Investigating the Bible: The important first step

In 1950, the 45,000-ton battleship Missouri ran aground in Chesapeake Bay. The captain was brought before the Naval Board of Inquiry tasked with determining the cause of the costly and embarrassing mistake. He was refreshingly candid and honest: “I, and I alone, bear sole responsibility. As captain of the ship, it was my duty to keep her safe. I did not do it.” An Old Testament king completely failed God, and responded like the honest captain.

All ancient Israel celebrated the victory of this baby-faced shepherd teenager over the towering, battle-smart Goliath. What a wonderous act of God! Young David’s fame continued; he was faithful to God in all that he did and Israel was blessed. However, even a man of God is human, as King David proved. His fall from God was horrible, committing adultery and murder. His life after his great failure demonstrates the path to recovery and healing.

David admitted his guilt. King David’s sins had been in secret but not hidden from God. “And the Lord sent Nathan to David.” (2 Samuel 12:1, English Standard Version used throughout). This prophet told the king the story of a poor man who had only one lamb, raising it in his home as a beloved pet. One day, a rich man came and, needing a sacrifice, took the poor man’s lamb and killed it. David was enraged. “‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this thing deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’ Nathan said, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Samuel 12:5-6). “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ God forgave David and allowed him to live, though his child died.

The first step of the Twelve Step program in Alcoholics Anonymous is, “We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.”

David accepted God’s forgiveness. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:1-2).

Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story in 1936 about a young man in Spain, named Paco, who aspired to be a bullfighter. Paco ran away from home and his father to pursue his dream in Madrid. The father, distraught over his missing son, placed an advertisement in the Madrid newspaper: “Paco, meet me at Hotel Montana, noon Tuesday, all is forgiven.” Paco was a very common name in the large city. At noon, when the father went to the square in front of the hotel, he found 800 young men named Paco waiting for their father. King David trusted that God would forgive him.

David sought help: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:10-12).

Kaitlin Pinkleton’s early life story is painful to read. Sexually abused from the ages of 4 to 7 by her mother’s boyfriend and living with her unstable mother who moved 34 times during her youth, Pinkleton became addicted to drugs and alcohol during her teen years. In desperation, she boarded a bus to New York City and entered a strict, military-style rehab program. She dropped the drugs, but still felt empty. A friend invited her to church and it was different. People really cared. They took her to doctor appointments, bought her lunch. She wrote: “Today I’ve got girlfriends, father figures and men who feel like brothers to me. I have everything I need because of how faithful God has been. For the last seven years, I’ve been completely free from drugs. I am not the person I used to be.”

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) lives in Oregon and is a graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.).