My brother Tommy’s birthday was March 4. He’s the youngest of three brothers, followed by my sister, who is the youngest of us five. You heard right, five! Folks seem to think that having five children is way too many. I know it wasn’t easy for my parents to raise us and it wasn’t easy growing up as one of the five. Yet speaking from my viewpoint as the oldest, I would not change a thing when it comes to having four younger siblings.
The memories I have are vast, and some are so funny they make me hurt when I think about or tell them. Some are also quite embarrassing. Like the time I went to the outhouse (we didn’t have an indoor bathroom at the time) and a bumblebee … I’ll stop there and let you think about an ending.
Like all children, we had our fusses and fights growing up. We still do at times today. We’ve been taught some very important, and sometimes difficult, lessons along the way.
It hasn’t been easy to deal with some of the lessons we’ve had to learn. The hard thing about it has been the realization that there are consequences. When you make a bad decision, the consequences are rarely good. Those consequences can often affect others around us and can take years and even a lifetime to overcome.
In the books of 1 and 2 Samuel of the Old Testament of the Bible, we read about a man named David. David was a shepherd, anointed as king when he was a youth. He is remembered for killing a lion and a bear, but most noted for the killing of the giant, Goliath. He is well known for his writing of the book of Psalms. He was just, discreet, meek and merciful. In Acts 13:22 we read that God calls David “a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.”
Yet we read in 2 Samuel 11:2-5 that King David commits adultery, an act which results in pregnancy of the woman, Bathsheba. David makes several attempts to cover up his sin, yet not one works. So he has Bathsheba’s husband placed in the front line of battle, where war was heavy, and there he is killed.
Then David marries Bathsheba and nobody knows what he has done. Wrong!
The Lord knows everything we do, so he knew David’s sin and was greatly displeased. He sends the prophet Nathan to David, who tells a story that causes David’s anger to be greatly kindled. In chapter 12, verse 5, David says the person who did such shall surely die, only to hear from Nathan that “thou art the man.” Then Nathan reminds King David of all that the Lord has done for him and questions how he could do evil in the Lord’s sight.
In verse 13, we find that David repents of his sin. Yet, we also find the consequences of David’s sin in the verses and chapters that follow. The child that he had with Bathsheba dies; his daughter Tamar is raped by his son Amnon, who is then killed by their brother Absalom for what he did to Tamar. For 25 years, David and his family experience judgment as a result of his sin.
How sad it is that we think we can live apart from the word of the Lord and bear no consequence for it. Do we think we can accept the Lord and then do whatever and remain in good standing with him?
David didn’t. He had been blessed greatly. Did he truly think he could hide his sin from his Lord? That’s never the case, as the Lord knows all and sees all.
In the book of Luke, chapter 13:1-9 we find two instances where Jesus says, “I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
David repented, and he did not perish. Yet he bore the consequences of his sin. There is a consequence that results from every decision we make. When we sin, the consequence can be more severe. We may not experience the consequence we deserve, and some will not experience it until they stand before the Lord. Yet the truth remains: there are consequences.