By Dennis Pollock
In this study, we will consider David’s “great sin.” If most Christians were asked, “What was David’s most notable sin?” they would answer that it was the scandalous affair with Bathsheba and his arranging for her husband to be killed. When I speak of David’s sin, I am not suggesting that King David only committed one sin throughout the course of his life. David was human, just like all the rest of us who love God and seek to please Him. If you had to count David’s sins, nobody but God could do it, and it would surely amount to thousands upon thousands of sins committed from his youth to his old age. Like us all, David no doubt had times when he was too harsh, impatient, acted too hastily, or days when he didn’t pray as much as he should have.
God understands that we are all human and that our lives will be a never-ending cascade of mistakes, errors, and less-than-perfect days. He fully grasps our humanity and does not punish us every time we lose our patience or speak in the wrong tone, or crack jokes over a subject that should have been left alone. If He did punish us for every little transgression and flawed response, He would be angry with us all day long, every day, and our punishments and judgments from the Almighty would be constant and continual.
David, no doubt, did and said many things that were less than perfect, and not especially holy, and God said nothing, did not rebuke him, and continued to see David as a man after His own heart. But the Bathsheba incident was different. It was a bridge too far, and God’s judgment was swift and severe. David’s baby boy must die, and later the king would face a coup from his own son, Absalom, and would have to flee Jerusalem for his life. And after his armies prevailed over Absalom’s soldiers, he was restored to his throne, but Absalom was found hanging dead on a tree with three daggers piercing his heart. God had said to David through Nathan: “Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife…” (2 Samuel 12:10).
Again, David was very much human and surely made numerous mistakes throughout his life, but it was this sin with Bathsheba, in which God was offended to the point that He must send severe punishment. And this is as true today with His people, the followers of Christ, as it was in David’s day. Some might suppose that because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we can never be punished for our sins – they are forgiven and forgotten the minute they are committed. That sounds evangelical, but anyone who reads the Bible with an analytical and open mind knows this is not the case.
Ananias and Saphira
In the early church, there was a man named Ananias who wanted to impress the other believers, so he sold some property and publicly came up to the apostle Peter and told him he had sold some land, and now he was giving the entire amount of the sale to Peter to distribute to the poor believers. The problem was, he was lying. Yes, he had sold some property, and yes, he was bringing money for the church, but it was not the full amount. And yet he said that it was. Peter asked him how he could dare to lie to the Holy Spirit, and Ananias fell dead. A little later, Ananias’ wife came into the assembly, not knowing what had happened to her husband. Peter asked her if they had sold the land for the amount her husband had lied about. She affirmed the lie, and she likewise fell dead.
Here’s a question: Were all the other church members perfect, without any sin at all in their lives? Had they walked in perfect harmony with their spouses, had they avoided ever being angry or impatient or grumpy? Of course not! They were, in their day-to-day lives, flawed, imperfect, and inconsistent. Even the apostle Peter and all the other apostles had personality blemishes, made their mistakes, and sometimes demonstrated major lapses in judgment. But Ananias’ brazen lies in the public assembly were, just as David’s sin with Bathsheba, that bridge too far. It was, to use a basketball analogy, a flagrant foul, one that never should have occurred, and a sin that God must punish.
All Sin is not the Same
Many people have suggested that, in God’s eyes, all sin is the same. Whether you are a serial murderer or a gossip, God is not any more upset about one than the other. This doctrine is so patently unbiblical, it is astonishing that pastors and Bible teachers, who should know better, spout it off as though it came straight down from Mount Sinai. In addressing one of the churches, Jesus said this: “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20). He states that He has given her time to repent, but she refuses to repent, and then He declares her judgment: “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts…” (Revelation 2:22-23).
Was Jesus addressing an unbeliever? No, at least in a certain sense, she and the men she was leading into sexual immorality did believe in Jesus. They attended church, sang hymns, and listened to sermons about Jesus. Had you asked them if they believed in Jesus, their answer would have been an emphatic “yes!”
Was Jesus suggesting that all the rest of the church were living in absolute perfection, never saying one cross word, never becoming impatient, living with their spouse in perfect harmony every hour of every day? Of course not. The other believers were fully human and made their share of mistakes. But for this so-called prophetess, who was introducing and encouraging sexual immorality in the church, this was behavior that our Lord could not endure. He must act.
To know Jesus Christ and to possess the gift of eternal life does not mean that we live a life of perfection. On this side of heaven, we will still be human and will make plenty of mistakes. But through the grace of Jesus, we can avoid scandals and sexual immorality, and all the flagrant fouls that offend our God so greatly. Jude refers to God as “Him who is able to keep you from stumbling” (Jude 1:24). And through Jesus Christ and the power of His mighty redemption, God becomes just that to us. As Paul puts it, “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
