David’s Fall

The other day I found myself singing Hallelujah alone in my kitchen while I was waiting to go to work. I enjoy singing, but I don’t really feel like I’m that great at it. This morning though I felt pretty good and was trying to put my whole soul into it. The first two verses of that song echoed in my heart till a few days later I found myself thinking of the lyrics in my head. They talk about King David and his connection to God through music and his downfall as if a test from God on his faithfulness. These thoughts moved towards David’s fall. The night he stood on his balcony and let the sight of the woman below steal his soul.

The story itself is fairly familiar for many. After a fierce campaign of battle, rather than lead his troops, David sends his captain instead. While home he walks onto his balcony and catches sight of a beautiful woman bathing below him. He’s smitten and asks about her. After getting more information he calls her up and has relations. That in itself is enough to make any David admirer cringe, but that’s not where it ends. When the woman is found pregnant David tries to convince her husband to return home and lay with her, but because the other soldiers are still in battle he refuses the luxuries of home life.

After failing to convince the husband, David turns to the loyalty of the man and sends him to his death. In a letter carried by Uriah, the husband, David advises his captain to send Uriah to the forward most brutal part of battle. Just as expected, Uriah is killed in battle. David then takes the woman to wife. A harrowing tale for a “man after God’s own heart”.

It’s such a sad story, the faithful servant that struck down the giant. The boy who had more faith than all of Israel now diminished to the lists of mortal men. David was the king and whatever he desired was his. The scriptures are very clear on this story, but as I thought about it all I wonder if the story played out differently in real life.

David’s sin in this tale was murder and adultery, but I think we too often zone in on David sleeping with Uriah’s wife and forget the whole of his actions. David didn’t just see Bethsheba and then call on her, he saw her, he asked about her to his servants, he likely extended offers through those servants and when he felt he could seduce her he did. His sin wasn’t a moment of weakness, but a planned process. This gets even deeper when his covering up takes place. He tries desperately to cover it all up by simply convincing Uriah he was going to be the proud father of a newborn, but ironically Uriah’s loyalty, a trait probably obtained through admiration of David’s loyalty, kept him from taking part in those luxuries.

The next part I can see David justifying. This man was so loyal, he needed to be in the front lines. In fact Uriah was going to stand with David’s most faithful servants. Joab himself was fearful about having to tell the king of the dead except for Uriah, who he tells the servant to emphasize if David was upset about the others killed in battle. Uriah, while terrified, likely saw it as a reward for the loyalty he had shown while in the sight of King David. For Uriah he was pulled from war as a test and passed with flying colors.

These events I feel come from a more overarching theme of the day. Kings are bad, no matter who they are. David was regarded as a man after God’s own heart. He was the faithful that stood against the giant Goliath. He was not the only good King turned bad, Saul before him was a righteous youth called by God to lead Judea. Both these men show how Kingship can corrupt the best.

Within this story is a more important theme. Good things can come through our mistakes. While the son conceived in adultery did not make it through infancy, after marrying Bathsheba David had another son with her. Solomon. Solomon would go on and be regarded as one of the wisest Kings of his time and build the Temple. Solomon was literally born because of the very events we cringe thinking about.

This is a prime example of how even the worst moments in our lives God can mold into great things. That is why he is the ultimate King. We see these examples of great men becoming corrupt through pride, lust, and riches (Saul, David, and Solomon respectively) yet God takes those works and can move His work forward despite those weaknesses. No matter what tangle of a mess you feel like you’re in, know God can make it worth it, God can make it right, God can turn the bad to good, God makes darkness light.