David You Are the Man, Part 3

In December 2003, serial killer Gary Ridgway sat expressionless in court as a barrage of victims’ family members hurled their pain, disgust, and fury at him. But then 63-year-old Robert Rule began to speak.

“Mr. Ridgway,” the white-haired father addressed him, “[y]ou’ve made it difficult to live up to what I believe, and what God says to do, and that is to forgive. And He doesn’t say to forgive certain people; He says to forgive all. So you are forgiven, sir.”

At that, the killer’s hard veneer cracked, and his eyes welled up with tears.

When Nathan, the prophet of God, visited David after the death of Uriah, he told the king a story of a rich man and a poor man whose only lamb was slain injudiciously by the former (2 Samuel 12:1–4).

Outraged, David pronounced sentence upon the rich man, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!” (v. 5).

Immediately, Nathan retorted, “You are the man!” (v. 7). He went on to correspond David’s own conduct in his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah with that of the rich man in the story.

David, shocked, suddenly realized his sin. The mirror had been held up; the hammer had struck. Horrified, he did not run nor did he deny it. Instead, he confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord” (v. 13).

And the Lord forgave him.

What miracles does forgiveness produce upon the human heart? Can it soften even the hardest of criminals?

David could have ranted, raged, rebelled. But he did not. When told that, because of his own actions, his child with Bathsheba would die and his family be torn apart, he appealed for the life of the child (vv. 10, 11, 14–16). How David must have wished that he could take back what he had done.

But when the child died (v. 18), he did not resist. Instead, he rededicated himself to God and accepted the consequences of his transgressions (v. 20). In Psalm 51, David wrote a prayer of repentance, pleading for a complete transformation of character. His heart had now returned to its humble state, “broken,” “contrite” (Psalm 51:17). Once more he became a man after God’s own heart.

Reflect: Have you ever been caught red-handed? What has been your reaction to your own guilt? God wants us to learn from our mistakes so we don’t repeat them.