Monday, March 04, 2013

David's First Sin as King

David committed a seemingly inconsequential sin by sending condolences to Ammon, with whom the Torah prohibits friendly relations.  Ammon’s humiliation of David’s servants leads to a war, which his officer Uriah is sent out to fight.  With Uriah away from home, David succumbs to the temptation to have an affair with his wife, then cover for the sin by having Uriah (and some bystanders) killed in battle.  So a small failure cascaded into a great one, and David is cursed to spend the rest of his life living by the sword because of it.

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