THE POWER OF CONSEQUENCES

 

In the words of C.S. Lewis: “The heart can and should obey the head”. David, the King of Israel is concrete proof of these words.

There comes a time when we rise to the top and get too comfortable….Instead of being in battle with his troops, David was idling on the roof of his house watching a woman of great beauty washing herself (2 Samuel 10:2). From the wrong place at the wrong time ensued an adulterous affair which led to murder.

We tend to only see the tragedy of David in this story and forget there was a woman embroiled in his sin. David did not spiritually destroy just one person. I often wonder about the woman in this equation. She was a subject of David’s kingdom. Did she have a say in whether she followed him into sin? Was she subjected to his command and had no say? Did she try to dissuade him? Did she love her husband and went against that love because David was king and had the power to command? Whichever was the truth, he was the king and she was the subject. He was in charge.  And what about the husband who lost his life because David’s heart did not obey his head?

And this makes it even worse….. David had many wives and concubines which were given to him of the Lord by the hand of Nathan, the prophet. It is Nathan who was sent to prick David's conscience regarding the one wife that was not given to him of God and which 'displeased the Lord' (2 Sam 11:27). It was Jehovah through Nathan, his servant, that brought David to his knees.

 

Nathan recounted a parable to David in these words:  "There were two men in one city; 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 traveller unto the rich man, and he spared his own flock and his own herd to prepare a meal for the wayfaring man but took the poor man's lamb instead and dressed it for a meal for the man that was come to him” (2 Sam 12:2-4).

 

Perhaps the most sombre words spoken to anyone in the scriptures were Nathan's words to David as he responded to his outrage about the rich man who took the poor man's lamb and prepared it as a meal to a weary traveller whilst sparing so many lambs that he owned. At David's insistence that the man should be put to death for such a selfish act, Nathan's response to him cut deep as he said: "Thou art the man" (2 Sam 12:7).

 

Nathan then continued to recount all that the God of Israel had done for David, pointing out his gross sin of murder and prophesying all the calamities that would befall him. He would not be put to death as the law required but he was given a worse punishment than that. The child born to David and Bathsheeba died and David lived to see many of his wives and sons turn against him and much of his household turn to infighting and blood.

Such is the reward of sin…..devastation and destruction….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: David by Harry Ahn)