He Is Not Like Us

 There is something remarkable about the story of David and Bathsheba.

We know the crime. But the interesting part is not the sin — it is what follows it.

David wept when the child born of that union fell sick. He fasted and prayed with his face to the ground, pleading with God, until the day the child died. (2 Samuel 12:16-18)

Now, from a religious standpoint, if we were writing the next chapter, we know exactly what it would look like. Cast away the woman of adultery. Separate yourself from the source of the sin. Pursue ritual purification, make the offerings, demonstrate repentance through distance.

But He is not like us.

God did not merely permit the marriage to continue — He blessed it. And from that union came Solomon. (2 Samuel 12:24-25) Of all David's children, it was the son of Bathsheba that God chose. The one whose very existence traced back to adultery and murder. And when you follow that lineage all the way forward, Solomon sits in the direct ancestral line of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 1:6)

The murder. The adultery. The cover-up. None of it disqualified the plan.

This is not an isolated incident. The lineage of Abraham is populated with people who tested God repeatedly — and yet God persisted with them, generation after generation.

Was it because Abraham was righteous by his works? Hardly.

This was the same Abraham who, out of fear, handed his wife Sarah over to Pharaoh and called her his sister — not once, but twice. (Genesis 12:10-20; Genesis 20:1-18) The same man who, despite holding a direct promise from God, slept with Hagar, his wife's servant, because the waiting had grown too long. (Genesis 16:1-4) And let us not forget — God called Abraham while he was still an idol worshipper in Ur of the Chaldeans. Not in a prayer room. Not mid-fast. In the middle of paganism. (Joshua 24:2-3)

He is not like us.

One of the most profound mysteries in all of Scripture is this:

"I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." (Romans 9:15, quoting Exodus 33:19)

There is nothing so far beyond human prediction, nothing so utterly outside our systems of fairness and logic, that the only appropriate response is to stop arguing and simply receive what He does. His mercy does not consult our expectations. It does not wait for us to become worthy. It moves on its own terms, according to its own counsel.

Because He is not like us.

The mystery deepens when Paul writes that those whom God foreknew, He predestined to be adopted as sons — conformed to the image of His Son, so that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29-30) In His mercy, He overlooked sins committed beforehand. (Romans 3:25) He tore down the dividing wall of hostility, uniting Jew and Gentile — uniting all of us — in Himself. (Ephesians 2:14)

Our assurance of salvation, then, does not rest in strict observance of the law. It does not rest in how long a streak of what we consider sinlessness we have managed to maintain — how many days you endured without cursing, without a dark thought, without stumbling. Do not misunderstand: walking in holiness brings a smile to the Father. But outside of Jesus, even our most disciplined acts of self-righteousness are, in God's sight, filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) — vanity dressed up as virtue, infuriating to a holy God precisely because they quietly push the cross aside.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

We will never stop declaring it: the hope of humanity is Jesus. The Redeemer. The Anointed One.

If He decides to have mercy on you, it is finished. You cannot resist the pull of His grace toward righteousness. There will always be a voice behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it." (Isaiah 30:21) Not because you earned the guidance, but because He committed to completing what He started. (Philippians 1:6)

He is not like us — and that is precisely why David, when given the choice of punishment, said he would rather fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men. (2 Samuel 24:14) David knew something we often forget: human mercy has a ceiling. His does not.

He is not like us — and that is why you can trust His mercy today.

Whatever the sin. Whatever the history. Whatever you have convinced yourself disqualifies you from the promise.

When He makes the commitment to keep you to the end, He will keep you to the end. (John 10:28-29)

Commit your life, then, into His hands. Not because you have it together. But because He is faithful even when we are not. (2 Timothy 2:13)

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23)

He is not like us. Thanks be to God.

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