David was the greatest King in the Old Testament, described at the end of his life as “a man after God’s own heart”. But this is the same man who at the height of his powers succumbed to a moment of catastrophic failure in his personal life. Complacency led to an act of adultery, which led to a pregnancy which then had to be covered up with the murder of his lover’s husband. Worse was to come. The baby was lost and David’s family life disintegrated with one of his sons raping his half-sister and her brother then waiting years to exact revenge before leading a rebelling against his father David, forcing him out of Jerusalem in a humiliating, albeit temporary, defeat.
It could all be (and probably has been) the plot of a fictional soap opera, but this is the history of God’s people and the chosen King of Israel. Despite the mess that David creates it remains the fact that Jesus, the Savour of the World, was his direct descendant. No matter how stupid we may be nothing can throw God’s plans off track.
It just goes to show that whatever mess we may make of our lives, God is more than able to redeem and restore them!
