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Bible Lessons for Home and School
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All Profitable
by C.R. Stam
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
—II Tim. 3:16
There appears to be a natural hesitation on the part of some
Bible teachers and commentators to deal objectively with the Scriptural record
of the failings of great men of God. Indeed, many Bible expositors lean
over backward to excuse, or explain away, at least in part, the sins of great
saints.
Yet the Bible records these sins with factual exactness, adding no light
tones to the black hues of moral and spiritual guilt. This is for our
good, for these sad incidents too were recorded “for our admonition”
(I Cor. 10:11). John Kitto, in his Daily Bible Illustrations, brings
this out in his comments on II Samuel 11 and 12:
“It was while the army was engaged in these distant
operations that David fell into those deep sins, which have left a dark blot
upon his name, that all his tears have not been able to expunge from the
view of man, nor all his griefs to make man forget. It is indeed profitable
that they should be held in remembrance, in their causes and results, that
the sad fall of so distinguished a saint—a man so near to God—may
teach us not to be high-minded, but fear.
“The facts are so well known to every reader that it
will suffice to indicate them very briefly.
“David, when walking upon the roof of his palace, after
having risen from his afternoon rest, obtained a view of a beautiful woman,
of whom he became most passionately enamoured. Her name was Bath-sheba,
and she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who, notwithstanding his Canaanitish
origin, was one of the king’s most distinguished officers, and a member
of the illustrious band of ‘worthies.’
“After gratifying his criminal passion, and finding
that it would not be possible much longer to conceal a fact which would expose
Bath-sheba to the death-punishment of an adulteress, David did not shrink
from sending orders to Joab so to expose her valiant husband in battle as
to ensure his destruction by the sword of the Ammonites. Joab obeyed
this order to the letter, and Uriah perished. Bathsheba was then free,
and David barely suffered the days of her mourning to pass (probably a month)
before he added her to the number of his wives.
“Here is adultery; here is murder. O, David, David,
how art thou fallen! To our minds, there is nothing in all that man
has written so terribly emphatic as the quiet sentence which the historian
inserts at the end of his account of these sad transactions.
“His high displeasure was made known to David by the
prophet Nathan, in a parable of touching beauty, applied to the case with
a degree of force, which at once brought conviction home to the heart of a
man not hardened in guilt by a course of less heinous and unrepented sin,
but who had plunged headlong into one great and complicated crime. The
awful words—‘THOU ART THE MAN,’ at once brought David to
his knees. He confessed his guilt. He deplored it with many tears.
He was pardoned; and God hid not his face from him for ever. But seeing
that this deed, in a man so honoured, had ‘given great occasion to
the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme,’ it became necessary that God
should vindicate His own righteousness, by testifying, in the punishment of
His servant, His abhorrence of that servant’s sin.
“The sentence pronounced upon him—‘Behold,
I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house,’ furnishes
the key to David’s future history and career, which was as unprosperous
and troubled, as the earlier part of his reign had been happy and successful.
There was in all things a great change—even in the man himself.
Broken in spirit by the consciousness of how deeply he had sinned against
God and against man; humbled in the eyes of his subjects, and his influence
with them weakened by the knowledge of his crimes; and even his authority
in his own household, and his claim to the reverence of his sons, relaxed
by his loss of character—David appears henceforth a much altered man.
He is as one who goes down to the grave mourning. His active history
is past—henceforth he is passive merely. All that was high, and
firm, and noble in his character, goes out of view—and all that is weak,
and low, and wayward, comes out in strong relief.
“Of the infirmities of his temper and character, there
may have been previous indications, but they were but dimly discernible through
the splendour of his worthier qualities; now that splendour has waxed pale—the
most fine gold has grown dim, and the spots have become broad and distinct.
The balance of his character is broken. Still he is pious—but
even his piety takes an altered aspect. It is no longer buoyant, exulting,
triumphant, glad; it is repressed, humble, patient, contrite, suffering.
“His trust in the Lord is not less than it had been, and that trust
sustains him, and still gives dignity to his character and sentiments.
But even that trust is different. He is still a son—but he is
no longer a Joseph, rejoicing in his father’s love, and delighting in
the coat of many colours which that love has cast upon him; but rather a
Reuben, pardoned, pitied, and forgiven, yet not unpunished, by the father
whose honor he has defiled. Alas for him! The bird which once
rose to heights unattained before by mortal wing, filling the air with its
joyful songs, now lies with maimed wing upon the ground, pouring forth its
doleful cries to God.
“The change we have indicated furnishes the key to David’s
subsequent career, and unless it be borne in mind, the incidents of that career
will not be thoroughly understood.”
In the above passage Mr. Kitto shows his usual keen insight
into the Word of God. In examining the Scriptural record of David’s
life, it is disappointing indeed to see his “sword arm” weakened
so that he can no longer mete out pure justice or discomfit the enemies of
righteousness as before.
We live in a day when this sad account serves as a much-needed warning that
a moral fall, even when moral falls are so prevalent, enfeebles, debilitates
and embarrasses its victim for the remainder of his life.
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