Confession does not guard us from consequences of sin. It is the moment when the consequences come, that we see whether our repentance is real.
That’s where we find King David in 2 Samuel 15. Just a few chapters before he confessed how he’d had an affair with a woman & orchestrated her husband’s death in the battlefield.
He didn’t offer his confession freely. He is called out by Nathan who prophesies that what David did in secret, (his affair with Bathsheba), will now be done to him openly in the sight of all Israel. His family would also turn against him because of what he’d done.
Fast forward to Ch. 15 & we find King David fleeing the palace while his son Absalom leads a conspiracy to overthrow his father! Absalom is angry because his half-brother raped his sister & David, did nothing about it. Now the fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy rings true as Absalom sets up a tent on the palace roof & has sex with each of David’s concubines in sight of all Israel 😳
As David flees for safety, he doesn’t rise up in anger, he doesn’t speak of the injustice of it all, he simply weeps as he walks. His head is covered & feet are made bare as a sign of mourning.
I wonder what he wondered as he wept?
We’re they tears of regret or repentance? Maybe both? I’ve wept both myself & they are a bitter mix until you come to the place that David did 👉🏽a surrendered place of self resignation where “Thy will be done” is all that matters.
The Ark of the Covenant is with him - it houses the very Presence of God, & yet in a turn of events, he tells the priest to take it back to the city. When asked why he says this:
“If the Lord sees fit, he will bring me back…but if he is through with me, then let him do what seems best to him.”
I think that is such a visual of the pinnacle of repentance! David knows what he has done & cannot undo any of it.
He doesn’t selfishly keep the Ark for protection or make any other chess move to levy advantage…he submits fully, with complete trust, to the Lordship of his God & King!
It is easy to confess enough to be forgiven because it lifts the weight from our shoulders, but the weightier question is this:
Will we surrender enough to truly change?
2 SAMUEL 15:23-16:23
JOHN 18:25-19:22
PSALM 119:113-128
PROVERBS 16:10-11
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