Question: Did King David Fear Men Over God Is That Why He Chose Punishment From God Instead Of Men?
Donald Bohanon: Absolutely not. King David just knew God would show him more mercy than the enemies of whom he had slain in the tens of thousands. King David simply knew the enemies he had slain in the tens of thousands wouldn’t show him an ounce of mercy because of the immense pain and death he had been responsible for dishing out against them.
So he instead chose punishment from God because he knew God loved him and would answer him when he prayed or cried out to him. So he made a burnt sacrifice to God as quickly as possible before God had even really started because he knew the destruction God and the angels were capable of was far, far, far, greater than what men could do.
He managed to get the burnt offering done before God and his destroying angel had even really started and even with that 70,000 men and women had already been destroyed before God had really even started and before he heard King David’s prayer and accepted it and his burnt offering. It wasn’t a question of who was more dangerous or more powerful, King David knew that it was God without question. It was about who would be more merciful to him, God or his enemies? And King David knew that it would be God not his enemies.
Another important thing to point out is that King David as it was in the case of Uriah the Hittite was the offending party in this case but the destruction instead came upon his subjects. Why? Because King David was Gods elect and these are just some of the many benefits that they are afforded. And make no mistake about it King David loved his subjects and God knew this. God also wanted him to understand that sin not only affects you but those you love as well. It’s like an uncontained plague that spreads affecting everyone within it’s reach and in many cases causing damage that can’t be immediately seen with the human eye or its long term affects immediately. Serving God comes with many benefits very few people understand.
King David in the case of Uriah the Hittite according to Israeli law should have been put to death for killing Uriah the Hittite in order to get his wife but God informed him through Nathan the prophet that he wouldn’t die for the sin but punishment would come upon King David instead, in the form of God raising up evil against King David in his own house, as his beloved son Absalom even turned against him and tried to kill him which resulted in God killing Absalom by the hand of Joab because Absalom was trying to kill King David, which was more painful than even death in King David’s eyes, as King David took the death of his beloved son Absalom very, very, hard.
God was tearing his behind up and exacting serious punishment for what he did but just in a different way. And Psalms is chock full of his lamentations about how he was suffering as a result of it. God knows how to spare you but at the same time hit you where it really hurts so you’re never the same afterwards and never really getting away with anything. God is going to make you feel it for years and years to come.
It was test from God as well because God was sure that he knew king David but he was a little apprehensive after what King David did to Uriah the Hittite. So he chastised him severely to see if King David would become resentful and hateful towards God or if he would accept God’s correction as an act of love from God for his own benefit and he proved God right that he was in fact the man that God knew he was.
That type of chastisement will do one of two things turn you bitter, hateful, and resentful, against God, or make you a better man forged in the furnace of affliction. Fortunately for King David he came out shining like new money a man established in righteousness as a result of God’s correction.
Some people will take this and create a scenario that has nothing to do with what I’m saying. Don’t read into this what you want to just take it for what it is me explaining King David’s situation in regards to this issue and why he was treated differently than others would be. But Moses and others were examples as well of this kind of favor that’s is afforded to God’s elect .
Isaiah 55:7-9 King James Version
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have ‘mercy’ upon him; and to our God, for he will ‘abundantly pardon‘.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Proverbs 11:8 King James Version
8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.