Baffled

I was thinking about the song Hallelujah during my quiet time, and I wanted to read the story of Bathsheba and David, because in the song it talked about how baffled King David was. As I was reading, I saw how terrible and heartless David was. If I were to read just that story, I'd laugh at all the things they say about David.

Most of the stuff really stuck out because all growing up, adults taught us the mellowed 'King George and the Ducky' version of the story. And so naturally, I was comparing the Veggie Tales version to the Bible story. One part I recognized was the part when God's servant Nathan comes to David and tells about the sheep. (I had the whole flannel graph and the song going in my head while I was reading, you'd be surprised how close to the actual verses the song is!) David is absolutely disgusted with the rich man in the story, and he starts going off about this guy. Then Nathan says, "David, he's you" (Youuu are that mannnnnn! -in the words of Pa Grape :D)

Just then David gets it, and he says, "I've been doing this wrong!"

This next part jumped out at me. Nathan says that God has forgiven David's sins already! David didn't get down on his knees and beg first, he simply says "I was wrong" and God forgives him! And unlike the rich man in the story, David wasn't messing around with sheep! He had deception, adultery, theft, and murder on his hands, yet he simply admitted that he was wrong and God spared his life. (David did have some punishment though, because all but one of his sons died due to similar foolishness)

The God of the OT was an angry God. He had made these people to worship him, and they were constantly disobeying him. If I were God, I'd be like "Rainbow, or no rainbow, there's gonna be a flood. And this time, no Noah!"

But because he displayed so much wrath, we forget that God of the OT is the same of the gospel. God came to David through Nathan, ready to forgive him. He only waited for a sorry and he was like 'OK, awesome! welcome back to the family!'

I know now why David was so baffled! Here he was, in OT times, having committed like the last four of the Ten commandments in one situation, and the God of judgment was telling him what he had done. He expected to die! But all God really wanted was to hear David say sorry, so when he did God was more than ready to accept him again. He came to bring David back.

I think there are times when I'm disappointed with someone, and when I talk to them, I don't have the mindset of forgiving them and bringing them back. Sometimes, it's really hard to want to really try to grow closer to people who have hurt me or done something wrong, so I don't try. I can tell you several friendships where I've just let them sink because I'd only go as far as talking out forgiveness. So in some things, I've never really forgiven. If I had taken those hurt friendships and done all I could on my part to repair the hurt feelings, and approached people with the purpose of completely repairing our relationship, then I could say I've forgiven them.

This week, I'm gonna think back on the friendships that haven't been the same because of something that I wasn't going to forgive, and I'm gonna pray for God's grace to overcome the friendship barriers. Who's with me???