David and Nathan

He should have turned his eyes away, but King David’s lingering look over the palace roof led him to call for the woman he saw bathing in the twilight dusk. While his men were gone to war, the king lost a battle at home that night. Lust led to infidelity. “Rank has its privileges,” he rationalized.

It only got worse. When Bathsheba later sent a note to the king that she was pregnant, the ruler sent for her husband, who was fighting with his men out on the battlefield.

David’s efforts to induce Uriah to go home to his wife fell flat. The officer slept on the floor by the king’s door with the other servants. The guilty monarch tried to cover his trail by getting his general drunk and sending him home. That didn’t work either.

Horribly, the desperate king finally plotted his faithful servant’s death by sending him back to the battlefield and up to the frontlines where he was struck down. After a period of mourning, the king took Bathsheba as his wife.

She bore a son, and sometime later, Nathan, a prophet of God, showed up. He told a story that roused David’s sense of justice. Without realizing it, the king condemned himself before God and his prophet.

Nathan then pointed at him, “You are the man.” David finally confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan replied, “The Lord has put away your sin. You will not die. However … the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

The prophet left, leaving David to face his own shame and guilt. David was brokenhearted over his wrongdoing. He fasted and prayed, yet his child still died. Though he suffered consequences for his sin, God still forgave him.

Even if the Lord wipes your slate clean in heaven, you may still live with the results of wrong choices on earth. David lost his son, yet he was forgiven.