Bowing Before God's Providence (2)

Ok so I know this picture has nothing to do with this topic but I liked it and couldn't find another picture so yeah...

...continued from previous post

Obviously panic seized David's heart. He plotted an elaborate scheme to cover up his sin. He decided to grant Uriah a furlough from battle, a respite from war so that he could return for a season to his home and to his wife. This way when the child would be born Uriah could be deceived into thinking that it was his. David heaped the praise of hypocrisy upon Uriah, gave him a gift, and sent him home.

But David underestimated Uriah's loyalty. Uriah was not willing to abandon his post or take advantage of the king's generosity. He was a soldier. No matter how great was his longing to be with his wife, he still felt contrained to give service to his king. Instead of returning home as David had planned. . .

Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. So when they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?"

And Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with m wife> As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this things."

Then David said to Uriah, "Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, be he did not go down to his house.

David's scheme was thwarted. His desperate plan of cover-up was frustrated by the loyalty of the very man he had betrayed. At this point one might expect that David would have been awakened from his lustful slumber and would have been led to contrition. On the contrary! With growing desparation David added sin to sin and compounded his guilt with virtual murder. He wrote his general, Joab, a letter that would be revealed to all history by the secret operation of God the Holy Spirit. No shredding machine was available to destroy this evidence and conceal it from public scrutiny. David stopped to the nadir of nefarious conduct by having Uriah himself carry the sealed letter to Joab. In his naive loyalty, Uriah had no idea that the missive he carried to the front contained his own death warrant.

Later a messenger was sent by Joab from the scene of battle to inform David that Uriah had been slain. David thought he was safe, that his secret was hidden from the eyes of men, buried with the body of Uriah. Bathsheba also received the report and immediately went into mourning. But not for long. When David sent for her she went to his house, became his wife, and bore him a son. It seemed that no one would ever know that the child born to them was the son of adultery.

But the God of all providence had his eye upon David. The king's secret did not elude His gaze. What was hidden from human discernment was naked before Him. In classic understatement Scripture says: "But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord" (2 Samuel 11:27)

It was that divine displeasure that prompted the visit of Nathan to David. Nathan was burdened with the weight of the truth of the matter. His task was onerous as he was sent by God to confront a king. That is dangerous business for a prophet, as the experiences of Elijah and John the Baptist well attest. Yet the response of David to prophetic judgment was quite unlike that of Ahab or Herod. David heard the prohet's word and was broken by it. After the bold declaration that David was the man of the parable, God spoke His full indictment against David through the lips of the prohpet Nathan.

In the indictment God rehearsed the blessings He had bestowed upon David. All that David had received he had received from the invisible hand of God's providence. The blessing of that providence was now to be followed by judgment. The hand of God was heavy upon David. Yet the hand was not so heavy that it did not hold grace as well as judgment. Even here the justice of God was being tempered by mercy. God could have invoked the death penalty on David. David's offenses were capital crimes in Israel.

The heart of David melted. His response was that of deep and genuine repentance. His was no attrition born of a fear of punishment; his was contrition, a true remorse for having offended God. In his epic psalm of repentance following this incident, David cried out, "Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight". This statement must be taken as hyperbole as it is not strictly accurate. David did more than sin against God. He sinned against Uriah; he sinned against Bathsheba; he sinned against his own family; he sinned against the whole nation, betraying its confidence in him as king. Yet ultimately all sin is against God and, in ultimate terms, only against Him, though in a proximate sense it involved others.

To Nathan, David replied before he wrote his lengthy penitential psalm: "I have sinned against the Lord". David's confession of sin, his acknowledgment of his guilt without any attempts at self-justifaction, was immediately met with the announcement of God's pardon:

So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die." (2 Samuel 12:13-14)

...to be continued