DEAL WITH IT!

Sunday 31 August, 08
“BUT THE THING THAT DAVID HAD DONE DISPLEASED THE LORD.” 2 SAMUEL 11:27 NKJV

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and she became pregnant, he tried to cover his tracks by having her husband Uriah killed and then marrying her before the baby was born. It looked like David was home free, except for one important detail. ‘The thing that David had done displeased the Lord.’ And you can’t silence the voice of an angry God! Now, while David was ‘a man after [God’s] own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14 NLT), the Bible says, ‘Be sure your sin will find you out’ (Numbers 32:23). God told David, ‘I made you king…freed you from the fist of Saul…gave you…Israel and Judah. And…I’d have gladly thrown in much more. So why have you treated the word of God with…contempt?’ (2 Samuel 12:7-9 TM). Then He passed sentence: ‘Because you despised me…I am going to bring calamity upon you…before all Israel’ (2 Samuel 12:10-12 NIV). And from then on tragedy and turmoil plagued David’s family. ‘The way of transgressors is hard’ (Proverbs 13:15) on many levels, not least of which is that God takes away our peace in order to take away our sin. It took an unplanned pregnancy, the murder of an innocent man, the death of a child, the persuasion of a prophet and the conviction of the Holy Spirit before David’s heart finally softened and he admitted, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’ (2 Samuel 12:13 NKJV). And when he did, God treated David’s sin the same way He treats ours: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive…and…cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). Is there a ‘sin’ in your life you need to deal with today? Deal with it!