Falling Short

     The drama continues to unfold in 2 Samuel today.  The one chosen as champion and king of Israel, David, finds himself tempted by his desire for a beautiful woman named Bathsheba.  He called her and took her, and had relations with her.  The woman then conceived and was with child.

     David fell short of the mark.  Kings usually took or did whatever or whoever they wanted.  But David was not just any king, he was the Lord's anointed.  And it gets worse, for Bathsheba was a married woman, and her husband was Uriah, the Hittite armor bearer of David's captain, Joab.  David had Uriah brought home, told him to go home and relax, a little R & R.  Presumably he would sleep with his wife, and the pregnancy would be explained.  But Uriah was a good soldier, and slept at the entrance to the palace with the other soldiers.  David tried again, and Uriah did not take the bait.

     Then things got really bad, and David slid even further from grace as he had Uriah sent back to battle, this time to be put in harms way in the front lines so that he would surely be killed, which is indeed what happened.

     Now lets see: David was lustful, sexually controlling, lying and deceptive, and resorted to murder - all to get what he wanted.  After all, he was king.  How he fell short of the mark!

     Our reading today ends there, but we know that David saw the error of his ways, saw his sin, repented and was confronted with the mercy and continued trust of God - which made David's sin stand out even more.  Despite all that transpired, David was the anointed of the Lord ... and flawed though he was, he was still the great king that would lead God's people and from whose house and lineage would come the promised Messiah.

     Who among us has not fallen short of the mark in some way?  Who among us has never sinned?  And yet, confronted with our sin, repentant of our thoughts and actions, and loved in mercy by God, we are called to rise and move forward in a freedom that God's love brings us and in a knowledge of how, unworthy though we are, we are called to life in Christ.  It is he that has made this possible, and we call it redemption.