With a bit of cross-referencing on our part, we can see the Chronicler’s historical process: how he made use of material from an earlier source. He quoted material from II Samuel for the account of the beginning of the siege of Rabbah (II Samuel 11:1, I Chronicles 20:1). Then he quoted from the account of the capture of Rabbah (II Samuel 12:26-30, I Chronicles 20:2).

At the same time we can see that the Chronicler could choose to edit material out of his account. In Chronicles the beginning of the siege and the capture of the town are told in consecutive verses. But in II Samuel there is a lot that happened in between those two events: the famous story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba, and then David arranging for the death of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah’s death, and then the aftermath of these events. II Samuel recounts what happened in full detail (II Samuel 11:1-12:25), but although the Chronicler clearly had in front of him a copy of II Samuel from which he drew quotations, he made no mention of these events.

It is not as though the Chronicler refused to admit any wrongdoing on David’s part – in tomorrow’s reading we will see that he noted the sin of David calling for the census – though even here the Chronicler blamed this on the incitement of Satan (I Chronicles 21:1-4). But it does seem that the way the Chronicler wanted to tell the story was to enable us to see the golden age of King David, followed by the long steady decline down to the devastation of the Babylonian captivity. So he decided to omit the messy details of the king’s adultery and murder conspiracy, along with the scandal of Amnon and Tamar, and Absalom’s rebellion.

Perhaps he thought it would be better for his readers not to dwell on these things. Maybe we’d just as soon not know about the flaws in our heroes. Yet the deep power of the Bible’s message is about how the Lord redeems sinners: sinners like David, who have failed to make either themselves or their families righteous. And sinners like us.

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None of our heroes are as pure of heart as we would wish, and neither are we ourselves, O Lord: yet you have loved us, and claimed us for your own. Give us the grace, we pray, that we may live this day as those whose hearts belong to you.