#16 The Saga of David: The Price of Bread in Secret

Remember back to the last episode, David was confronted by Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba and Nathan had some stunning words to say on God‘s behalf to David. We can only think that these works played on David’s mind again and again. David and Bathseba had eaten bread in secret, but Nathan on behalf of God knew the truth and he had these things to say to David, he said, 

“I anointed you King over Israel and delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah and if that had been too little, I would’ve given you much more, why have you despised the commandments of the Lord to do evil in his sight.  You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you have taken his wife to be your wife and you have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and taken the wife of the Hittite to be your wife. Behold, I will raise adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before you eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of his son.  For you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the son.

However, there were many years and this prophecy did not come to pass, in fact David ruled righteously and successfully and his kingdom grew and became quite strong.  However, this did not shield David from what was coming. He would face the greatest challenge of his entire life in the fulfillment of this coming prophecy because it would come from someone inside his own family.  It would feature lust, it would feature incestuous relationships, it would feature a vengeance killing and I coupe de ta. In addition to all this David would lose his closest friend and advisor.

The lesson to be learned is this. Bread eaten in secret can be sweet, sin may bring pleasure in the short term. But it also can be very costly.  David would learn this first hand in the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Like many people, the great King found that it was fun to dance but not often fun to pay the band.  Pastor Harris will discuss these issues in this episode.