Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Valentine’s Day.
I wonder if you noticed that your calendar today actually has TWO notations on this date. Today is both Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday! Now ponder that for a moment. How do you blend together these two very significant days? The apostle John wrote this powerful statement in his first letter which seems to unite these two special days: “This is how God showed His love to humanity: God sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9,10)
Of course, you know the most famous verse in the Bible in which John recorded the words Jesus spoke which express the extreme love of God: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16,17)
Here’s a thought that has struck me this morning: Ash Wednesday; which begins the 40 days of Lent leading to Palm Sunday; and the Passion week of Jesus prior to Passover/Easter weekend; is the ultimate expression of Valentine’s Day, isn’t it? Nothing has ever been a greater expression of love than God the Father sending Jesus, God the Son, from heaven to earth for the purpose of giving His life on the cross so you and I could be forgiven of our sin of rebellion against God! That is so profound no human mind has ever been fully able to comprehend it!
Now I didn’t plan this, my friends, but this is a perfect day for us to join King David in his experience of the ultimate love of God in the face of his terrible sin of adultery; his cover-up with the murder of Bathsheba’s husband and his quick marriage with Bathsheba; and then his many months of living his lie and pretending nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Yesterday I left you in the throne room of David’s palace with King David lying prostrate on the floor weeping and crying out to God, his sin having been revealed by the prophet Nathan who had confronted David with the truth. Nathan was standing by watching as wave after wave of conviction swept over David and David could do nothing but weep in shame and guilt. King David cried out to God through his weeping: “I have sinned against the LORD!” (2 Samuel 12:13) There it is my friends, the point at which God can finally begin doing a healing work in King David.
Up to this moment King David had been totally deceitful, pretending all was normal in his relationship with Bathsheba and his kingship over Israel, God’s people. By my calculation David had been living his lie for almost one full year since the evening he had been walking on his palace roof and observed a beautiful woman bathing and invited her to the palace. In that year David had committed adultery with that dear woman, the daughter of Eliam whom I presume was still alive and living not far from the palace in the “City of David”. She was also the wife of Uriah, one of King David’s faithful soldiers, but King David had Uriah killed on the frontline of the battlefield. David then married a grieving widow and as she gave birth to their child, David rejoiced, as with all of his other children.
But God had been watching and God had been patient, giving David a full year to repent. But rather than repent, David was living a double life, pretending to be a God honoring King of Israel; pretending to be a worshiper of God at the Ark of the Covenant tent which was very near the palace; pretending to be an honorable and compassionate husband to Uriah’s widow. But God’s patience ran out and God sent Nathan to confront David and now there is no more pretending, no excuses, no blaming anyone else.
Now King David, face down on the throne room floor is weeping and crying out for God’s mercy. David knows he deserves to die, according to God’s very clear statutes given to His people through Moses. (Deut. 22:22)
Finally, the prophet Nathan speaks again, bringing God’s word to King David: “The LORD God has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this sin you have shown utter contempt for the LORD, the son born to you will die.” (2 Samuel 12:13,14) And with that, Nathan, King David’s spiritual advisor, turned and walked out of the throne room, leaving King David to ponder the consequences of his sin and the mercy of God extended to him that day. Now perhaps you are deeply troubled that God would cause the death of this child as punishment for the sin of his father David. I believe there are two powerful lessons for us in this:
First… Children live in the shadow of their parents and often suffer the consequences of the sin of their parents.
If you had alcoholic or pornography addiction or drug addicted parents, you know what I mean by that. If you grew up with an abusive parent or one of your parents abandoned the family, you understand what I mean by this statement. David would live the rest of his life grieving the dramatic consequences of his sin which his little son suffered. David would grieve, as I know some of you have grieved, the loss of his child in death.
Second… God’s love, grace and justice assure us that this little child went directly into God’s presence when he died, for he had not yet sinned or reached the age of accountability.
What a blessing for that child, rather than living his life as an illegitimate son of adultery and murder!
The record next says these powerful words, look very closely at them, my friends: “After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had born to David, and he became ill.” Yes, God Himself sent a terminal illness upon this little child, and did you notice how the child is identified? “The child that Uriah’s wife had born to David.” God was making it clear to David, to Nathan and to ALL Israel, anyone who would ever read of this travesty, that while David had married Bathsheba, in God’s eyes she was Uriah’s wife, and the child was conceived in adultery! Look at that very carefully my friends, for adultery is so widely accepted around the world, but in God’s eyes it is a horrific defilement of the sacred covenant of marriage, with God.
David’s love for this little child and his deep remorse over his sin is evident in the next words of the record: “David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused and would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day, the child died.” (2 Samuel 12:16-18)
If you are a parent or grandparent, it should not be difficult for you to understand David’s deep grief, his profound shame, his heart tearing agony of remorse as he watched his little child waste away toward death, a death caused by his sin, his rebellion against God, his abuse of his authority as king both in adultery and murder.
While the record tells us nothing of Bathsheba’s suffering, if you are a mother or grandmother, I’m sure it is not difficult for you to imagine what Bathsheba was thinking and feeling during these seven days her baby’s life slowly ebbed away.
Now friends, we need to pause here. This horrific scene is a clear picture of what God’s justice should be for you and me and every living person. God is perfect and holy justice calls for the judgment and elimination of sin and sinful people who sin.
But God’s remarkable Redemption Plan extends God’s Mercy in His Justice. Rather than eliminating the human race, one person at a time, God executed His own Son, Jesus, on the cross and because Jesus was sinless, His death pays for your sin and mine. His death is substitutionary, for Jesus has paid my death penalty for my sin, just as He paid your death penalty for your sin!
And God the Father is ready to apply that death payment of Jesus to my sin and yours, IF we will do as David did. If we will confess our sin, agreeing with God that we are guilty sinners, and repent from our sin, and turn to God asking for His mercy!
That, my friends, is the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift of Jesus Christ to the human race, given to us as He died on that cross 2000 year ago! Have you done as David did? Have you acknowledged, declared to God that you are a guilty sinner? Have you turned from your sin to Jesus and trusting that His death was payment for your sin, have you asked God the Father to forgive your sin, and draw you to Himself, restoring you into the relationship that your sin had broken with God?
I urge us all to renew that glorious, life transforming confession, repentance and receiving of God’s forgiveness today, this Ash Wednesday, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow as we continue our journey with Jesus.
Today’s Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:13-18.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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