2 Samuel 11 26-12:13a v 27 “When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.”
So, the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story:” There were two men in a town, one very rich the other poor. The rich man had many sheep, the poor man only one. The poor man fed the sheep from his own plate. One day a guest came to stay with the rich man, and he killed the lamb of the poor man instead of one of his own flocks for his guest. David was furious! He said the rich man must repay the poor man with four lambs for the one he stole and having no pity. Then Nathan said to David. “You are that man.” The Lord said. “Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel.” Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
The Old Testament is full of good men making poor decisions, and a God who punishes. But just as we are learning from modern psychology using “the rod to train the child” does not work as well as removing something important to the child due to bad behavior and that offering positive encouragement for good behavior works better. We need the New Testament and Jesus’s example to move forward in the current world in which we live. It’s not bad to understand that God has his limits, and indeed He removed from David something he loved, the child that was the result of the first encounter with Bathsheba. Our loving God has stressed to us that living together in harmony is what He wants, loving God, ourselves and our neighbor, and He will judge the rest.
Live today with love for God, for yourselves and your neighbor. Unite the Old Testament truth with the New.
Prayer: Heavenly Father as we go about our daily lives forgive us for the poor decisions we make, help us to see your path in our lives and give us the strength to live it. Amen.
CrossWalk 