David The GreatIsampula

David Sees Bathsheba

If ever there was a single, defining moment that illustrated perfectly the complexities of King David, it is the story of Bathsheba—the temptation, the sin, the fallout, and the repentance. How could “a man after God’s own heart” commit adultery, murder, and high-level governmental conspiracy and corruption?

The story of Bathsheba can’t be explained away by simply pointing out that David was a chieftain warlord at the cusp of the Bronze Age. The culture of the era in which he lived helps us deal with David’s polygamy and military brutality. Adultery and the murder of a friend in order to cover it up are not about culture. They are all about sin. In the middle season of his life, the Bathsheba episode reveals both the darkest valleys of David’s journey and what makes him “a man after God’s own heart.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote, “A good man in his darkest aberration, of the right path is conscious still.” David was about to step onto a dark and destructive path, but he must have been aware of the right path. Surely he was, because at the end, later than he should have, David chose the right path.