Truth Or Consequences

The evening began innocently. It was such a beautiful night the King decided to take a walk on the rooftop of his palace. Surely the stars would be shining magnificently on such a clear night.

Many years earlier as a young shepherd boy, he spent many nights gazing at the vast expanse of the universe above. While contemplating the awesomeness of what he saw he once asked the great Creator in prayer.- “What is man that you are mindful of him?”

It was on nights such as these that he spent much time in intimate contact with his God, growing to love Him, learning to trust in him.

Twice his father’s sheep were attacked by predators, once by a lion and once by a bear, and both times his God gave him the strength to overpower them.

Out in the fields he would write inspiring songs about his God, singing them to the flock as his played on the harp. Sometimes he became so jubilant that he danced before the Lord. His God said of him,- “He is a man after My own heart.”

Once while his older brothers were serving in the army of Israel, his father sent him to the war camp with provisions for them.

While he was there an immense enemy standing upwards to thirteen feet tall stepped onto the plains and cried out defiant insults against the God of Israel. The army of Israel trembled and no man answered the challenge from this giant called Goliath. No one except this young shepherd boy who was there only to deliver goods.

Running to meet this armored giant, with only a sling in hand and five stones, this young shepherd proclaimed,- “The same God which gave me the power to kill a lion and a bear will give me the power to kill you this day.” With one shot the giant was felled and this young shepherd became a hero and later a beloved King.

Perhaps he was reminiscing of these things as he strolled along the rooftop that night. Maybe he was again looking at the starry sky as he did while in the fields as a youth. But when he saw a beautiful young woman bathing on her own rooftop these good thoughts left him and he began to desire what was not lawfully his,- this young woman was already married to a warrior in the King’s army.

For Bathsheba, the evening began innocently as well. Perhaps she had just written a letter to her beloved husband Uriah who was off at war. Maybe she was worried about his welfare, wondering,- “Is he still alive?” She thought, “A nice bath before bed would help me sleep.”

Suddenly she heard a knock at the door! Who could that be at this hour? Standing at the door were the King’s messengers saying that King David wished to see her. Obedient to the King’s request Bathsheba departed with them to meet the King. What an honor to be summoned by the King! The man who slew Goliath! A man who carried the commandments of God with him at all times! A man of whom God had said “is after My own heart!”

As she entered the King’s court she bowed humbly as the King commanded they be left alone. Perhaps she was surprised as it became clear this would be no cordial meeting. Perhaps as the King began to remove her clothing she told him that she was married. Was she surprised to learn that he already knew that?

King David shamefully had his way with young Bathsheba and then sent her back home. “No one will ever know,” he thought. What a shock it must have been when he was informed that Bathsheba was pregnant with his child!

David’s thoughts must have raced back and forth through his mind,- “What must I do now?” “I will summon her husband from the war so that he will lay with her and later believe that he is the child’s father when it is born.”

This David did, but Uriah was so faithful to the King and his fellow soldiers that he refused to visit his wife while others were sleeping on the battle fields, but instead laid down on the steps of the palace.

The King became desperate! “I will instruct my Commander to place Uriah on the front line so that he will surely die!” Uriah did die in battle and the King took his wife as his. But the damage was not done, but had just begun. The eyes of the Lord which flash to and fro as lightning across the earth had seen it all.

The Lord sent a prophet named Nathan to convict David of the evil which he had done and tell him the judgments he must endure.