I Kings 14:8 – But you have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart and always did whatever I wanted.
This was spoken after the whole debacle with Bathsheba and Uriah. After the affair and the cover up and the murders.
After King David blatantly broke God’s law by sleeping with another man’s wife AND getting her pregnant AND trying to cover it up AND sending the husband back to the front lines carrying his own death sentence in a sealed envelope AND killing other men in battle along with him. And then going on with life as if nothing had happened.
I wonder what Bathsheba was thinking. This man committed adultery with her and got her pregnant and had her husband killed. Then married her. I’m sure that required hours and hours and hours of therapy!
“He followed me with all his heart.”
What???
When God forgives, He forgives completely. Selah —
David didn’t do everything right. He missed it. He sinned. BIG TIME!
We would count those particular sins as some of “The Biggies.” And at least one of them was worthy of the death penalty under the Law.
David sinned HUGE and yet years later, God is telling Jeroboam, “David obeyed and followed Me with all his heart. You should have been like David.”
As we saw with Solomon, God put His laws in His Word to help us. To protect us. They’re guardrails to keep us close to His heart.
So what’s the difference between David and Solomon, and in this case, Jeroboam? They all sinned. they all violated the Law.
The difference is what happened after.
Solomon didn’t repent. Jeroboam didn’t repent.
But David did. His heart was broken for what he had done, and he repented. And God forgave. Completely.
I wonder what would have happened if Solomon and Jeroboam would have repented. Asked God to forgive them.
Well….He would have forgiven them.
King Manasseh was the most wicked king to ever rule in Israel. He offered his own children as burnt offerings to other gods. Wicked. But when he humbled himself and repented, God forgave him and brought him back to Jerusalem after being taken prisoner. (You can read it here.)
Learn a lesson from King David
When you sin, repent. Our tendency is to hide in shame and regret and self recriminations. We let it push us far from God.
“How could I? I’m not worthy. Why would He ever forgive me now?”
Umm….Newsflash: God knows you’re human. He pretty much already knew what you were going to do, and He’s already made provision for it in Jesus.
And I love this verse in I Kings 14 because we get a peek into God’s heart and we can see just how completely He forgives. We can see exactly how He sees us after we repent.
“He obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart.”
No, when we repent, God throws it completely away from His memory and sees us as though we never sinned. Because of Jesus. Because of the blood.
There were consequences. Yes. That’s why it’s better not to sin in the first place. (He’s trying to protect us, remember?)
But when we do, and we all will, let’s be like David. Don’t let it push you away from God. Let’s repent and stay near to the heart of the Father.
When God forgives, He forgives completely. We need to accept His forgiveness and forgive ourselves. He doesn’t remember it, and neither should we.
