Did David's knowledge
of the Infinite One's grace
cause him to continue to do wrong? No.
Rather, it built within him
a great appreciation for just what this great Creator is
really
like.
What occurred in David's
life to bring him to that point?
After taking another man's
woman from one extremely loyal to him, David arranged for his murder.
The story about David
and Bathsheba, Uriah's girl, whom David took from him, starts off in.2Samuel
11:3-13.
David even had Uriah
carry his own death's instruction:.verses
14,15. Uriah died:.verse
17.
Verse 26 shows how vacillating
Bathsheba was. She has sex with David and mourns for her dead partner Uriah.
Then she marries the guy who had
him killed:.verse
27.
The Creator sends the prophet
Nathan to wake David out of his spiritual lethargy:.2Samuel
12:1-19. After the child born to David and Bathsheba becomes ill, David
fasts and prays to humble himself, hoping God would restore to normal life
the child he loved:.verses
16-18. God didn't.
The child dies while David
is engaged in rededication
of himself to God.(Psalms
51:5).in
hope God would heal the child:.verse
19. God didn't. David really wanted the child to live and did all he
could, including fasting and praying and weeping,
hoping God would heal him. He knew God was easily capable of healing the
child. He knew the story of
Gideon, showing the power of God, some 250 years before.
Upon his son's death, everyone
wondered at his attitude:.verse
21-23 After the child died, David turned
around fast.
David was born in Bethlehem:.Luke
2:4. His genealogy is here:.Matthew
chapter 1.
David had his ups and his
downs and wasn't close enough to God all the time to 'keep it all together',
so his life fell apart here and there and from time to time:.2Samuel
24:1-3; Psalms 102:2-8.
Overall, his heart was with God:.Acts
2:25. And, he was kind to others:.1Samuel
30:11,12,21-24; 2Samuel 10:1-3.
Moses too had a similar.attitude:.Exodus
32:7-14,31,32. Paul too:.Romans
9:3.
Absalom was another of David's
sons. Absalom's three sons.(2Samuel
14:27).had
all died.(2Samuel
18:18).before
him, so that he left only a daughter, Tamar, who became the grandmother
of Abijah,
king of Judah.
Many today also bring heartaches
into their lives because they too, don't heed warnings, as this
young man found out.
After all the bad he did
and after his reawakening to God, David gathered materials to build a tabernacle
to God.(that
was built later by a son
of his named Solomon).and
worshiped
his Creator all the remaining days of his life. And what was David's attitude
toward God's
grace,
forgiveness
and mercy:.Psalms
31 and Psalms 32.
More
1. More 2.
David's heart
was fully for God.(1Kings
11:6).from
the start, but that didn't blossom
until much later in his life.
And what was Creator-God's
attitude toward David?.Acts
13:22; 2Samuel 12:13-15.
Is
Creator to have one standard toward one and not toward another? No way.
God is the same toward you and me today.
The Creator saw David where
He knew David could eventually arrive at. Too bad many today lack this
insight and you
know a few.
One would think that with
him being so much in the favor of the Creator that he would go to heaven
when he dies:.Acts
2:34. See 'What
does God do with us after death'?
There are mistakes when
trying to do the right thing and mistakes when acting out of selfish motives.
One is commendable
if one wants
to learn from them having an attitude to never again make them; the
other reprehensible.
Why is it humanity is prone
to err in life?.Psalms
95:10.
It is better to not make
any mistakes in life.(yeah,
but who of us hasn't? and how
not to make any serious mistakes).and
then not end up for a while as Derek
did.(and,
David's example of mistakes:.2Samuel
24:10-15), even though, spiritually,
they will not count against us. They
are only there for our learning, if we indeed do learn from them.
In New
Covenant times, with Emmanuel
in your heart, it
is a whole new 'ball of wax', but in the Old Testament, God allowed
the physical results of things often to last a lifetime:.2Samuel
12:10-12. In a moment we'll see what occurred to David in this regard.
People who have learned
lessons should take great effort to
instil
this information.(an
example of 'education':.Proverbs
22:6).into
younger folks, but younger
individuals have to want to be around elders and want their
wisdom of years.
Younger folk have two lifelines
to wisdom: 1) Older folk have gone through much the same twisting and pulling
and stretching of emotions
as younger folk may now be experiencing on their roads of life.
Wisdom is gained when advice
is sought from those who have been 'through it', regarding any and all
decisions.(Proverbs
11:14 "...in the multitude of counselors there is safety.").that
a person may be contemplating
and where one may now
be in his or her life's journey; be it education, attractive personality
traits.(poise,
grooming,
conversation,
etc.), financial management.(buying
a car and other purchases), recreation
and sports, going with certain friends, sex and type
of individual to get close to, what clothes look best and so on. The
way some older folks dress, young people gotta be careful not to follow
their example! Ha ha! And, vice
versa.
And
2...
Those who have been through
it, have much information on these things to help a young individual with.
A wise child.(Proverbs
23:24; Ecclesiastes 4:13).will
be encouraged to seek this information out, so life is a little easier
for him or her. Talk, talk, talk to older people who may be of help to
you.
A child with whom the father
was involved in
his upbringing, will be a child who loves his Father.
Absalom,
David's son, conspired
against him to kill him. It was a constant reminder to David
of what he must always be careful of, that was a part of his personality
makeup. But he was learning:.2Samuel
16:5-12.
The story of Absalom.(2Samuel
14:25,26).and
David comprised with.Easton's
Bible Dictionary: By many arts Absalom gained affection of the
people. He went to Hebron, the old capital of Judah, along with a great
body of the people and there proclaimed
himself king. The revolt was so successful that David
found it necessary to quit Jerusalem and flee to Mahanaim, beyond Jordan,
whereupon
Absalom returned to Jerusalem
and took possession of the throne without opposition. Ahithophel, who had
been David's chief counsellor, deserted him and joined Absalom, whose chief
counsellor he now became. Hushai, a faithful to David wise counsellor,
also joined Absalom, but only for the purpose of trying to counteract the
counsels of Ahithophel and so to advantage David's cause. He was so far
successful that by his advice, which was preferred to that of Ahithophel,
Absalom delayed to march an army against his father, who thus gained time
to prepare for the defence.
Absalom at length marched
out against his father, whose army, under the command of Joab,
he encountered on the borders of the forest of Ephraim. Twenty thousand
of Absalom's army were slain in that fatal battle and the rest fled. Absalom
fled on a swift mule, but his long flowing hair or more probably his head,
was caught in the bough of an oak and there he was left suspended till
Joab came up and pierced him through with three darts. His body was then
taken down and cast into a pit dug in the forest and a heap of stones was
raised over his grave.
When the tidings of the
result of that battle were brought to David, as he sat impatiently waiting
for news at the gate of Mahanaim and he was told that Absalom had been
slain, he gave way to the bitter lamentation:."O
my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee,
O Absalom, my son, my son!":.2Samuel
18:29-33.
David obviously loved all
his children that he had with his many women and his wives.(1Samuel
30:1-3,18), but lacked much personal
involvement with them.
How much better if it had
been different for him:.2Samuel
3:1-5; 13:28,37-39.(Absalom,
David's son, kills his brother); 2Samuel
15:5,6,10,12-14,31.(Absalom
conspires
against his dad); 2Samuel
18:9,10.(Absalom
has a strange death); 2Samuel
18:29-33; 19:1-4.(David
still deeply loved Absalom {once you love someone you always will}, even
after all his errors {if David, being human, was capable
of this kind of feeling, how much more Him that created us?}).
Conspiracies
were there from the beginning. From the time of Adam and Eve it began.(Genesis
3:1-13) continuing on through the
time of Moses and on into today.
And don't you too still
love your kids even though they may have done bad? And Creator-God loves
you so much.(John
3:16,17).no
matter what you may or may not have done. So much so, that everyone
will be in God's Family because they will eventually come to see that
they want to be there. There is no other place where there is that much
love and with all that is good that your imagination can possibly conjur
up. This life here on Earth is only a pittance
of what is to come:.1Corinthians
2:9.
1Chronicles
29:28 "And he died in a good old age.(David
died B.C.E. 1015) at the
age of seventy years), full of days,
riches and honor and Solomon his son reigned in his stead." 1Kings
2:10 "So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of
David."
