David and Bathsheba Part 5
“And the Lord sent Nathan unto David…” 2 Samuel 12:1
Have you ever done something wrong or questionable in your life and tried to avoid certain people? When we are in the wrong, there is often various people we choose not to interact with. They could be a parent, grandparent, spouse, friend, or maybe a pastor. The reason we want to avoid these people usually is because they tend to hold us accountable for our actions. These people are the one’s that will shine a light on us when we long to be in the dark. We don’t like to be exposed for what we truly are. I have often used the following example with my youth group in trying to illustrate how we are about our sin. When we sin, we don’t want to acknowledge it. We want to ignore it. We want to act like it is not there. It is no different than how we use a mirror. If I never look in the mirror, then I never have a bad hair day, my clothes always look good, and I never have a pimple in an obvious location. Why? Because if I never look in the mirror, I never see the truth. When we sin, we don’t want to have God, family, or friends confronting us about it. We don’t want to read about how wrong we are in the Bible. The Bible, God and those that hold us accountable are just like that mirror. They don’t lie. They don’t sugar coat it. They reveal to us exactly what we are. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s a tough love sometimes, but a necessary love. David’s mirror at this time was Nathan, God’s prophet.
Nathan chose a unique way of confronting David about his sin. Nathan obviously knew David well. He knew that he could storm in the palace with guns a blazing, shooting David down with accusations of his sin. If he did this, David would most certainly put up a stone wall and reject Nathan’s wise council. Nathan decides to take a different approach. He tells David a story that he knew would prick David’s heart. Nathan proceeds to tell David about a man who owned a lamb. The man treated this lamb like one of his own children. He loved the lamb dearly. It was the only lamb the man possessed. At the same time the man’s next-door neighbor was hosting company. The neighbor wanted to feed his guests well. The neighbor owned several sheep. He was a very rich man while the first man was very poor. When it came time to prepare food for his guests, the rich neighbor stole the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guests. Needless to say, David was outraged when he heard what the rich man had done. Nathan knew this would strike a chord with David due to his background as a shepherd and humble beginnings.
“And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
2 Samuel 12:5-6
How often do we respond like David when watching other people’s lives? We are so quick to see other people’s faults while ignoring our own. Jesus even said in Matthew 7:5, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Basically, Jesus is telling us to clean up our own lives before we start trying to tell others how to clean up theirs.
David is sitting here listening to Nathan tell him about this rich man stealing a lamb. David is hearing this story quite possibly while he is sitting next to a woman that he stole from another man who he then killed to get him out of his way of what he wants. But yet David completely misses the point of Nathan’s story. David is still not looking in the mirror. He continues to see no faults in himself.
“And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.” 2 Samuel 12:7
Nathan finally sees that he has to point out the obvious. If this happened in our day, Nathan would have looked at David and said “Seriously?”. The lesson flew right over David’s head. Sin blinds us from the truth. When we get away from God, the truth gets distorted in our eyes. Truth becomes like a mirage in the desert. What we think we see is not how it truly is.
One thing about how Nathan confronts David, he is very specific. He doesn’t make a generic statement to David that he sinned. No, Nathan goes through the laundry list of things David had done. This is important because, in doing so, Nathan is pointing out to David that God sees everything and knows everything we do. There is not anything we do that God doesn’t know. He is all knowing and all seeing.
“Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun. For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”
2 Samuel 12:11-12
We see God here as the disciplinarian. Here we see that he basically tells David that he is about to reap what he sows. Galatians 6:7 actually tells us the same, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” What did David sow? He sowed lies, adultery, deceit, and death. Not exactly the type of bumper crop you would want to brag about. Did God throw away his relationship with David? Nope.
“And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”
2 Samuel 12:13
God is merciful. He is gracious. As a child of His, we are never too far away from Him. The Old Testament prophet Micah says it best:
“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
Micah 7:18-19
God is a forgiving God, but while He forgives, He still requires consequences for sin. David will soon find out that just because God has forgiven him, it still does not remove the consequences for what he has done.