God’s grace is greater than david’s sin

By Matt Watson

In this series, we will explore Jesus’ family tree, looking at some key figures and their lives as told in Scripture. We believe the church is in part a family, and so we look to Christ’s family to help us see our own sin better, but also to know and worship Jesus even more. This is part two of a look at David’s life; click here for part 1.

We looked at how David as a warrior and a king points us to Jesus, who wages war against sin and death and is King of kings with all authority. Yet that is not the full picture of David, because both his good deeds and bad also point to the need for Jesus as our only source of righteousness.

David the Sinner

If the battle with Goliath is the most famous story about David, then the second most famous is his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. At a time when he should have been conducting his responsibility as a king at war, he instead delegated the campaign to his generals and remained at home (2 Sam 11:1). We read that “late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful” (11:2). Not only was David not leading his people in a war against the Ammonites, but he was also sleeping in until late in the day and then looking at porn. Teenagers do this, not mature men, and not men after God’s heart. 

When we tend to lay about not doing what we ought to do, not being faithful to what the Lord has given us to be faithful to, we tend to let our guard down, and Satan likes to throw flaming arrows to see if he can get anything to stick and ignite. In David’s case, there “happened to be” a beautiful woman bathing naked on her roof next door to David’s house. She was the wife of one of his elite mighty men, Uriah. Knowing this, David acts with his own interests in mind anyway rather than theirs, and summons Bathsheba over to his house and then sleeps with her. 

As will sometimes happen when a man lies with a woman, Bathsheba got pregnant. David tries to cover this up by bringing Uriah home from the war so he can sleep with his own wife and thus think the baby was his. But Uriah was more honorable than David, and he refused to sleep in his own house, saying, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in [tents], and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing” (11:11). 

What should have been a moment of conviction from Uriah’s deep faithfulness to his king, with a result of confession and repentance, for David it became an opportunity for deeper sin. He sends Uriah to the front, and instructs his general to pull back from the main attack and leave Uriah alone “that he may be struck down, and die” (11:15). 

This being done, David thinks all of his misdeeds are hidden. After a period of mourning, Bathsheba became one of David’s wives, who then bore his son (who then died). But what is said in the darkness will be brought to the light, says the Son of David a thousand years later (Luke 12:2-3), and this sin was found out. God was not deceived nor blind. He sent his prophet Nathan to David, who charged David with his crime, being the catalyst for David to finally heed the conviction from the Lord (2 Sam 12:1-15). David does mourn his sin, and with true repentance, he confesses to God, writing Psalm 51 to express his sin and God’s goodness.

Perhaps Solomon, a later son of David with Bathsheba, was familiar with this woeful story, for he writes to his own son in Proverbs 6:9-11, “How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” If only David had kept watch rather than grow complacent and let his guard down, he would not have committed adultery, had a war hero murdered, and then tried to hide it in a national scandal.

The Son of David

David is a mess, and yet he is a mighty hero in Scripture. He is a warrior-poet, fighting wars and writing most of the Psalms, but he is also a scoundrel and murderer. David’s life points us to one who would not be dual-minded with blood on his hands, a future king who would rule forever in righteousness. God tells David through the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 7:5-17 that God will establish the house and throne of David forever, and would always feel God’s steadfast love. This was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of David, born to David’s line in Bethlehem. Jesus’ kingdom was inaugurated when he came to earth and established it, and it will be consummated upon his return at the end of things. 

David’s imperfections are our imperfections, but not Jesus’; his faithfulness is eternal. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:8-13, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” 

This is great news for each of us who has sinned and proven to be faithless to God, because Jesus is without iniquity or sin, and remains faithful when we are not. He rules justly and completely, as a good king that takes care of his people. There is no scandal, no impropriety, no selfishness with Jesus. He is the truer and better David, who is the true king after God’s own heart.