Something's Not Right

Then the king instructed Zadok to take the Ark of God back into the city. “If the LORD sees fit,” David said, “he will bring me back to see the Ark and the Tabernacle again. But if he is through with me, then let him do what seems best to him.” [2 Samuel 15.25-26]

What David was experiencing was resultant to his sin with Bathsheba.

If it seems like David was confused in today's OYCB reading, it is because he was. The verse above reveals a man who was confused and discouraged. He was certainly not speaking like the young man who bravely ran to meet Goliath in a field with no doubt whatsoever that he would conquer that giant!

Sin causes doubt. Sin causes unrest. Sin causes loss. Sin causes rebellion. Sin causes fear. Sin causes frustration. Sin causes weakness. Sin causes strife. Sin causes division. Sin causes anxiety. Sin causes aimlessness.

Sin is disabling. 

Sin yields all manner of confusion even in those who have the capacity to do great things. Sin messes everything up.

“This is what the LORD says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel.” [ 2 Samuel 12.11-12]

Was there anything that David could have done that could have reversed the curse Nathan the prophet declared of him in 2 Samuel 12?

We may have a clue to the answer posed here in the context of David's child dying. Nathan had said the child would die. David mourned and prayed for the child's life. The child died. Nathan said there would also be family rebellion. But David ceased his repentance...

This is all very important! Curses were placed on David for sin. If the Old Testament teaches us anything, it is that God is merciful and that genuine repentance can stop the power of otherwise deserved curses. So, why did David stop repenting?

Why DID David stop repenting?

Could it be that David let sin cause him to lose hope? Could it be that, after losing the child in spite of David's pleas to God for his life that David gave up on redemption? Could it be that David became complacent with the curse of his sin? How might David's situation have been different had he continued to repent and plead for forgiveness even after the child died (because there remained the curse of rebellion in his family yet to manifest)?

As a man well-acquainted with sin myself, I need to understand this! Have I sinned so much that curses are just my lot in life? If God is not as merciful to me as I would like, am I just to give up altogether declaring "what will be will be?" Am I content with "Jesus died for my sins..." but the effects of sin remain on my life?

Think about it... The Old Testament records many instances that Israel repented before God and God relented from giving the punishment they deserved... And they didn't even have the Redemption of Jesus! How much more should we see the reversal of curses when we repent with Jesus as our Redeemer? Does the Age of Grace offer less forgiveness than the Old Testament? I don't think so!

Like David, I am afraid we have become complacent with our sin and its curses. But, unlike David, we have Jesus Who clearly "paid it all" on our behalf, and yet we still suffer for our sins... Jesus brought forgiveness - real forgiveness - tangible forgiveness that manifested on the spot in all manner of miracles, and yet we remain unrepentant, un-healed, and powerless in the earth in which we live. We have become content with repenting once and then just holding on for heaven some day suffering all manner of sickness, disease, and curses described in Deuteronomy 28 for disobedience.

When David's child died, he got up, cleaned up, and worshiped God. He quit repenting in other words. Because David determined he had repented enough, was his worship a farce?

‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’” [Matthew 15.8-9]

David "worshiped God" when perhaps he should have continued repenting. David had Deuteronomy 28 that described the curses Nathan pronounced on David - David knew as well as anyone that curses were the sign of sin and signaled the need for repentance. Consider just this one verse from Deuteronomy 28:

“The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me. [Deuteronomy 28.20]

But David stopped repenting and started worshiping... and all manner of rebellion broke loose in his family and all around him. See the correlation?

Something's not right. Does it not cause us to want to know why? Are we worshiping when we should be repenting?

Father, I don't want to be content with the curses on my life. I want to repent! Forgive me for denying the implications of the curses on my life (that I need to repent) and bringing worship that is a farce to You!