correct us when we're wrong. People who are a better example of right living (as Nathan was to David) and even those who are a worse example of proper conduct. (like Joab)

Since I've been reading about David lately, with some helpful background from Eerdman's Handbook to the Bible, I've picked up on some things that I hadn't noticed before.

Like the fact that the soldier whose wife David stole was actually listed as one of David's "Mighty Men" (2 Sam 23:39, Uriah the Hittite), or the role different people close to him played in his life.

Much has been made of David's sin with Bathsheba. I'm not about to break down the details of it here, except to say that it says much about what someone can and will do to hide their guilt.

He brought a soldier home from the front, and sent him to his wife's waiting arms. That didn't work. Then he got Uriah drunk, and tried to have him go home to his wife. That didn't work either. Why? Because he was a faithful and loyal soldier whose comrades were on the field of battle. They were not enjoying the comforts of home, and neither would he. Beyond that, his was a pious answer:

"the ARK and Israel are staying in tents... how could I go to my house...?"

(Do you think that just maybe such a show of loyalty and integrity singed David's conscience?) So David arranged to have Uriah killed in battle, and then take the widow for himself.
He was charged of his guilt by Nathan the prophet in 2 Sam 12:9

⁹ Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

Uriah was one of David's Mighty men!
He was probably one of the men in Ziklag with him when he was in exile. Brothers-in-arms. Murdered by the treachery of the very king he faithfully served.

God got his attention. There was fallout for his sin. But he repented.

(Sidebar -- if "you despise the word of the Lord" sounds familiar, it should. Similar language resulted in Saul losing the kingdom. See 1 Sam 15:26.)

The second example is Joab.

Joab, if you remember, is the commander of David's armies. Two of his rivals were assassinated. David specifically instructed Solomon to use his wisdom to hold him accountable for those murders. (I Kings 2:5-6) Oh, right. He also murdered Absalom, David's renegade son, when the King specifically instructed people not to harm him. This is to say, Joab is NOT a nice guy.

But being a wretched man does not mean David should have dismissed what he said.

Look (1 Chronicles 21:1-7):

¹ Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. ² So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are." ³ But Joab replied, "May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?" ⁴ The king's word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. ⁵ Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah. ⁶ But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king's command was repulsive to him. ⁷ This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.

I'm not going to argue what prompted the census (Chronicles points to Satan, 2 Samuel points to God's wrath) or exactly why taking a census was wrong (beyond the instructions that certain things must happen when a census takes place -- Ex 30:12 ).

The fact is, that David -- the same David that is described as being a man after God's own heart, had to be reigned in from a stupid, reckless, wicked act by a serial killer.

The point is not that David lived a perfect life.
The point is that however big he blew it, he came back to God.

What does that tell us?

1) We need to be receptive to correction. And, by extension, we need to be accountable to others. We are too good at inventing reasons that our sin is "minor" to do without it.
Sin isn't minor.
Ever.

2) We take comfort that even people that are esteemed greatly in scripture have blown it, in big ways, and still were used by God. (Hebrews 11:32 had David among the significant examples of faith.)

3) We need a Redeemer. None of us is free from sin's influence. We are slaves to sin until Christ sets us free from it.

That's the whole point of the Cross.