Although we’ve already presented three studies on David, the greatest king in the history of the Jewish people, we propose making one more in this series of lessons about people in the Bible who are also found in the Qur’an. This story shows us once again that God does not show partiality, and His Word does not hide the faults of his servants. He is a just God and He condemns the sin of all human beings. He is also compassionate and He is ready to pardon the sinner who humbles himself and repents of his wicked ways.

Let us look at this sad episode in the life of David, which the Bible recounts to us in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.

“One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing — a very beautiful woman. So David sent someone to inquire about her, and he reported, ‘This is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ [Uriah was an officer in the Israelite army which at that precise moment was engaged in war against the Ammonites.] David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned home. The woman conceived and sent word to inform David: ‘I am pregnant.’

David sent orders to Joab [commander of his army]: ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ …When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going. Then he said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house and wash your feet.’ So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him. But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his lord’s servants; he did not go down to his house.

When it was reported to David, ‘Uriah didn’t go home,’ David questioned Uriah, ‘Haven’t you just come from a journey? Why didn’t you go home?’

Uriah answered David, ‘The ark, Israel, and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and his soldiers are camping in the open field. How can I enter my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and by your life, I will not do this!’

‘Stay here today also,’ David said to Uriah, ‘and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. He went out in the evening to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home. The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In the letter he wrote: ‘Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest fighting, then withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die.’” (2 Samuel 11:2-15)

As David wanted, this loyal soldier was killed by the Ammonites. When Bathsheba learned that her husband was dead, she mourned. When the time of mourning was passed, David had her brought to his house. He married her and she gave him a son.

“But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him: ‘There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up, living with him and his children. It shared his meager food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.’

David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: ‘As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.’

Nathan replied to David, ‘You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul… I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that were not enough, I would have given you even more. Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.”’” (2 Samuel 12:1-10)

Nathan continued declaring the punishments that David would suffer from the Lord, including violence within his family and public violation of his wives. When the prophet finished speaking, David was struck with the gravity of his crime and humbly recognized, “I have sinned against the Lord.” He did not try to deny his fault or justify himself. He saw himself as being as guilty as the man in the parable against whom he had been so angry. Speaking for the Lord, Nathan told him on behalf of the Lord, who saw the sincerity of the king’s repentance, that David was forgiven. Nevertheless, the temporal consequences of his actions remained. In addition to those that Nathan had already enumerated, he added that the child of David and Bathsheba would die.

In this story we learn many things about God. We learn that even the holiest and most devout man of God among us is only a man. We must not place blind and absolute trust in anyone on earth. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:10, 23, “…There is no one righteous, not even one… For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are never so spiritual that we cannot be tempted by evil. It is always necessary to be vigilant. We also learn that we can never hide from the eyes of God the sins that we commit. David made every effort to cover his tracks after his adultery with Bathsheba. He tried to arrange for the woman’s husband to sleep with her so that he would think the child was his. However, Uriah was too loyal to his fellow soldiers to enjoy relations with his wife while the others were still enduring the harsh battlefield conditions. David even gave him alcohol, hoping that in a state of drunkenness he would sleep with his wife. But no. Finally, David arranged for the brave Uriah to die and quickly took the widow as his own wife, hoping perhaps no one would dare suggest that the baby must have been conceived before Uriah’s death but during his absence from her because of his military service. But all these actions of David were in vain. The Almighty had seen all that he did. As the Bible says in Hebrews 4:13: “No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.” We must understand that, no more than David, we can never hide our sins from the great Judge of all the earth.

David’s confession as it is related to us in 2 Samuel is very brief, and one could wonder if it was sincere. But in reading the 51st chapter of Psalms, that is Psalm 51, we see clearly not only that David, the great servant and prophet of God, certainly sinned, as do all other human beings, but we also see that David, the man after God’s own heart, was profoundly saddened by the great sin that he had committed. Listen to the anguish of his soul, this man who so much desired to be cleansed of his sin:

“Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithful love;
According to Your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.
Wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.
For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me.
Against You — You alone — I have sinned and done this evil in Your sight.
So You are right when You pass sentence; You are blameless when You judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Surely You desire integrity in the inner self, and You teach me wisdom deep within.
Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
Turn Your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.

God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not banish me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore the joy of Your salvation to me, and give me a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:1-12)

For those who, like David, are deeply sorry and constantly aware of the gravity of their sins before God, it is an incomparable joy to know that God offers full forgiveness because of the blood of Jesus. 1 Peter 1:18-22 says:

“For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the times for you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart…”

David said in the Psalms 32:1,2, “How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is the man the Lord does not charge with sin and in whose spirit is no deceit!”

Do you know this happiness?