Numbers 29-31

Mark 9:1-29

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” —Psalm 51:17

 David’s life took another tumultuous turn. Now king of Israel, the man after God’s own heart succumbed to adultery with Bathsheba and she conceived. When David heard of this, he sent for her husband, Uriah, to come home from the battlefields. But Uriah was a man of integrity, and while his comrades were camped out in open country, he refused to share a bed with his wife, and slept at the palace entrance with the servants. To cover up his sin, David grew desperate, and sent Uriah back to the battlefront with a note for his commanding officer that held his death sentence. Uriah was placed on the front lines of the fiercest fighting and was killed.

In retrospect for David, while he was on the run from Saul, David had two opportunities to kill him, but despite the urging of his men, refused to touch him. He said, “Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?” (1 Samuel 26:9). His reasoning was that God had made Saul king of Israel, and God would remove him from the throne in His own time in His own way. At that point, David displayed a clean, moral conscience. But with Uriah’s murder by proxy, we are left to wonder what happened. How did David lose this inner battle? Where was his conscience?

David would have been aware that a high-profile man like himself could engage in sexual promiscuity, and no one would think anything of it, as it was the norm of that day. Little by little, the conscience eroded and a sense of entitlement crept in. Hiding out in caves, David was a fugitive, an outcast, and his conscience was strong, humble and alive. Years later, he became the most important man in Israel, living in a palace. His word ruled, and his every whim was met. That was a dangerous position to be in, because his conscience, which had been so acute on the run, had become distorted and polluted by the spoils of the palace.

We are all vulnerable to distorting our consciences. Usually the more privileges we have, the nearer to falling we are. In the

New Testament, Paul writes, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). David paid dearly for his sin with tragic consequences to his personal life. He wrote Psalm 51 after his adultery, and it came from a broken heart and a distorted conscience, but reveals the abundance of God’s grace upon the repentant. He cried, “Have mercy on me, 
O God, according to Your unfailing love...” (Psalm 51:1). The gravity of our sin may be severe, but God always hears the genuinely repentant heart.

Dear Lord God, thank You for being merciful and forgiving. Keep me in a posture of humility and dependence on You so that I will not distort my conscience. Thank You, Lord.