David’s Scheme to Hide His Crime With Respect to Bathsheba Providentially Defeated

    In the awful sovereignty of Divine Providence, David is presented with a temptation by which he falls, and by which is clearly seen that the best of men are by nature capable of the worst of crimes, and that they are preserved only by the power of God through faith. In the scheme of David to hide his sin, and in the manner in which all (he expedients of his wisdom and power united were defeated, we have a striking instance of the acting of Providence. In this conduct David is seen as a most heinous transgressor. What a variety of ingredients are combined in his crime! He is guilty of the greatest injustice that man can commit against man. He uses that power which God gave him to protect his subjects as a means of inflicting injury. He is guilty of treachery, cruelty, and ingratitude, with respect to the most deserving of his servants. In the fall of David we see the guilt and depravity of human nature. But God puts him to shame. All the expedients of his artifice cannot conceal what God would reveal. A sort of romantic, extravagant, and chivalrous principle, providentially guides the conduct of Uriah on this occasion. He will not go down to his house. David urges and invents expedients to break his resolution. All expedients are ineffectual. Uriah is as obstinate as Balaam's ass. Who is so blind as not to see the hand of a sovereign Providence here? Yet, by this sovereign Providence, occasion is presented to David to contrive the death of this deserving servant. How easily could Providence have prevented not only the issue of David's temptation, but the occasion of the temptation? How deep is that wisdom, how awful is that sovereignty, which afforded occasion to the commission of such crimes in a beloved servant—in a dear son! Without the slightest difficulty, Providence could have prevented that conduct in David, which, in every age since its commission, has been the means of opening the mouths of his enemies, and of hardening their hearts. Human wisdom cannot fathom the depth of the divine counsels: it cannot receive it. But can any thing be more self-evidently true, than that, if any earthly father would act so by his son, or even by his enemy, he would be justly the abhorrence of mankind? Who, then, can judge the Almighty? His ways are past finding out. The silly philosophist reasons, and distinguishes, and defines, and thinks he can explain the divine conduct satisfactorily in all things. He is wise only in words. He neither has a distinct meaning himself under his own words, nor can he give any satisfaction to another, who tries to comprehend his distinctions. True wisdom submits to the divine testimony, and on that ground believes with confidence what it finds utterly beyond its comprehension.