“Then David confessed to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’

Nathan replied, ‘Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.’” (2 Samuel 12:13 NLT)

You could argue that, aside from Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit, no sin has gotten as much press as David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba. It seems like everyone has heard the story.

In 1 Corinthians 10:12, the apostle Paul writes, “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall” (NLT). So if you read David’s story and think, I would never do anything like that, you’re missing the point. A better response would be, “God, help me not to make those kinds of decisions. Instead, help me stay close to You.”

The story in 2 Samuel 11 begins with David in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was on the roof of his palace in Jerusalem when he should have been with his army, battling the Ammonites. From his roof, he saw an extraordinarily beautiful woman taking a bath. It was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s loyal soldiers.

David sent for her and slept with her. And Bathsheba became pregnant with his child. At that point, David could have repented and faced the consequences. Instead, he tried to cover it up. He arranged for Uriah to be sent home from the front. He wanted Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba so that Uriah and everyone else in Israel would assume that her baby was his.

But Uriah refused to enjoy the pleasures of home while his fellow soldiers were still fighting. Instead, he slept outside the palace gates. So David took a more sinister approach. He sent Uriah back to the front with a letter for Joab, his commander. In the letter, David ordered Joab to station Uriah where the battle was fiercest and then pull back the rest of his forces. In other words, he wanted Joab to make sure that Uriah was killed in battle. (David probably didn’t sign that letter, “A man after God’s own heart.”)

This time, his plan worked. Uriah was killed, and David immediately took Bathsheba as his wife so that her pregnancy would seem legitimate. For a moment, he might have thought he’d gotten away with everything. But there was one problem: “The Lord was displeased with what David had done” (2 Samuel 11:27 NLT).

Twelve months later, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. To his credit, David immediately admitted his guilt. David and Bathsheba’s child died, and they had to live with that loss for the rest of their lives.

But, as devastating as his sin was, David made a comeback. He faced repercussions, but ultimately his life ended well. Remember, David came from Bethlehem. And that’s where Jesus was born. Why? Because Jesus was the offspring of David through the bloodline of Mary and the lineage of Joseph. That’s why Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to be taxed.

Want to know who else made it into the messianic line of Jesus Christ? Bathsheba. She repented, too, and was included in the most exclusive genealogy in human history. When you look at the family line of David, you find not only Bathsheba but also two other women, Tamar and Rahab, both prostitutes who turned to the God who gives second chances.

The ideal, of course, is obeying Him in the first place. We need to understand that God’s plans are better than ours. Having said that, it does not mean that they are always the easiest plans or even the most appealing at the moment. There are times when we are going through life that we might not like the plan of God. But God’s plans are always better for us in the long run.

Reflection question: What God-given second chance are you most thankful for?

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