If David, a sinful human like us, laments loudly the killing of his rebel son, then the death of Jesus, who obeys the will of God, brings grief past imagining to the heart of his father. The Father accepts this grief even as the Son accepts his death. They do so freely. Love is the motive.
How is it that someone so good, someone who claimed to love God, became so bad. Some would label David a hypocrite – and they would be right. And God wasn’t happy with what David had done. Neither is God happy with our sins.
King David had one defining moment. Today I want to ask, “What exactly was his defining moment?” For many people, the defining moment was his act of adultery. For those who study the passage more carefully, his defining moment was his repentance.
David denies nothing. He says to Nathan, “I have sinned before the Lord.” A conniving sinner, David becomes an honest penitent. Nathan is the midwife at the second birth of this king. It can be helpful to have someone like Nathan in your life.
For several months, I have been doing battle with a pesky spider. The image of a spider’s web is appropriate for this sermon on David’s famous sin. For David, one sin led to a web of deceit and sin, and it created a web of impact that lasted for generations.
David could have been a gentleman and turned away. But boys will be boys, even boys in high places. “Let’s check this out! Who might this lovely be?” The answer comes back: this is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
Having recalled the stories of God’s creative and redemptive power, stories he had heard over and over as a child, Job begins again to practice the rituals of his faith, and in doing that he recognizes in a powerful way the very presence of God.
It is one thing to challenge those who teach, but quite another thing to disrespect their authority. If this is inappropriate in human terms, then how much more so when we shake our fist at the Creator God when our lives are in disarray?
PASTOR STEVEN MOLIN graduated from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has served congregations in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Salem, Oregon. He is currently senior pastor of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota. He and Marsha have two grown children and one grandchild, Gordie!
Job had been through a horrible time where he’d lost everything from his house to his self-respect. He owned nothing material anymore. His friends were no help at all. Worst of all. God seemed like he was hiding.