Living Between Two Verses

Read: 2 Samuel 11:27; 2 Samuel 12:1; Psalm 51:4-5

It is a painful truth that too many of us share. Like all difficulties, we would have never chosen it, and we pray that it won't be long before God begins to change it. I'm thinking about the precious one who has begun to turn her eyes away from the word and ways of the Lord. It might have started like tiny little pings that have begun to wear away at the foundation that was carefully laid. The erosion might be just beginning or the loved one might have walked far from what was at one time a growing walk with his Savior. Only the Lord knows the pain felt in each home where this struggle has been experienced. Whether we can still have a day-to-day impact in our loved one's life or not, there is encouragement from the scriptures. The Lord Who loves our loved ones more deeply than we can totally comprehend is still at work in their lives, Philippians 1:6. The story has not been completed, and David's life reminds us of that fact. The Lord is at work, even if it isn't apparent to us. His hand, which is often unseen, was active "between the verses". In 1 Samuel 11:27, we read about David from two perspectives, his own and Gods:

First, we watch as David tried to mop up the horrible mess he had made. He married Uriah's widow who was pregnant. He made his own covering for his sins, a bit like the way Adam and Eve fashioned flimsy fig leaf garments. However, verse 27 doesn't stop with King David's deed.

Second, we see what God was thinking. What His king had done displeased the Lord. Even though David was a man after God's heart, his actions were not winked at by the God Who loved him. To me, it is a beautiful truth that God's love remained unchanged toward David, even though David was treating His word with contempt and causing His Name to be blasphemed.

Even so, there is likely close to one year between 2 Samuel 11:27 and 2 Samuel 12:1. I wonder? How many people who loved God and walked humbly with Him watched as King David walked out month after month in an unrepentant way? Did it appear that God was not at work in his life? If David were one of our own precious loved ones, what grief we would have endured between the verses, but then it happened.

In 2 Samuel 12:1 we read those precious words. ‘God Sent Nathan’. In His perfect timing, the Lord brought a message to David, and Nathan didn't mince words. Remember Nathan? He was the one who first gave David the go-ahead to build a temple and then, after being corrected by the Lord, withdrew it, 2 Samuel 7. This is the same Nathan who promised David that God had a greater gift for him than building the earthly temple, 2 Samuel 7:17. Precious promises made to David that had eternal ramifications, but in 2 Samuel 12, this same Nathan was sent to confront David with a very different kind of message.

No wonder the scriptures say that the one whom God loves, He chastens, Proverbs 3:11-12. God didn't throw away David and simply allow him to go about his life unchecked forever. On the contrary, in Psalm 51:3-4, we see that, prior to that particular day when the Master sent Nathan, the Lord had been at work in David's inner life. I wonder? If we had seen David, would we have known that God was doing anything, or would it have appeared that it was simply business as usual in the palace? I don't, of course, know that answer, but what we do see is that God was using a heavy hand to bring His servant/king to repentance because He was still at work in David's life. What an encouraging reminder for us. God hasn't stopped working in the lives of our precious ones too. He loves them supremely.

Lord, we bring those we love who seem so far away from You. Thank You that You love each one and Your work on their behalf will not stop.