In the haunting, poetic words of King James, the prophet Nathan rebukes King David: He said to David, “Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus, saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house…" (2 Samuel 12:7-11)
From 1 Samuel 16 right up through 2 Samuel 10, David has been ascendant. The prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 13:14, said that God desired “a man after his own heart” to rule his people, and young David fit that lofty, but humble description. But now, what? In chapter 11, the previous scene, King David has become like all the other kings. He takes. He lords. He sends. He is served. He satisfies his eyes and appetites. Samuel had said as much way back in 1 Samuel 8 when the people had demanded a king, “like all the other nations.” He said, prophetically, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” (1 Sam. 8:11-18)
King David: Pot. Kettle. Black.
How could this be? A man after God’s own heart? This bad? Well, in the shadow of the Cross, we know that “all sin” and “all have fallen short of His Glory.” Only the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, has been sinless. And we rejoice that Jesus is the (our) King truly after God’s own heart, God Himself, in the flesh. But, what about David?
As I reflected on this encounter this week, I was drawn back to a couple of passages from the Book of Jeremiah and another king called on the carpet by a prophet. In this case, the prophet Jeremiah. Prophesying in the run-up to the Babylonian Exile. Jeremiah, banned from King Jehoiakim’s court, sends his scribe, Baruch to the king to read a prophetic exhortation–warning. The prophet says, “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah… It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that everyone may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.” (Jeremiah 36:2-3). But, when the epistle comes to Jehoiakim, it says, “the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. As [his servant] read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments.” (Jeremiah 36:22-24).
In a little over a decade from this infamous book burning, Jerusalem and the Temple would be burned down, and the people would be carried away into Babylonian captivity. This king was not a man after God’s own heart. Jehoiakim was one of the last sons of King David to sit on the throne in Jerusalem. Note well how David himself responded to his sin. “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Samuel 12:13). The king could have imprisoned Nathan, or worse. He was the king. He was the big cheese, head honcho. David’s repentance flowed in the weighty words of Psalm 51.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment…
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
This is why we know David, even in his own sinful, fallen flesh, as a man after God’s heart. He knows his sin. He doesn’t justify it. He doesn’t ignore it. He doesn’t minimize it. And he looks always to his salvation in God’s mercy.
This is worth a long thought in our own life. Walking in faith is not easy. And our sins are so ever close by— A reminder of the incredible, undeserved love of Christ on the Cross. May that grace and mercy, with Jesus written all over it, move us to a new repentance leading to life, each and every day.
