There are perhaps no more heartbreaking stories than
those of a hero's fall from grace. A person who had it
all and lost it all because of a foolish decision.
The story of David and Bathsheba is such a story but with
a happy ending. 2 Samuel 11 records the story
of David and Bathsheba. David witnessed her bathing
and became filled with lust and slept with her. She
became pregnant and David tried to hide what he had done.
When David was unable to convince Uriah to go home and sleep
with his wife so that the child could be passed off as
Uriah's, he had to go to further lengths to hide his
treachery. He had Uriah sent to the front line of the
army where he was sure to be killed as the men withdrew
around him.
When David is confronted by the prophet Nathan about what
he had done, he is devastated by his own sin. He
writes Psalm 51 which begins "Have mercy on me, O
God, according to your unfailing love; according to your
great compassion blot out my transgressions." The
entire psalm is a song of repentance for his sin.
God forgave David for his sin but he did not escape the
consequences of the sin. The child that he and
Bathsheba had conceived in sin ended up dying. Even
though David lost the child as punishment for his sin with
Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, God gave he and Bathsheba
another child, Solomon.
Solomon went on to become king and the line of David
proceeded through him. Solomon, a child of David and
Bathsheba, became an ancestor to Jesus. As David had
multiple wives, God could have chosen for the Messiah to
have been born to another mother but instead He chose
Bathsheba.
David paid the consequences of his sin but he was
forgiven by God. And not only was his sin forgiven,
but God continued to bless him and even Bathsheba.
Sexual sin often holds more personal consequences than other
sins but it is forgiven by God just as any other sin if we
truly repent.
