- The king became so jealous of him that he lived as fugitive for several years.
- He committed adultery with his friend’s wife, whom he impregnated. When his cover-up plan failed, he arranged for his friend’s murder.
- One of his sons committed rape and incest. Another son killed that son, and temporarily overthrew his father.
- He sinned so greatly that God sent a plague that killed many of his people.
- God told him that he could not build his temple because he had too much blood on his hands.
Believe it or not, I’m talking about King David. David’s life reads like the raunchiest of soap operas. The prior king, Saul, became so jealous of David that he relentlessly hunted David trying to kill him. After David became king, his friend and supporter, Uriah, was fighting wars on David’s behalf. David rewarded Uriah by impregnating his wife. Then David tried to get Uriah to sleep with his wife so that Uriah would believe that the child was his, instead of David’s. When his plan failed, he sent Uriah to the front lines of battles, where he was sure that Uriah would be killed. Amnon, David’s eldest son, raped his half-sister, and David failed to punish him. His failure to punish may have led to Absalom’s (another of David’s children) murder of Amnon. Absalom also overthrew his father for a short time was subsequently also murdered. Additionally, David took a census of Israel, which doesn’t sound that offensive. However, in God’s eyes, he was relying on his own strength instead of God’s strength. Although his advisors were against it, he conducted the census anyway. God then sent a plague that ravaged David’s kingdom. Furthermore, when David wanted to build a temple for God, God told him that he had too much blood on his hands, and some Bible translations say that David was a man of blood.
Now David did some good stuff too. He defeated Goliath. He had chances to kill King Saul, but he wouldn’t because he said that Saul was God’s anointed king. He also united the tribes of Israel and Judah. However, do David’s successes outweigh his failures? My worldly, sin-stained judgment says probably not. Luckily, God judges us differently. In fact, God gave David what I consider to be the greatest compliment ever. God said that David was “a man after God’s own heart”.
What made David “a man after God’s own heart”? Every time he screwed up (which he did regularly), he admitted it. Then he genuinely tried to change his ways. It’s a good lesson. We don’t have to be perfect to be a man or a woman after God’s own heart.