Articles
God Would Spare Us
Do you ever think you can sin and get away with it? “Nobody will know,” we say to ourselves and then try to cover up our trails. But it can’t be done. God has decided that we won’t get away with it. “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).
Scripture gives us lots of examples of this principle—none more graphic than in the life of King David. King David thought he could cover up his sin with Bathsheba, but God made sure David didn’t get away with it. After being confronted by Nathan the prophet, David confessed his sin and received forgiveness (2 Sam. 12). But even confession and forgiveness didn’t stop the repercussions of David’s sin that rippled through his family.
Being sorry doesn’t change the thing that you are sorry about. David was sorry he had sinned with Bathsheba and wrote Psalm 51 to describe his sorrow: “I recognize my shameful deeds” (Ps. 51:3). But being sorry didn’t bring their baby or Uriah back from the dead. Being sorry didn’t mend Bathsheba’s broken heart either.
God will forgive murder, but the grave stands as a silent testimony to the act. God will forgive the adulterer, but an adulterous person may lose their spouse. God will forgive the teenage drug addict, but the child’s mind may be destroyed. There are consequences to sin, and God would spare us. Much better not to sin in the first place and be spared the consequences of sin.
David’s sin continued to have consequences in his family. Absalom, one of David’s sons, revolted against his father, violated his father’s concubines in public, and tried to kill him (2 Sam. 13-18). Could this have been merely a reflection of David’s sin?
Joab, David’s general, had received David’s message delivered by Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband: “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed” (2 Sam. 11:15). Did General Joab’s decision to kill Absalom (2 Sam. 18:14) come from watching His boss’s cold-heartedness? Did Joab later join Abonijah’s rebellion against Solomon (1 Kings 2:28) as a reflection of his disillusionment with King David’s leadership?
You reap what you sow. The farreaching results of sin are appalling, yet God will spare us if we truly repent and confess our sins.
