David Despised the Word of Yahweh

David sends a letter to Joab and kills Uriah. It could happen because his fear of God was gone. When the prophet Nathan comes to him and tells the parable of the rich man and the poor man’s ewe lamb, David is furious and declares that the rich man deserves to die, not knowing that he himself is that sinner.

People judge the wrongs of others with precision while committing the same sins themselves. Just as David could not see the beam in his own eye and saw only the speck in another’s, despising God shows itself where faith is filled with worldly lusts and where greed leads to harming good people. Nathan told David that God had given him everything and asked how he could despise it, and that rebuke carried grief and compassion for David more than anger.

God fulfilled the promise he had made with David without leaving out a single part of it. The sword did not depart from his house, his son lay with his wives in broad daylight, and the son Bathsheba bore died. While the child was alive, David fasted and pleaded with God, but after the child died he promptly got up and worshiped God. God did not hate David but hated his sin, and he brought suffering on David in order to forgive that sin.