Get Over It! 1 Samuel 16:1-13 
Good From Evil  1 Samuel 16:14-23 
David & Goliath 1 Samuel 17:1-11 
Jealousy 1 Samuel 18:1-9 
Living in Shades of Gray 1 Samuel 19:1-7 
Father Doesn't Always Know Best 1 Samuel 20:1-3 
A Matter of Trust 1 Samuel 24:1-4a 
The Peril of Presumptuous Sin 1 Samuel 31:1-6 
In His Time 2 Samuel 2:1-7 
Something Else 2 Samuel 7:1-17 
What's in it for Me? 2 Samuel 7:18-29 
Flowing Grace 2 Samuel 9:1-13 
Then It Happened 2 Samuel 11:1-27 
When You Know God Knows  2 Samuel 12:1-5 
Grace Tempered With Justice 2 Samuel 12:7-12 
Pondering God's Blessings 2 Samuel 22:18-25 
A Man Who Made a Difference 2 Samuel 23:1-7 
 

"Nathan then said to David, 'You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. [8] I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! [9] Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. [10] Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. [11] Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. [12] 'Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.'"

It is impossible to speak of the grace of God, without coming dangerously close to making it sound completely unjust. Remember "The Laborers in the Vineyard," Jesus' parable recorded in Matthew 20:1-16? The owner of the vineyard hired four sets of workers at different times of the day. The first set agreed to work for a fixed wage, the others agreed to work for "whatever is right." At the end of the day, those who worked just a few hours received the same wage as the first group that worked all day long. Of course, those who worked all day long thought they were mistreated, even though they got the amount of money the owner promised them. They looked at the owner's grace and thought it was "unfair." Whenever we proclaim the great grace of God, it seems unfair to those who need less of it. To think that a murderer and the murdered could both occupy a place in heaven seems unjust. But potentially, they could. Because in the economy of God's grace, being less undeserving is impossible. Because of our sins, we are undeserving-the degree of how undeserving we are doesn't play into the equation. All that matters is that we are undeserving. The murderer? Certainly, we believe she doesn't deserve grace. The murdered? We'll we have a harder time with that one. Yes, he may of sinned, like everyone else, but the sin that was committed against him was greater than any sin he'd committed. So we waffle a bit and come to believe he is less undeserving.

Where we really go bonkers thinking about God's grace is to contemplate that the murderer could spend eternity in heaven while the murdered could spend eternity in hell. The doctrine of grace teaches us that our eternal destiny is determined by whether or not we accept God's gift of forgiveness in our life, not by our own goodness. Is this fair? It doesn't seem so, does it? But then again, grace isn't fair. Fair would be for all sinners to go to hell and all those who have never sinned to go to heaven. Now that would be fair! But given that option, I'd rather have grace than fairness? How about you?

Last week, we commented that God's justice was tempered with his mercy. This week, we see that the converse is also true, that His grace is often times tempered with justice. There is something about this thought that makes his grace and mercy seem a little more fair. God extended His grace to David, but it was tempered with justice-he still suffered because of his sin. Over the next eight chapters of 2 Samuel we see God tempering his grace with his justice. 

• •In 2 Samuel 12:16-23, David's son dies, just as Nathan said he would

• •In 2 Samuel 13:1-14, David's son Amnon rapes David's daughter Tamar, which cause a great conflict in the family. David was angry, of course, but so was Absalom, Tamar's brother. The scripture says that he hated Amnon.

• •In Samuel 13:24-39, Absalom killed Amnon, avenging the rape of his sister and became a fugitive. For the whole time he was away, David's heart ached for him.

• •In the next couple of chapters, Absalom conspires against King David and tries to kill him, resulting in David fleeing from Jerusalem. 

• •In 2 Samuel 16:6-14, a descendant from Saul's house curses the king and throws stones and him and his men.

• •In 2 Samuel 16:15-18, Absalom continues his conspiracy, ending in his untimely death, but David doesn't rejoice at the news that his enemy is dead, rather, he laments the loss of his son. But Absalom's uprising wasn't the last one, turmoil continues in the kingdom for the next few chapters.

In his book, What's so Amazing About Grace, Phillip Yancy tells about the history of the effects of a single sin on four generations. Daisy was born in 1898, the eighth of ten children. Her father was a mean, abusive drunk who kicked his wife out of the house. All ten children cried, begging their father not to put their mother out, but he wouldn't budge. He sent her away, saying he never wanted to see her again. In time, most of the children were farmed out to relatives or went to live with their mother, but Daisy stayed with her Dad until she was old enough to leave home.

Finally, her dad "guttered out" and stumbled into a rescue mission where he had to "earn" his dinner by listening to a sermon. When the preacher gave the invitation, he went forward to accept Christ because it seemed the "polite thing to do." But to his surprise, the sinner's prayer took. His life began to change. He sobered up and began seeking out his children, begging them for forgiveness for the way he'd treated them. At first, they were suspicious of the old man, thinking he was just trying to get into their good graces so he could hit them up for drinking money, but to their surprise, he was sincere and they all forgave him. Everyone, that is, except Daisy. Like he'd said to her mother, "she never wanted to see him again as long as she lived." Even though he lived just eight houses from her for 5 years, she never visited him and never forgave him.

Daisy swore she would never be like her father, and she never was a drunk, but she had the same unforgiving, abusive spirit. She was harsh with her six children and was verbally abusive with them-especially with Margaret. Margaret swore she would be different than her mother, and she was never abusive, but she was unbending and harsh with her four children, but was especially harsh with her son Michael, kicking him out of the house saying, "I never want to see you again..." 

She got her wish. For twenty-six years, they never spoke. Michael doesn't have any children, but he has gone from one relationship to another and Yancy says that Michael said that he "never wants to see his ex-wife again."

Four generations. One sin. The son learned it from the mother who learned it from her mother who learned it from her father. Over a hundred years have passed and the sin flourishes and wrecks havoc in the lives of the old drunk's descendants.

Yes, in one sense, this is the great grandfather's sin, but in another sense, Michael is responsible for his own actions. He is committing his own sin.

Is it fair? No, but that's the way it is. What I do-good and bad-will be the context my descendants are raised in and will make it easier or harder for them to do what is right.

Oh, when David was walking on his balcony if he would have just stopped and considered how much pain his one night of pleasure was going to cause for his children. What about Daisy's father? If he would have looked into the eyes of his children when they begged him not to throw out their mother and thought about the pain he was inflicting on them and their descendants.

Don't you think we should do the same? Because just as justice is tempered with mercy, grace is tempered with justice.

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