Faithfulness: Repentance
God is Always Willing to Forgive
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. August 1st, 2021
God is not fair. We see this time and time again in scripture. The Bible has a word for God’s unfairness: grace. Today I want to look at one of the times God was not fair, and investigate why that is the case. I want to compare the sins of David and Saul.
You may recall I had mentioned before that Saul had sinned and the spirit of the Lord was taken from him. He had shown a pattern of pride and impetuousness. But the sin that tore the kingdom from him was an act he committed after a battle with the Amalekites. God had devoted everything in the battle to “the ban.” Meaning, the Israelites were to take no prisoners and were to take no spoils. But following the battle with the Amalekites Saul had taken their King and many others prisoner, and had captured their choice livestock and goods. In doing so he directly disobeyed a command of God.
God alerted Samuel to Saul’s misdeed and commanded Samuel to confront him. When Samuel did Saul explained that they had only captured the livestock and goods of the Amalekites that they would sacrifice to, in his words, “the Lord your God.” Not, “the Lord my God” or “the Lord our God” but “your God” Samuel’s God. Samuel told Saul that day that the Spirit of the Lord would leave him, and he was no longer to be King over Israel.
Today we heard about Nathan confronting David for his own sins, murder and adultery. He does so in the delicate form of a parable. He says there were two men in a certain city. One man was poor and the other rich. The rich man had many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but a single ewe lamb. We can imagine the parable is already pulling at the heartstrings of the shepherd David. The poor man cared for the ewe like it was his own daughter, and dearly loved it. He even fed it his own meager food. But one day a traveller came to visit the rich man, who was loathe to slaughter one of his own calfs for the man. So instead he stole the poor man’s lamb and slaughtered it.
David was infuriated with the rich man in the parable. He said, “That man deserves to die! He should restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing with no pity!”
Nathan’s response was simple: “You are the man!” Do not think this thing you did could escape God’s notice. You took the wife of Uriah, and you had him murdered. You are no better than this rich man, who had much, who takes from the poor man, who has little. And David was deeply grieved. He said, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Now here is what is so unfair. Saul’s sin was that he didn’t kill when he was called to kill. David’s sin is that he committed adultery and murdered. Surely David’s sin, when you weigh them, is far worse than Saul’s. But Saul has the kingdom taken from him. David does not. God’s promise remains with David, and his house. It seems more than a little unfair.
But the justice of God is not simply to weigh offenses, it is also to pardon the contrite. Why is God so unfair in these two cases? It is simply that David humbles himself. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me… Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.” Whereas Saul sees no need for forgiveness, he is convinced he knew better, that he did what was right. Moreover, David knows he sinned before his God, Saul speaks of “your God.”
God is not fair because God is forgiving, and ever ready to forgive. David escapes the punishment of Saul not because his offense is any less, but because he responds in contrition and seeks forgiveness. God is always more willing to forgive than we are to ask. He is not like us, where we may forgive begrudgingly, or we may count the number of times we’ve had to forgive. But he delights in forgiveness, because he delights in us.
There is no sin that’s too great for God’s forgiveness, we can never be too late, and God places no limits on his forgiveness. We can know the priority God puts on forgiveness in that while he was on the cross Jesus said “father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” And we know the priority God puts on a relationship with us, that he gave us his son, and he died for the sins of the world.
David is the man after God’s own heart not because he could never sin, but because he knew God’s heart. And even in his failure, he still sought forgiveness.
But that is, of course, not the end of the story. David may know the forgiveness of God, but he still needs to deal with the aftermath of his sin. God is ever willing to forgive, but forgiveness does not mean we do not have to make amends or live with the consequences of sin. David, and by extension the nation of Israel, will have to live in the aftermath of David’s sin. “I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun.” Trouble will come to David’s house, and it’ll threaten to take the whole nation down.