Last week we looked at the sin of David. He had an affair with the wife of one of his best soldiers. She ended up pregnant. He tried to cover it up. He sent her husband back to the war carrying his own death sentence. In verse 24 of chapter 11 we find the words of the messenger to the king, “Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
David’s plan worked. The other man was out of the picture. Bathsheba went through a period of mourning. Then they got married, and she moved into the palace. It was all taken care of. Right?
Not so fast. David is restless. He can’t forget what has happened. His stomach is in knots. He can’t sleep at night. Every time he sees Bathsheba, he thinks about the events that unfolded. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. Things just got out of hand. Everything just happened so fast.
At the end of chapter 11, we read, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” God wasn’t pleased with the actions of his anointed king.
We are confronted with two concepts here: truth and consequences. The truth is David sinned, and God wasn’t too happy about it. The consequences were horrible and ugly. The first 9 verses of the passage deal with…I. The TRUTHThe truth was something that David had been trying to hide. He had tried to trick Uriah into spending the night with Bathsheba. He had sent Uriah to his death. He had been running full-speed away from the truth. Then the prophet Nathan enters the picture.
Now Nathan comes with a most unpleasant task. He had a…A. Divine COMMISSION.
Verse 1 says, “And the Lord sent Nathan to David.” Nathan is charged with a most unappealing task. He was to face the king and confront him with his sin.
At any moment David could have picked up his sword or given the order to have Nathan executed. Nathan should be given credit for his bravery and fortitude in this matter. Even with the call of God, it still takes a person of courage to carry out the call of God.
It was routine practice of kings in that day to just run roughshod over the laws of their land. If someone confronted him, he would kill him. Could you imagine going up to him and telling him that God was displeased with his lifestyle? Even with a commission from God, it would take someone of great bravery to do that.Nathan was a smart man. He tells David a parable, or story. He makes…
B. An appeal to COMMON justice.Nathan tells David about 2 men, a rich man and a poor man. The rich man has a huge herd and flock, and the poor man has only one little ewe. The ewe was a pet. It wasn’t mere livestock. It was a pet in the same sense as many of us who have dogs and cats, or hamsters. David would also have taken interest in this since it involved sheep. After all, he had been a shepherd as a boy. David is struck by…1. The ruthlessness of the CRIME.David was struck by the down right meanness of the crime. This rich man had enough sheep of his own. Why on earth did he need to steal the pet of this poor family? The rich man was unwilling to take one of his own flock. He took the poor man’s sheep because he could. This was a heinous crime. There is something that David didn’t see, and that was…
2. The parallels of the CRIMES.There are interesting parallels in this story. Let’s look at it closer.
The parallel is in terms of the characters of the story. The rich man is David. The poor man is Uriah. The ewe is Bathsheba. The flock of the rich man is David’s harem. Who is the traveler that is mentioned by Nathan? The traveler is David’s desire. David had natural desires that he wanted to fulfill. The problem is that he took Bathsheba from Uriah to satisfy his desire, when he could have taken one from his harem.
David, however, doesn’t see the parallel. He thinks that Nathan is bringing him a real case that happened. David, as king, was used to reviewing judicial cases. The story raises the…
C. The CONDEMNATION of the king.David is upset about this. How could this happen? This poor man now has no pet because this greedy rich fellow stole his lamb. Some translations translate David’s words as this man “shall surely die.” He says that the man deserves to die. David did have an idea of…
1. CORRECT justice.The Law of God called for a fourfold payback for a stolen sheep. Exodus 22:1 states, “If a man steals…a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay…four sheep for a sheep.” David was quite correct in his pronouncement of justice in the matter that Nathan presented him. The problem is that David had a…
2. Lack of CORRECT understanding.David failed to see the parallel between the two. It is interesting that thought the rich man deserved to die, because that was the penalty for adultery. Both the man and woman were to be killed for committing adultery.
David was still running from his own sin. He lacked the understanding that he was subject to the Law as much as the rich man was.D. God speaks to David’s CONSCIENCE.With all the courage he could find Nathan steps up and says, “You are the man!”
Can you see the look of horror that must have appeared on David’s face? This prophet had the audacity to tell the king that he was as bad as someone who had stolen a family pet. What would happen next? Would David order yet another murder? Would he punish Nathan?
Without hesitating, Nathan continued with words direct from God. God had chosen David to be king. He had protected him from the murderous and jealous Saul. He had given him all that Saul had. God would have given him more than that. David is accused of killing Uriah with the sword of the enemy.
The truth is out on the table. Now we have to deal with the…II. The CONSEQUENCESVerse 10-14 deal with the consequences of David’s sin, his repentance, and forgiveness. Nathan delivers the judgment of God in verses 10-12. There we see…A. The CALAMITY of sin.The basic gist of God’s judgment is that David’s house will be a mess as a result of this.
Sin brought great calamity on the family of David. There is one thing good that David did. He confessed.
B. CONFESSION and repentance lead to forgiveness.David cried out, “I have sinned against the Lord.” What a relief that must have been for him to get that off his chest.
I remember when I was a kid. I was probably about 8 or 9. I had stolen a few school supplies from Alemars Book Store in Quezon City. I took several school items but I didn’t pay for it. It ate me up. One night I couldn’t sleep. I went and woke my mom up and told her the whole terrible thing. It wasn’t even worth a lot of money. The next day, I went to the store and confessed my sin. I pulled out some change and offered to pay for it. The people thanked me for my honesty. That was a great relief to my guilt-wracked conscience. Confession and repentance led to forgiveness. I slept well that night.
David must have felt a great weight removed from his chest when he uttered those words. David still had to deal with…
C. CONSEQUENCES and punishment.There was still the issue of justice. David deserved the death penalty for committing adultery. He also deserved the death penalty for killing Uriah.
Here we see an example of God’s grace in the Old Testament. We see that he…
1. COMMUTED the punishment.God was most gracious in dealing with David. Remember that he was very much displeased with the actions of David.We see the fruit of genuine repentance. David was genuinely sorry for what he had done. He recognized his sin and took responsibility for it. As a result we see that God “put away [his] sin.” He then proceeds to tell David that he won’t die as a result of his sin. David received a healthy dose of God’s grace. He would not get what he deserved for his sin. It is a beautiful thing to receive God’s grace. It is available to all who truly repent and ask for it.
David had another issue to deal with, and that was…
2. CONTINUING consequences.I have heard people say on occasion, “If you pick up a stick, you have to be willing to deal with what’s on the other end of the stick.”While David was forgiven and his punishment commuted, he still had to deal with things that happened as a result of his sin. He had to deal with what was on the other end of the stick that he picked up.
As mentioned earlier, his family was a mess. The things that happened shock us. This is true even in the age of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. The things that occurred in the palace after this would probably make Jerry Springer blush.
Our sense of justice says, “It’s not fair that David’s children paid the price for his sin, when he got off free.”
There is a difference between punishment and consequences. The punishment is a matter of law. Consequences have nothing to do with the law.ConclusionIn God’s government, we all deserve the legal punishment of death, but through his grace he offers us the opportunity for forgiveness. We still have to deal with the consequences of our decisions. David had to deal with death, incest and all the garbage that happened. He never whined and fussed about though. He understood that he had brought this on himself.So often we want God to take away the consequences of our sin. The important thing is that we not focus so closely on the temporary consequences. The important thing is whether or not we are in a right relationship with God. After his confession and repentance, David was restored to a right relationship with God, but he still had to deal with the consequences.
Now be quite clear here as to what God can do and what God can’t do, God can’t make everything right again, God can’t undo the effects of what you have done, in David’s case his son still died, but what God can do is to meet you as you are and set you free to take you forward.
The Bible scholar Dale Davis writes here,
“We expect retribution, punishment, judgment upon David.
And that is here.
But we have a sense that we have travelled beyond judgment in 2 Samuel 12
into a Land of Grace”.
I love that phrase,
“into a land of Grace”,
that is the land God calls you to,
that is the land Jesus opened up to all by his death and resurrection,
that is the Land in which the Spirit lives and moves and has His being,
a Land of Grace,
a land of grace where despite everything you and I find a welcome. Amen
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