The offended party

What happens when a football player places a well-aimed kick on another player’s shin? He might get shown a card, or be sent off, even given a match suspension, but doubtless he will be back playing again within a week or two. Now imagine someone taking a kick at Queen Elizabeth’s shin and the outrage would be of a different order altogether!

Why should this be? After all, the act was identical - someone kicked someone’s shin. The answer is, of course, that the offence lies not so much in the act itself but against whom the offence was committed.

Now, keeping in mind that all wrong doing offends a righteous and good God, read on…

King David (circa 1000 BC) ruled Israel in what was called the nation’s ‘Golden Age.’ His prestige, power and success caused him to be lax towards God. The devil finds work for idle hands and, while his troops were at war, David lusted after the beautiful Bathsheba. He had his way with her and she became pregnant. In an attempt to conceal what he had done, he manipulated things so that Bathsheba’s husband was killed in battle, so freeing her to marry the king. God appears to have been well off David’s radar screen at this time.

God graciously sent David a prophet, named Nathan, to touch his heart and to appeal to his sense of right and wrong. Once David had his view of God back in focus he was conscience stricken, cut to the heart, as we say. He called out to God in earnest, ‘Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…’

Although David says, ‘against you only have I sinned…’, I don’t believe he was oblivious to the fact that he had done wrong to both Bathsheba and her husband. Nevertheless, a bit like the disparity between the football player and the Queen, he realised that his offences were first and foremost against God himself. David knew that when he was in trouble, even in trouble with God, the answer was not to run away but to come towards God who alone could bring him relief and forgiveness.

As Nathan the prophet was sent to David, God has sent us Jesus. It is he who shows us in sharp focus who God is; this so that our consciences might be awakened and we be drawn towards him. Here, forgiveness awaits those who earnestly want it. God will not refuse a contrite heart (see Psalm 51).

#JesusthewaytoGod #grace #forgiveness #OldTestament #JesusasfoundationalRock