His Great Sin and Its Bitter Consequences. David's high ideals and
noble chivalry could not withstand the enervating influence of his
growing harem. The degrading influence of polygamy with its luxury,
pleasure seeking and jealousies was soon to undermine his character.
His sins and weak indulgencies were destined to work family and
national disaster. These sins reached a climax in his trespass with
Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. In this crime he fell from his exalted
position to the level of an unprincipled eastern monarch. It stands
out as one of the darkest crimes of all history and "shows what
terrible remnants of sin there are in the hearts even of converted
men". Primitive society followed the course of nature in condemning
adultery as worthy of more severe punishment than murder itself. And
"no crime today involves more sudden and terrible consequences in the
individual; no crime is capable of exerting as malign an influence
upon the innocent family and later descendants of the culprit; no
crime leaves in its wake as many physical and moral ills."

The Bitter consequences of this sin soon became apparent. Nathan
brought to him a worthy rebuke and he showed himself different from
other kings of his time by the bitter repentance with which he bewails
his iniquity in the fifty-first Psalm. God forgave his sin but its
evil consequences in his family and nation could not be removed. The
nature of his chastisement is suggested in the following incidents:
(1) The death of his child born to Bath-sheba. (2) Ammon, his oldest
son, one of the pitiable products of his oriental harem, shamefully
treated his sister, Tamar, in the gratification of his brutal lusts.
(3) Absalom treacherously murdered Ammon as a matter of revenge for
the outrage upon his sister, Tamar. (4) The rebellion of Absalom, his
son, which almost cost David the throne and led to the destruction of