Killing Uriah Was Petty Theft Compared to David's Real Crimes. 

   As some of you may know, I’m an avid student of the Old Testament, these last few years, because my life has sucked so bad that I have needed a distraction. My heart has been so crushed, so bruised, so stomped on, and has bled out many times. I needed to study every aspect about GOD and His renown heroes and how they dealt with those crushing blows. I also needed to find out how GOD dealt with His people to see if there was any offense in me that would have caused the losses I’ve had to bear.   Let me tell you, when it comes to GOD and why He does things the way He does and with whom, it would be a lesson in futility to attempt to get to the why’s. So, let’s just stick to the facts. 

     David, before he was king was indeed a mass murderer not for in a Holy war instructed by GOD,  but for his own profit. I know, this is a very difficult and dreadful and disgusting thought about the greatest king Israel has ever been blessed to have, or the hero of heroes we’d like to have the same faith and heart as he did. But, we cannot deny what is clearly written in Scripture that we have so conveniently brushed over, never really digging deep into what he did. I aim to do that with you, and believe me, it’s pretty ugly. It’s as ugly as the times we are living in now, if not worse . We are talking genocide, including men, women, children, and babies, even babies in-utero. I have dealt with this in other blogs, but to save you time, I’ll give you a quick re-cap.

   It’s in 1 Samuel 27 , the whole chapter. David had been running from a mad king, hell-bent on killing him for several years now, and he was dog tired. Who wouldn’t be? So, in a moment of despair and exhaustion, with his faith bank account overdrawn, he decided to go live with the dogs. (Pun intended see 1 Samuel 17) David had previously trusted GOD to provide and protect, and quite valiantly, also, but David was a man, a very tired man. He wrote some of his greatest Psalms during those times of Supernatural faith and strengthening himself to endure. Those Psalms that get us through our worst times. This bad time, however was after great spiritual victory, that David sunk into despair. Isn’t that always the way with us? Clearly, David had given up on GOD. Did he stop believing in GOD? I doubt it, but having been running from a plethora of the devil’s minions hell bent on destroying me for almost 12 years, I can pretty much assume how he felt are some of the same things I’ve felt and said in my moments of despair, grief and exhaustion. I surely believed I was done, plenty of times, like David, in the 1st verse.

     27 Then David said to himself, “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.”

   During David’s defection and spiritually dark time, he wrote no psalms, no prayers, no fruit, and he was a terrible example to all around him. Surely, he was NOT being Godly those sixteen months. 1 Samuel 27:

     8 David and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites—people who had lived near Shur, toward the land of Egypt, since ancient times. 9 David did not leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish  11 And David did not leave a man or a woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, “Otherwise they will tell about us, saying, ‘This is what David has done, and this has been his practice all the time that he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’”

   Read those paragraphs again, and really absorb all that is implied here. “He left not one person alive.” David led the General Achish to believe that he was attacking, pillaging, and raiding Israelites in the far land belonging to the tribe of Judah.  Sadly, what he was doing was attacking, pillaging, and raiding the Canaanites who had remained in the land promised to Abraham’s descendants. They would have not been there these hundreds of years later, had the earlier generations followed GOD orders precisely. David was wiping entire towns, village, cities, and clans out, leaving not one person alive who could squeal on him. This went on for over a year, so you can assume that David killed men, women, children, and pregnant women, for profit, because he kept some of the loot himself.  

    David and his 600 men, were rioters, and looters, burning down all that they left behind. How’s that for the man GOD called, “a man after His own heart.” Now, he got paid back for that by GOD, but not what he deserved.  If you'll remember, while he was away from his home base, trying to talk the general into letting him fight for the enemy against his own people, GOD let all of the women and children of Ziglak be kidnap by enemy raiding parties, but GOD did not let them be killed.  Instead, GOD spared them until David repented and finally turned back to Him, and then GOD arranged for all to be saved.  You can find that story in 1 Samuel 30 

     And yet, we only hear about the time of David as a king being  disciplined by GOD for stealing a man's wife, getting her pregnant, hiding the pregnancy and killing her husband.  This was one man he killed not thousands.  He didn't embezzle his goods, he just tried to hide his sin from the people, but he could not hide his sin from GOD.  He just chose to live the lie that maybe GOD didn't pay attention to this one little thing.  Well, he found out just how wrong that was.  What did he do?  He repented, again and was forgiven, again. 

     Next time you start beating yourself up, thinking you’re not good enough for service to the King of Kings, remind yourself of just how low David had descended.  One thing that you will find is that in the Bible and real world, history and people just repeat themselves with different elements and different weapons.  We are no different than David, we all fall short, some shorter than others, but no matter how short, the man with a heart after GOD is always forgiven AFTER he repents.  It's the man who doesn't repent who find disaster, one way or another.