I Chronicles 20:1 Are you haunted by your past?

 Are you haunted by your past?  Have you done things that were wrong, things that you are ashamed of, things that get in the way of your life with God?  They don’t have to be criminal or evil, but they stand up in your past and define who you are now, at least in your own mind. 

Maybe you feel unworthy before God.  Of course, we’re all unworthy of God’s grace.  We can believe that we will go to heaven when we die, but what you have done has put like a red flag on your life, and your future seems severely limited.  You don’t see how God can really bless you in your life.    

King David did something like that in his life.  Christians seem to put the highest weight on sexual sins, though those are the ones that are often done in the heat of emotions that we don’t know how to get rid of apart from the thing itself.

David had a sexual sin.  A spontaneous act done in the heat of emotion.

But what was really bad was what he did to cover it up.  He had the women’s husband set up to be killed.

God confronted David.  Not after his sexual sin with Bathsheba, but after he had her husband killed in battle and she had come to live with him.

Then we come to our verse: But David stayed in Jerusalem.  I Chronicles 20:1

Most Christians know that just as there are 4 gospels that tell of the life of Jesus, there are two sets of books that relate the history of the kings of Israel.

The story of what happened when David stayed in Jerusalem is told in 2 chapters in 2 Samuel, but here it is told in 5 words, 3 in Hebrew.

The fact that the writer of Chronicles even mentions that David stayed in Jerusalem shows that the writer was well aware of what happened then but chose not to mention it.  Both books of Chronicles are very long books, but the whole matter wasn’t important to him.  And he lets you know of that by mentioning that David stayed in Jerusalem.

If all this happened today, we would demand that David step down as king, at least.  That matter never even came up.

Psalm 51 was written by David with reference to this whole matter.  David confessed his sins, and he found forgiveness.  Because David’s sins were well known, God didn’t sweep everything under the rug, so to speak, as though nothing had happened.  David was fully restored to God, but he experienced turmoil in his kingdom that would suggest to people that God wasn’t merely overlooking David’s sins. 

But God did restore David’s relationship with Himself, and David could experience the joy in God that he had had before.  The life of David shows that there is life after sin, life after failure, life after intense feelings of guilt. 

Confess your sins to God, and the Bible says that God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (I John 1:9)  If this is your problem, read psalm 51 until you find your joy in God again.   Psalm 32 is another psalm that was probably written at this time as well.  Read David’s responses and see them as your own. 

God was not surprised by what happened in your past.  Paul the Apostle considered himself the chief of sinners even long after he began doing mighty things in God’s Name.  (I Timothy 1:15)  He never forgot the things he had done against the Church in the past. 

It’s time to put this all to rest.  If David and Paul can be at peace with God in spite of their past, then we can too.