1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the LORD, the son born to you will die.”
Points of Interest
- ‘The LORD sent Nathan to David’--David has gone to truly terrible lengths to keep his affair hidden, but he can’t hide it from God. And God is unwilling to simply let it pass.
- ‘There were two men in a certain town’--rather than directly accuse David, Nathan uses a metaphorical story. It’s probably safer this way for Nathan. In David’s current mood, who knows how he would respond to a direct accusation? Using a metaphor also gives David a better chance of getting to the truth of the matter; even a moment’s freedom from thinking of the immediate personal implications might help. The implied question at the end, ‘What would you do with a situation like this?’ gives David that space to think, and it forces him to give an answer.
- ‘David burned with anger against the man’--David doesn’t immediately piece together that they’re speaking metaphorically, and he is genuinely shocked by the situation: ‘Could someone really do such a thing?’ he wonders. He, of course, has just done much worse himself. I don’t think David is being hypocritical here. His reaction comes from a genuine, strong concern for justice. He simply hasn’t noticed how very far he has currently fallen from his own principles. He is not living up to being the kind of man he wants to be, and the kind of man that he’s shown in the past, with God’s help, he is actually pretty capable of being.
- ‘the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over’--David is so outraged upon hearing of this situation that he needs to talk himself down a little: ‘Okay, okay, the death penalty may be a little extreme here. How about quadruple damages?’ Ironically, in the actual situation, death might indeed be the fairest punishment for David. Far more than a lamb, David owes Uriah a life. In fact, by David’s own reckoning, he owes Uriah four lives. He has taken far more from Uriah than he could ever pay back.
- ‘your master’s wives into your arms’--apparently, some of those many wives he has accumulated used to be Saul’s. And that would make sense in light of these political marriages being like the signature to a treaty. Other nations would simply re-establish the same treaty with David they used to have with Saul, and they’d seal the deal with the very same wife. It would at the very least keep the moving costs down.
- ‘I would have given you even more’--not only has David been wicked toward Uriah, but he’s also been ungrateful toward God. God has given him everything he could ever possibly want and more. As David was strolling on his roof, practically everything he could see whichever direction he turned was his, given as a gift from God--everything except Bathsheba, that is. During the hard times, David trusted God to provide everything he needed; and God came through. Perversely, now that times are good, he doesn’t have that same reliance on God’s goodness.
- ‘Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house’--David resorted to violence to take care of his problem. As they say, though, a sword has two edges. Now that he has taken the sword out of its sheath, he’ll feel its bite as well.
- ‘I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you’--what goes around comes around. David will experience the same pain, betrayal, and indignity to which he subjected Uriah.
- ‘The LORD has taken away your sin’--this reminds me of what God says about the covenant with David’s descendants: "When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by human beings, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him." God still loves David, forgives him, and lets him keep his kingdom. But God does not wink away the consequences of the serious wrong David has done. And apparently it’s a good thing. Imagine what trouble David and his children could get into if their actions were completely unchecked.
- ‘the son born to you will die’--it makes sense to me that David and Bathsheba would be punished for what they’ve done. But their child is just an innocent bystander, another victim even. When it is David who might very well deserve death, why is it his baby who actually dies? We’ll talk more about this one tomorrow.
Taking it home
- For you: Part of what gets David into trouble is losing his sense of gratitude toward God. Thanking and admiring God, even in the hard times, used to be a hallmark of David’s songs to God. What’s your relationship with praising God like? Does it come naturally? Or does it feel challenging? How has it been lately: better, the same, or harder than usual? Today do whatever you can to thank God, as often as possible. If praising God feels really difficult here are some ways you could start: 1) Thank God for the all the people and things in your life for which you are grateful. 2) Thank God for the good things that have happened this past week or month. 3) Praise God for the qualities he has that you really like. In the midst of all that thanking and praising, if you do feel like God is somehow holding back on you, ask for the thing that you want. God seems to remind David that he is generous, and willing to give even more if asked.
- For your six: While it’s a little hard to understand exactly how and why it works, David needs God to take away his sins. It seems that without that forgiveness, David would get stuck in this moment in his life. God is incredibly quick and willing to remove David’s sin once David confesses it. Ask God that your six would turn to God to take away their sin. Pray that that offer would make sense and be compelling, and that your six would find incredible benefits in taking God up on this offer.
- For our church: Nathan uses a story to get David’s attention. Ask God to make us good storytellers. Pray that God would give us wisdom, creativity and understanding, so that we could communicate God’s promises in captivating stories that make sense to people.
- For families: Have you ever felt like God or someone else truly forgave you for something? What was that like? Is there any area of your life where you could ask God or another person for forgiveness? Is there any area where you could extend forgiveness to someone else? Try it and share how it goes. Forgiveness is like dropping the charges against someone, letting God be the one to deal with the person, and giving up the right to do that yourself.
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