David, Israel’s
second king, ruled from 1010-970 BC.
Near
the end, he gathered the people and declared, “The Lord, the God
of Israel,
chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel... [and now]
of all my
sons—and the Lord has given me many—he has chosen my son Solomon
to sit on the
throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel (I Chronicles
28:4-5).
That would have been
a shocking
statement to those in attendance.
Why? Solomon’s
mother was
Bathsheba and the story of how she became one of David’s wives is
not a good
one. Long story short, she
was married
to a soldier named Uriah. Ignoring
this
fact, David sends for her and sleeps with her.
When Bathsheba sends word that she is going to have his
baby, David
tries to cover up the entire affair by having her husband recalled
from his
military duty. When that
plan backfires,
David arranges to have Uriah sent back to the war and put on the
front
line. After he is killed
in battle,
David takes Bathsheba as his wife (You can read about these events
in 2 Samuel
11).
The important fact
to remember is
that David had “many sons” (verse 5) from which to choose a
successor and that
is certainly true. Nineteen
of them are listed
by name, two more are mentioned in passing and it is implied that
there are
others as well. God could
have chosen
anyone, but chose the son with the worst background and the most
skeletons in
his family closet.
The simple point: God is more willing to
forgive than we than
we imagine. David had to
endure some
very serious consequences from his sin (see 2 Samuel 12), but once
he confessed
and turned back to God, it was over.
God
did not punish Solomon for the sins of his father and Solomon’s
past did not
have to be his future.
While many people to
like to keep
track of their own failures and point out where others slip and
fall, God seems
to be more than willing to tear up the lists and start over. “As far as the east is from
the west, so far
has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
God could have
chosen anyone, but
he chose Bathsheba’s boy.
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