Inescapable Sin

Several years ago I went to visit a preacher i had known since I was a kid. He was well known and respected and held a lot of Gospel Meetings… the only thing was that now he was dying of cancer. Anyway I went to go see him in that hospital and he said… Rob I want to tell you something I’ve never told anyone else.

He continued, that when he was a young preacher the congregation had a Deacon who was called to serve in Viet Nam and while the soldier/deacon was overseas he had an affair with his wife. Of course I was shocked but it got worse… the old preacher continued that the woman became pregnant and her husband was coming home and she didn’t know what to do.

The old preacher told me that he panicked and when the soldier/deacon got home he went over one night and cut the brake lines to his truck. As fate would have it the soldier/Deacon died in the crash and the preacher married his adulteress widow. No one ever knew what he had done.

Of course I was shocked but the preacher continued and said even though he knew he was forgiven he prayed everyday that his conscience could be cleaned up but it never was… he still lived with his guilt.

That old preacher died and left a widow and four sons to mourn him. One of those sons became a preacher and the other three became Elders in the Lord’s church. He died leaving many grandchildren and several great grand children.

I hope you’ve read this far because that story is a complete fabrication… I made it up, but it is very similar to the story of King David, Bathsheba and Uriah.

King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and caused the death of her husband… Uriah. David mourned his great sin (as reflected in several of the Psalms) and never forgot it… but married and built his life with the adulteress Bathsheba. Their son Solomon went on to become King of Israel and ultimately another son would be born in the distant future who would become King of the world… Jesus Christ.

The things is David lived under the Law of Moses and legally, according to God’s Law, he and Bathsheba should have been executed for their sin… stoned with rocks! However, God set aside his Law to forgive them both. He extended mercy.

We may get ourselves in a horrible bind and no matter what the sin is we are still amenable to the Law of Jesus Christ but when things get so tangled up it seems impossible to untangle them I’m comforted that our great God almighty can judge the situation and the sinner and perhaps like with his son David… extend mercy.