2 Samuel 10-14

This passage starts out exemplifying David as a tremendous king and leader.  He offers his condolences to the son of a neighboring king who recently died.   This kindness is repaid with war.  David had God on his side and his faithfulness is rewarded with an easy victory.

But David let this power go to his head.  While his men are out fighting the battle, David is home.  His inflated confidence causes him to succumb to temptation and instead of focusing on God, his flesh wins the battle.  As a result, God was not pleased with David, and promised in 2 Samuel 12: 10 “… your family will never live in peace again.”  We see that in the next few verses and continuing chapters that David’s life was full of strife, from losing a newborn child, to shame coming upon his daughter, and also losing two more children, one through death and the other through exile. 

But God had a lesson in this for David.  God never stopped loving David.  David never stopped loving his children, although it appears that he didn’t like them very much sometimes.  At the end of this passage, David’s son comes home, much like the prodigal son, however for different circumstances. 

Chapter 14:14 puts it this way – “We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.  But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast." Christ chastens us when we run from Him, or even stray a little, but He has always provided and will always provide a way for us to come back to His open arms.  Christ’s love for us is more than we can imagine.