God blessed David, the shepherd boy-turned-king with progress, power, possessions, position, prestige. God was willing to give more.

2 Sam 12:8 And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.

But King David’s affair with Bathsheba gives us an example of the profoundly painful, far-reaching consequences of sin. Man has free will to do as he pleases but he is not free from sin’s consequences. Though David was forgiven by God, David and his household lived out a family life marked with violence: emotional, mental, and physical. King David suffered long after the pleasure of his sexual encounter with Bathsheba. He ended up committing murder to cover up his sin of adultery. David’s sons would also commit crimes. David was king of Israel but he lost moral authority to lead his own house.

2 Sam 12:9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?
10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

Some of the consequences of David’s sin:

1. His child, out of adultery with Bathsheba, died (2Sam12:14).

2. His son, Ammon, raped Tamar, his sister from another mother (2Sam 12:14). David unknowingly became an accomplice in this act because Ammon purported to be ill and wanting Tamar to prepare food for him so David commanded Tamar to go to Ammon’s room and do so. Just as quickly as Ammon satisfied himself sexually with Tamar,

2Sam 2:15 Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!”.

Tamar wouldn’t be able to get rid of this disgrace (2Sam 13:13). Tamar would live in her brother Absalom’s house a desolate woman (2Sam 13:20).

3. David was furious (2Sam 13:21) but there is no mention of him speaking out. His own sin snuffed out his authority to put order in his house even when his sons were going wayward. The sense of injustice or seeming toleration of injustice corrupted Absalom’s own sense of justice.

4. Hatred between brothers Absalom and Ammon arose (v22) which led to Absalom plotting the murder of Ammon and having him killed two years later (vv23-29).

5. After Absalom took matters into his own hands, he fled for three years. (2Sam13:38). Father and son had silence between them although David was willing to forgive his son.

6. Absalom would go on to become treacherous. He conspired against his father’s kingdom (2Sam 15) wanting to replace David as king. It is pain enough to be conspired against by a stranger. The pain is worse from one’s own son.

7. 2Sam 16:22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he [Absalom] slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

8. When Absalom was finally killed by Joab, the king’s military leader (2Sam 18:14), David was grief-stricken. It was still his own son, after all.

v33 The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Dear Lord,

I pray for all men of the world specially those who belong in a believing family. I pray for Your protection and deliverance from evil. Please keep their guards up that they may not fall prey to sin, to preying women, to the lusts of their flesh, to the temptations of the devil who constantly waits for an opportune time to trip them and suck them into servitude to him. Lord, please fill them with Your Holy Spirit to empower them to resist temptations. May the reality of consequences greater than themselves sober them up. May they know that they can not fight temptations in their own strength but in Your strength, they will always be victorious. Please help them live a life of spiritual victory in Jesus’s name amen.