The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 13

Good King David, Adulterer, Murderer, Repenter

The Tower of David towers in my memory.

The Tower of David has nothing to do with David at all.

It was first built in Jerusalem by Hezekiah, then fortified by others much later. The Crusaders mistakenly named that citadel after David, thinking it was his palace. In modern times, it’s the scene of a light show, where Israel’s history is projected onto the old stone walls. David was a man after God’s own heart, you know, and many years ago, watching that light show together, I began to steal the heart of the young lady who became my life wife. Hooray for the Tower of David!

The Night Spectacular Show at the Tower of David – gojerusalem.com

David, the man after God’s own heart, was the second human king of Israel, and he was simply the best human king.

It was a great honor to be called the son of David.

Mat 1:1
The book of the genealogy of Yeshua Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Mat 20:29-31
As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Yeshua was passing by, cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David! The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!

Mat 21:8-9
A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road. The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, Hosanna to the son of David!…

In Revelation 22:16, the Messiah said “I am the root and offspring of David.” David came from him and he came from David.

The Messiah will be given the throne of David.

Luk 1:31-32
Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Yeshua.’ He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David,…

That’s how good a king David was. He was the best human king.

But he was human.

David had many great exploits recorded in the Bible, such as the battle with Goliath. He also had two great sins recorded in the Bible.

The first was when David saw Bathsheba bathing. He took her, even though she was Uriah’s wife. Then he had Uriah killed by placing him in a suicidal position in a battle.

Those were enormous sins, adultery and murder. Yet King David, probably because of his lofty position, did not even see his sin! After all, he was the king. He could do whatever he wanted, couldn’t he?

2Sa 12:1-13
Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

David’s anger burned hot against the man, and he said to Nathan, As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die! He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!

David still did not see his sin, great as it was, until it was pointed out to him.

Nathan said to David, You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’

This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’

When David was confronted with his crimes, he responded with utmost repentance.

David said to Nathan, I have sinned against Yahweh.

Then because of that repentance, Yahweh did the opposite of what he did with Saul.

Nathan said to David, Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die.

Human kings almost always think like kings. They get full of themselves. When a leader thinks he’s been put in power by divine right, he gets to thinking that he is right divine. Yahweh warned Israel against the excesses of kings, because kings tend to have them in excess. David was temporarily polluted by his power. He knew he could reach out and take that woman and have her husband killed, so he did it and didn’t think twice about it. That’s what kings do.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority, John Dalberg-Acton.

When Saul did not wait for Samuel to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh and offered it himself, this was Saul’s reaction.

1Sa 13:10-12
It came to pass that as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.

Samuel said, What have you done?

Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you didn’t come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines assembled themselves together at Michmash; therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven’t entreated the favor of Yahweh.’ I forced myself therefore, and offered the burnt offering.

Saul did not have a morsel of remorse. Instead he just excused himself. I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. To him, his disobedience was noble; he was just doing everybody a favor. And when Samuel told Saul that his dynasty would end, the Bible records no hint of repentance in the king.

On the other hand, this was David’s reaction when he was confronted, confounded and convicted by his sin.

Psalms 51:1-10
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

Notice that David said that Yahweh was justified when he judged. David did not pout, even though he was under a lifelong punishment of the sword not departing from his house.

David had another great sin. It does not seem as bad as taking Bathsheba and killing Uriah, but it may have been worse, because instead of attacking a man, it was a sin against God himself. This sin came directly from Satan.

1Ch 21:1-17
Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.

David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.

Joab said, May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?

Joab was David’s head general, and a man not without great problems himself, yet Joab had the wisdom to see the sin in the census and tried to talk some sense into David.

Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab.

Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem. Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword. But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.

David’s army was over a million and a half strong. Wow! Wasn’t that king great! Look how big the work of God is! See what God is doing through us! Look at our building!

God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.

David did not see his sin when Joab warned him ahead of time. He only saw it when the curse fell. And again, David’s reaction was profound repentance.

David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.

Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Yahweh says, I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’

So Gad came to David, and said to him, Yahweh says, ‘Take your choice: either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’

When Israel heard God speak the Ten Commandments, they wanted to get away from God. David, though, even when being punished, still sought God. Again, he did not pout.

David said to Gad, I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand. So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it.

As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.

Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. David said to God, Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.

Then Yahweh’s angel commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

In contrast, notice Saul’s reaction to his second great sin.

1 Samuel 15:19-31
Why then didn’t you obey Yahweh’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight?

Saul said to Samuel, But I have obeyed Yahweh’s voice, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.

David was quick to admit his guilt but Saul was quick to shift his. It was the people, Saul said, who took the forbidden plunder. And they did it just to have a sacrifice to offer! Noble!

Samuel said, Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.

When Saul was told he was out as king, then he did admit his sin, but he still did not repent of himself.

Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship Yahweh.

Saul was still interested in showing off his position and he did not want Samuel to reject him in front of the people.

Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you; for you have rejected Yahweh’s word, and Yahweh has rejected you from being king over Israel.

As Samuel turned around to go away, Saul grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Then he said, I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God. So Samuel went back with Saul; and Saul worshiped Yahweh.

Look at that guy! He had just been told he was disqualified as king, yet the important thing to him was that he be honored before the people. He was disqualified as king because of his love for himself, and upon learning that, he still showed it.

So the first two kings each had two great sins. David’s were adultery/murder and pride. Saul’s were presumptuousness in offering the sacrifice and overruling God’s instructions.

Whose sins were worse?

Humanly we would think David’s sins were far worse than Saul’s, yet David’s kingly line continues forever, while Saul’s ended in ignominy.

Why?

David repented of himself.

Saul justified himself.

Psalms 7:12-16, written by David.
If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow. He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows. Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

We can’t help but notice that even David, the very best king of Israel, had some very human, rotten problems. From his rot came repentance, and he then humbled himself before God — the real king of Israel.

The big point about David the human king is not how good he was, but that he admitted how bad he was.

The fact is that human kings just can’t take being kings very well. Even the very best are far short of perfect. It takes a different kind of being to be a perfect king, and to always be a servant instead of a show-off.

Luk 22:25-26
He said to them, The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so with you. But one who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and one who is governing, as one who serves.

So where can you find a king who is a perfect servant?