"Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled, but adulterers and fornicators will be judged by God." (Hebrews 13:3-4)
There is an old, sarcastic saying: "Oh, now you want to pray." The thought behind the saying is that when you lived life as you pleased, with impunity, you had no desire to seek God's presence. But when crisis confronted you, then you began to storm the throne of heaven with petitions for rescue.
I have found, though, that for many people this saying is not true. The man who is in love with Jesus will typically be found in constant communion with his Lord. The man who is disinterested and impenitent will typically not seek the Lord's company. And further, the man who seeks God's presence and the man who is impenitent both have the capacity to engage in severe transgressions against God.
King David was a man who, though deeply in love with God, struggled with sin. After marrying multiple wives (among them Michal, Ahinoam, Abigail, Maachah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah), he then turned his attention to a married woman named Bathsheba. After committing adultery with her, King David arranged for her husband Uriah to be isolated in battle so that he would be killed. David continued his life as if everything were normal, but his fellowship with God was adversely affected. David did not repent until he was directly confronted by the prophet Nathan, months after the incident had occurred.
The Scripture does not tell us why David waited so long to repent of his known sin. But Scripture does tell us of the goodness of God. David was forgiven. David received compassion, mercy, cleansing, and the record of his sin was erased from God's book. It would not be brought against him anymore.
In Sunday's sermon, Pastor Martha shared with us four characteristics of God noted by David in Psalm 51:
- Compassion. God loves, and acts in accordance with His love.
- Mercy. God assesses situations fairly and administers righteous judgement from a heart of love.
- Cleansing. God lovingly does for us what we cannot do for ourselves; He purifies us from sin.
- Erasing. God, in love, opts to erase our confessed sins from our life record.
But there is something else to consider. Although David's sin was forgiven, there was an awful consequence to his sin: "The sword shall never leave your house." (see Second Samuel 12:9-10) For the rest of his life David was in a battle not with nations, but with his own sons. His record of sin evaporated: the consequence of his sin remained.
Today, I am grateful for the compassion, mercy, cleansing, and erasing of God. And I am praying that, in light of sin's consequences, I will never intentionally abuse nor take lightly His love for me. I hope you can pray the same.
[*Today's title is a line from the hymn "Just As I Am", written by Charlotte Elliott, circa 1835]
No comments:
Post a Comment