“..by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme,” (2Sam. 12:14)
David’s sin had been found out. What he had done privately, God made public! The prophet Nathan had lovingly confronted David about his sin of adultery and murder. David was convicted and owned up to it by saying, “I have sinned.”
Nathan told David that his sin had been forgiven, but he would still suffer consequences. Repentance and forgiveness to not eliminate God’s chastisement. No one repented better of his sins than David did, yet he was severely chastened for his sins though he was forgiven of his sins.
Child of God, never think you can sin and get away with it. While you can repent of that sin you are enjoying, there will STILL be consequences to suffer for it.
One of the sad consequences of David’s sin was that he had “given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme,” By the way we live our lives, we either confirm or deny God to unbelievers around us.
Those in Daniel’s day watched how he lived his life and were actively looking for a reason to not believe his God, but he never gave them a reason to blaspheme God.
“Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. 5 Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” (Dan. 6:4-5)
This story of David is a warning to all of us! Do we live a life that would cause the ungodly to dishonor our God? Do they look at us and say, “If that is a Christian, I don’t want anything to do with God”?
Sin always dishonors God, and like David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, our sin can give “great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme”