Today’s sermon was all about David and Bathsheba. You don’t have to be a rocket surgeon to realize that David messed up. Badly. He wasn’t where he should have been, he let his eyes control his mind instead of the other way around, and he let his desires control his actions. Basically, he screwed up big time.

In order to cover up adultery, he added the murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, as well as those who just happened to be nearby, to his rap sheet. At some point, he had become spiritually numb to sin and was heading down a path to swift destruction. But God had mercy.

Nathan confronted David about his sin. That was God’s mercy. God could have let David keep going down the road to where his desires were taking him to a tragic end, but God intervened. Were there natural consequences to David’s sin? Absolutely. But it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been had David continued on his original path.

The difference between David and his predecessor Saul was in the way they reacted to being confronted with sin. Saul’s heart was hardened and doubled down on his defense and self-justification. David’s heart was broken and he showed real remorse and repentance. He told God that ultimately his sin was only against Him because it was a kind of cosmic treason.

By no means does David’s sorrow negate the egregious nature of what he did. It was awful. Ultimately, it lead to a divided kingdom as the seeds were sown that would eventually lead to strife and conflict between Judah and the rest of the tribes. But if you continue to read your Bible, you’ll find that God called David “a man after my own heart.”

Every one of us will mess up at some point. Maybe our sin won’t be as obviously blatant as adultery and murder, but sin is sin and all sin is rebellion against a holy God. The key is what we do with our sin. What do we do when someone confronts us? Do we make excuses or do we make it right? Do we harden our hearts or do we let the Spirit break our hearts?

The beauty of it all is that the seed from David’s line, Jesus, took all of David’s sins upon Him on the cross. He took all of your sins and all of my sins. He paid the infinite and eternal punishment that those sins merited and gave forgiveness and freedom to all who would believe in His name.

I think David understood a little of this Messiah and put his faith in what he understood and that’s what saved him. We on the other side of the cross can believe in the fully revealed, fully finished work of Jesus on the cross. That is our salvation.

May we never become callous to sin or disregard the consequences to the choices we make. May we always seek accountability from others who will tell us the truth even when it’s uncomfortable or painful. May we seek above and pleasure or profit to be people who are after God’s own heart.