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THE STORY OF KING DAVID, HIS GREAT SINS/CRIMES, PUNISHMENT AND REDEMPTION. Bible text: 2 Samuel chapter 11 and 12. .... ELLEN G. WHITE ON KING DAVID'S SINS/ CRIME AND RESTORATION. PART 1 "The Bible has little to say in praise of men. All the good qualities men possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ. They are but instruments in His hands. All the lessons of Bible history teach that it is a perilous thing to praise men, for if one comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God, he is sure to fall. The Bible inculcates distrust of human power and encourages trust in divine power.
The spirit of self-exaltation prepared the way for David's fall. Flattery, power, and luxury were not without effect upon him. According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers, crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were uncondemned in the king. All this tended to lessen David's sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He began to trust to his own wisdom and might. As soon as Satan can separate the soul from God, he will arouse the unholy desires of man's carnal nature. The work of the enemy is not, at the outset, sudden and startling. It begins in apparently small things—neglect to rely upon God wholly, the disposition to follow the practices of the world. David returned to Jerusalem. The Syrians had already submitted, and the complete overthrow of the Ammonites appeared certain. David was surrounded by the fruits of victory and the honors of his able rule. Now the tempter seized the opportunity to occupy his mind. In ease and self-security, David yielded to Satan and brought upon his soul the stain of guilt. He, the Heaven-appointed leader of the nation, chosen by God to execute His law, himself trampled upon its precepts. He who should have been a terror to evildoers, by his own act strengthened their hands. Guilty and unrepentant, David did not ask guidance from Heaven, but sought to extricate himself from the dangers in which sin had involved him. Bathsheba, whose fatal beauty had proved a snare to the king, was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David's bravest and most faithful officers. The law of God pronounced the adulterer guilty of death, and the proud-spirited soldier, so shamefully wronged, might avenge himself by taking the life of the king or by exciting the nation to revolt. Every effort which David made to conceal his guilt proved unavailing. He had betrayed himself into the power of Satan; danger surrounded him, dishonor more bitter than death was before him. There appeared but one way of escape—to add murder to adultery. David reasoned that if Uriah were slain by the hand of enemies in battle, the guilt of his death could not be traced to the king. Bathsheba would be free to become David's wife, suspicion could be averted, and the royal honor maintained. Uriah was made the bearer of his own death warrant. The king commanded Joab, “Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.” Joab, already stained with the guilt of one murder, did not hesitate to obey the king's instructions, and Uriah fell by the sword of the children of Ammon. PART 2 David Temporarily Becomes Agent of Satan Heretofore David's record as a ruler had won the confidence of the nation. But as he departed from God, he became for the time the agent of Satan. Yet he still held the authority that God had given him, and because of this, claimed obedience that would imperil the soul of him who should yield it. Joab, whose allegiance had been given to the king rather than to God, transgressed God's law because the king commanded it. When David commanded that which was contrary to God's law, it became sin to obey. “The powers that be are ordained of God” (Romans 13:1), but we are not to obey them contrary to God's law. The apostle Paul sets forth the principle by which we should be governed: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1. An account of the execution of his order was sent to David, but so carefully worded as not to implicate either Joab or the king. “Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.” 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 husband, 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. PART 3 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 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.” The anger of the king was aroused. “As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing is worthy to die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” Nathan fixed his eyes upon the king, then solemnly declared, “Thou art the man... . Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?” The guilty may attempt, as David had done, to conceal their crime from men, to bury the evil deed forever from human sight, but “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:13. Nathan declared: “Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house... . Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor... . For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” The prophet's rebuke touched the heart of David; conscience was aroused; his guilt appeared in all its enormity. With trembling lips he said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” David had committed a grievous sin, toward both Uriah and Bathsheba, but infinitely greater was his sin against God. PART 4 God intended the history of David's fall to serve as a warning that even those whom He has greatly blessed are not to feel secure. And thus it has proved to those who in humility have sought to learn the lesson He designed to teach. The fall of David, one so honored by the Lord, has awakened in them distrust of self. Knowing that in God alone was their strength and safety, they have feared to take the first step on Satan's ground. Even before the divine sentence was pronounced against David, he had begun to reap the fruit of transgression. The agony of spirit he then endured is brought to view in the thirty-second psalm:
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old Through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer. Psalm 32:3, 4 And the fifty-first psalm is an expression of David's repentance, when the message of reproof came to him from God: Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence; And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me... . Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; And my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. Psalm 51:10, 11, 14 Thus the king of Israel recounted his sin, his repentance, and his hope of pardon through the mercy of God. He desired that others might be instructed by the sad history of his fall. PART 5 HOW DAVID WAS RESTORED More Than Pardon David's repentance was sincere. There was no effort to palliate his crime, no desire to escape the judgments threatened. He saw the defilement of his soul. He loathed his sin. It was not for pardon only that he prayed, but for purity of heart. In the promise of God to repentant sinners, he saw the evidence of his pardon and acceptance: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” Psalm 51:17. Though David had fallen, the Lord lifted him up. In the joy of his release he sang, “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Psalm 32:5. David humbled himself and confessed his sin, while Saul despised reproof and hardened his heart in impenitence.
This passage in David's history is one of the most forcible illustrations given us of the struggles and temptations of humanity, and of genuine repentance. Through all the ages, thousands of the children of God who have been betrayed into sin have remembered David's sincere repentance and confession and have taken courage to repent and try again to walk in the way of God's commandments.
Whoever will humble the soul with confession and repentance, as did David, may be sure there is hope for him. The Lord will never cast away one truly repentant soul.
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WHAT SATAN CAN TRY THOUGH, which also displeases greatly the Lord is to try to fool someone who has sinned as a child, when the laws in the country forbid prison for children, to commit a crime as an adult in order to end up in jail. This is not the will of God. God would never want someone to commit a crime. This is the god of Spiritualism, of Satan who think he is god.
God want us to feel grieved for our sins, repent and then ask for mercy and grace. God would be displeased if we do not have faith in the great sacrifice of the son of God and also the Father who had to sacrifice His son, for the repented sins of human kind, who laid down His life as a free will sacrifice. All for the love of God's creation.
The false religion of Spiritualism and the False Christ (Satan) would have a one sided idea of redemption. True redemption has two sides, like the cross.
THE CROSS HAVE TWO SIDES:
1. For our repented transgressions/sins it required a cross, a holy sacrifice by the Creator (both Father and Son) for the sake of creation.
2. We have to take up our cross and follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. For our recreation from unsanctified to sanctified humans by receiving the divine nature by choosing and enduring the path of the cross, of crucifying the moral character of self and this world, in order to receive the moral character/image of God. Of divine, everlasting, higher love, joy, wisdom, peace and justice. By grace, through faith.
Redemption without the sacrifice of the Creator, God to creation. Only relying on a form of sanctification without the blood of Christ, is spiritualism, it is the religion of Satan, of Antichrist. Denying the death, burial and resurrection and the very sacrifice of God for His creation. Denying and rejecting love divine, denying the power and work of the holy spirit, denying the everlasting covenant, denying the everlasting gospel, denying the son of God and His righteousness. However, redemption without taking up one's own cross and choosing the way of the cross and follow in the steps of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who will guide and assist us by His grace, through faith, is also a false gospel of the Antichrist, as it is a very one-sided, limited version of the complete, everlasting gospel.
ANOTHER STRATEGY OF SATAN to lure people into sin and to his side, is to have hatred and unforgiveness even to those who have repented and grieved their sin. This sin will automatically leave one on the side of the FALSE CHRIST (Satan), who now has received so much power in these last days (Rev 13:13) that he imagine he is god and will win this battle against the true Christ.. He come with his ways and counterfeits, his idea of justice and try to lure you over to his side. While the same time he try to make you hate God and His true ways and government. That is why we must learn to know God's true ways, and the two sides of the cross in the story of our redemption.
Satan who represent false doctrines and belief systems, will also try to make you unbalanced in one way or another. For the one who has a strong conscience, he can come in and ask you to live in the same chapter all your life, so that you will plead forgiveness for the same sins over and over again, and make you doubt God's promises and gospel about redemption and forgiveness, so you never get ahead. The pilgrimage and the way of the cross are about progress and that one goes from one chapter to the next and then the next. While Satan will claim he is God and ask you to go back to or remain in a completed chapter after God has given you evidence that He has punished and forgiven you for a sin. It would then be lack of faith in God and His promises to doubt this at a later point in time.
EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS GUILTY AND DESERVING THE DEATH PENALTY. BUT EVERY SINGLE PERSON ALSO RECEIVE THE GIFT OF REDEMPTION, OF GRACE AND MERCY AND LOVE DIVINE, IF THEY CHOOSE AND ENDURE THE WAY OF THE CROSS. (Romans 3:23)
Just because your criminal record is flawless, does not mean you have not committed a crime and even treason against the higher government of God. Everyone has committed a crime against the most High God, and most have also committed treason at this point. And worst, many go completely unrepented and still think they serve the Lord. Every single human being has sinned, fallen short and deserve death penalty. No single person is exempt from this judgment, except by taking and enduring the true and complete way of Christ, from fallen sinful human nature to sanctified human beings by receiving the moral character of the triune God, by grace through faith.
Christ is soon at the door and we must do all in our power now to get ready before the bridegroom comes for His church on earth.
A Prayer. Forgive us our dear Heavenly Father, for we have all sinned.
Forgive us for causing You and and your beloved and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ great pain, shame, anger and sorrow.
While everyone must speak and answer for themselves, as we are individually saved and not guilty of the sins of the human race, our nation, our church or our families, may all see the sinfulness of the unsanctified human nature, as well as ones own grievous sins and repent of the crimes against our neighbor. But worst of all, those crimes committed against heaven itself.
Forgive me, forgive us for all we have put our fellow man, angels and the triune God through, knowing and understanding now how exceedingly offensive sin is in the sight of the holy and pure in heart. And most of all against You.
Thank you for your great patience, for the gift of your amazing grace and mercy and your gift of love divine that you bestow on us, undeserving as we all are.
Thank you for your Word, Your Spirit and the Cross.
We can never thank or praise You enough.
Have mercy on us all.
In Jesus precious name I pray.
Amen.
Previous part in this series:
The Fall of The Metalman in Daniel 2 & Babylon in Revelation 18.
Entire series "From 666 - 777. Sanctified in the Image of God."
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