confession

Or cover up? 

We all view life through our own lens. My reading glasses don't work for my wife, and vice versa. The title of this entry belies my New Testament understanding of God's desire for mankind. Why? Because in the place of an opportunity for confession and forgiveness we have a devastating downward spiral of a man of God. Yet, what recourse did David have with his knowlege of the ways of God?

Do not commit adultery, the Commandment reads.

"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife - with the wife of his neighbor - both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death." Leviticus 20:22

I don't read much wiggle room in there for David.

And thus the "Man of God's Own Heart" did not even conceive of the amazing gift called confession and forgiveness. In those days sin was managed with blood: either the blood of the sinner or a substitute. David refused to expose his failure and face the ramifications. Abraham trusted God with his son's life. David did not trust God with his own life. 

Today we know of the grace called confession and forgiveness. Blood is still required, but it was spilt on Calvary from the body of Jesus. As Jesus forgave sinners when he walked on earth, he does so still. 

David went through agony before he confessed his sin. Don't do the same thing, dear reader. Keep that list short and seek confession with forgiveness. Then perhaps you can avoid the horrible soul eating darkness that consumed David until the child born of adultery died.