He sinned. Well he didn’t really even think about that. She was pregnant. People would find out. His good friend would find out. That would be bad. For him publicly. He had to fix the problem without anyone finding out.
You know. You have been there. Little mistakes, gross corpses. They need to go away. You need to fix it secretly. You need to cover up your sin.
He had the perfect plan. He invited Uriah to take a break from battle and spend the night with his wife. She becomes an object in his way now. He sleeps with her. The kid will be his. No one will know. Your conscience will be clear.
He doesn’t follow the plan. David tried. He loved Uriah. He loved his righteousness more. He tries again and again. We all know how this goes. It’s a tragedy, really. It started in the garden. Hide, bury, manage your sins. Dig a hole deeper and deeper. Cover it with dirt. Cover it with rationalization. Cover it with excuses. Change God’s Word. Change natural law. Change nature. By any means necessary. We all want to be righteous. On our own terms. By our own system. By our own religion. We are all very very very religious. Left and right.
Finally David had Uriah killed. Well, not really, he thought. He would die a heroic death in battle. David would be more the hero. He would take Bathsheba as his wife and save her! The ultimate chess move. He would not only cover his sin but look like the savior taking a poor widow. Saviors love poor widows.
When we try to fix our sins the shovel gets heavier with the dirt we pile on. The lies grow more and more irrational. The mauseleoms become larger and larger and more and more obvious while we are oblivious. When we try to construct our own righteous we grow all the more uglier like a Hollywood movie star after the umpteenth plastic surgery.
No one knew. David looked great in front of the people. His plan succeeded.
God knew and saw. Truth can not be hidden. We all watched from an arena of history. David played the fool in his comedy of errors.
The same strong believer who slew Goliath has become the Goliath. We all know what God does to Goliaths.
He sent a man like He once sent David. Nathan. Whose words nailed David in the head. You the man!
David learned for the first time what he had been telling his Israelites for years. Only God Saves. Only God makes us righteous. Only God can bury sins so deep and so far as the east is from the west.
God did not excuse David’s sin. He forgave it. Adulterer, murderer, thief, liar, worshiper of other gods – his own righteousness even.
And through a family tree of sinners, a son of David was born in the town of Bethlehem. This heir was not like his dad, thank God. Jesus. All other heroes will disappoint. All other kings will eat you up. All other gods will throw your burdens, your sins, your fears back on you.
This son of David didn’t bury all our sins beneath layers of lies and illusions. He received them. He became the adultery, the murderer, the liar, the you and the me for a moment on the cross. He was buried with them. They all died in Him.
It never ends when we try to hide, cloak, or bury our sins. It gets grosser and grosser. So this grave digger says, “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.” This Savior says, “It is finished!” You are forgiven. Then buries us in cool waters and raises us up again never to die again.
So David learned that God truly is the hero, the shepherd, the savior. Even the Savior who takes soiled widowed brides as they are and makes them beautiful.
You are forgiven Goliath, David, Bathsheba, the whole crew.
