David is the tradition's test case for whether greatness survives disclosure. The text does not protect him: he takes another man's wife, arranges the husband's death, and is confronted by a prophet who tells him a story until he condemns himself. He repents, is forgiven, and is not spared the consequences — the child dies, his household unravels. The messianic line runs through him anyway, and that is the theological claim: the promise attaches to a repaired man, not a clean one.