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David Sinned and Was Restored

Dear Parents,
This week in The Gospel Project for Kids, your kids learned that David and Jonathan became friends. David, as he played the harp for Saul, met Saul’s son Jonathan. David and Jonathan became great friends. Jonathan gave David several gifts. He gave him a robe, a military tunic, a sword, a bow, and a belt. God gave David success in everything he did. 

Saul, unlike Jonathan, did not like David. As a matter of fact, Saul tried on several occasions to kill David. Jonathan warned David of Saul’s rage and suggested that David go hide himself until Jonathan could talk to Saul. In Jonathan’s meeting with his father, it was obvious that Jonathan knew he would not be the next king in his father’s place—but David would be, and Saul was intent on killing David. 
Jonathan and David devised a plan to determine the extent of Saul’s hatred. Once Saul’s full intent was brought out, and he tried to kill his own son, Jonathan went to warn David that he needed to flee. Jonathan took a servant and went to a field to shoot three arrows. By giving David a signal, David knew he would have to leave and would likely never see his friend Jonathan again. David and Jonathan said their goodbyes, and David left. 

Jonathan and David were true friends. Jonathan serves to give us a picture of what Jesus does for us. Jesus is the mighty friend of sinners. In John 15:15 Jesus calls us friends. Jesus willingly gave up His place in heaven to come to earth and die for our sins, and now intercedes for us before God in heaven. 

2nd- 5th

Preschool- 1st

David Sinned and Was Restored
2 Samuel 11:1–12:14; Psalm 51
David was king of Israel. As king, David’s responsibility included protecting the Israelites by leading the army. In the springtime, kings commonly went to war with their armies. One spring, David sent out the army, and he put Joab in charge of them. The Israelites fought the Ammonites, but David stayed in Jerusalem.
One evening, David was walking on the roof of his palace when he saw Bathsheba. Bathsheba was a beautiful woman, and she was the wife of Uriah, one of David’s best warriors in the Israelite army. David sent his messengers to get Bathsheba, and she came to David’s house. Later, Bathsheba told David that she was going to have a baby; the baby would be David’s.
David knew what he had done was wrong. Bathsheba was married to Uriah. David should not have a baby with someone who was not his wife. But David had a plan to make sure no one found out that Bathsheba’s baby was his.
David called Uriah home from the battle and told him to go spend time with his wife. But Uriah didn’t think it was fair for him to relax at home while the other men were at war. He slept on David’s doorstep and refused to see his wife. No matter what David did or said, Uriah did not go home.
David’s plan was not working, so he made up another plan. This time, he instructed Joab, the leader of the army, to send Uriah into the hardest part of the battle so he would be killed.
Joab did what David wanted. He sent Uriah to the place where the fighting was most dangerous, and the Ammonites killed Uriah. Joab sent a messenger to David to deliver the news that Uriah was dead. When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she was very sad. David took Bathsheba into his house to be his wife, and she gave birth to a baby boy.
​It seemed as though David had gotten away with his sin, but God knew what David had done, and God was not happy with David. God sent Nathan the prophet to talk to David. Nathan told David a story.
“There was a rich man and poor man who lived in the same city. The rich man had many animals, but the poor man only had one little lamb, which he loved. A traveler came to the rich man. Instead of offering one of his own animals to the traveler, the rich man took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the traveler to eat.”
David listened to the story, and he was angry. “The rich man should die!” he said. “And he should give the poor man four lambs to make up for the one he took.”
“You are the man!” Nathan said. Nathan explained that God had given David a position of great power with everything he needed. But David killed Uriah to take his wife. David realized he had sinned against God. David deserved to die. “You won’t die for this,” Nathan assured David, “but God will punish you. Your son will die instead.”
After Nathan spoke to David, David wrote a psalm. He confessed his sin and asked God to restore him. “God, create a clean heart for me,” David prayed. David realized he could try to make sacrifices to please God, but that wouldn’t be enough to pay for his sin. God wanted David’s heart to change so that he would not want to sin again.
Christ Connection: When David sinned against God, God forgave him, but sin always comes with a price. God spared David’s life, but David’s son died. When we sin, we can receive God’s forgiveness because God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sin. Jesus died the death we deserve so that we could be made right with God.