Nathan Rebukes David
12 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and [a]said,
“There were two men in a city, the one wealthy and the other poor.
2 The wealthy man had a great many flocks and herds.
3 But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb
Which he bought and nurtured;
And it grew up together with him and his children.
It would eat [b]scraps from him and drink from his cup and lie [c]in his lap,
And was like a daughter to him.
4 Now a visitor came to the wealthy man,
And he could not bring himself to take any animal from his own flock or his own herd,
To prepare for the traveler who had come to him;
So he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”5 Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this certainly [d]deserves to die! 6 So he must make restitution for the lamb four times over, since he did this thing and [e]had no compassion.”
7 Nathan then said to David, “You yourself are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘It is I who anointed you as king over Israel, and it is I who rescued you from the hand of Saul. 8 I also gave you your master’s house and put your master’s wives [f]into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you [g]many more things like these! 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, by doing evil in His sight? You have struck and killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you have taken his wife as your wife, and you have slaughtered him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. 10 Now then, the sword shall never leave your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 This is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am going to raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will sleep with your wives in [h]broad daylight. 12 Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and [i]in open daylight.’” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has allowed your sin to pass; you shall not die. 14 However, since by this deed you have shown utter disrespect for the [j]Lord, the child himself who is born to you shall certainly die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house.
As time goes by, we’ll see David’s punishment play out, but the amazing thing here is David’s blindness to his own sin. Of course he knew he had done wrong, but he thought it mild (and secret). After all, he was the king, and due a little leniency.
But when David saw his own sin played out in the story of the men and their sheep, he was outraged. And when Nathan pointed out David was the wicked man from the story, there is no doubt he was quite humbled, for his sin was much greater than the man in the story.
We see also, God’s mercy. For though David had decreed death, or at least 4x restitution for the man who stole the sheep, God spared David’s life. More would come, but God did not kill David even though he had blood on his hands.
Ultimately, God knew David’s heart, and knew what he needed to learn from his grave mistakes. God does not desire for any of us to die. There must be punishment for sin, but Jesus paid that price, and now it is simply a matter of the heart. Will we repent as David did, and accept God’s forgiveness? Will we allow Him to wipe our slate clean, and shape our future as only He knows how?
That is our choice, to remain hard-hearted, like so many others in the Bible, or repent and ask for God’s mercy to be poured out in our lives. That we might be new creations, transformed by the master’s hand.