Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:1-31
Sermon Series: 2 Samuel: When God is Your King! – Sermon 12
Do you have a favorite courtroom TV show? Is it Law & Order, The Good Wife, Matlock or maybe Perry Mason (pictures)?
Have you spent much time in courtrooms? I’ve been there a few times, usually as moral support. Years ago, I was in one in Detroit for a traffic violation. It was an experience I’ll never forget. Jane and I were newly married, and we were tight financially. Our license plates were expiring, so I told Jane that we should wait a few days until my next paycheck. Dumb idea.
Unbeknownst to us, in Michigan expired plates are a misdemeanor. That meant if a cop ticketed you, he was paid for court time. So, in the next few days, I was pulled over five times for my plates. After the second ticket from the Detroit cops, I kept the ticket with me to keep from being ticketed again.
I paid for my registration and hopefully to avoid paying a fine, I went to court. The City of Detroit Court is unforgettable. My turn finally came. I showed the Judge that I’d renewed my plates and he let me off.
2 Samuel 12 plays out like a courtroom drama with God as the Judge. Last week in 2 Samuel 11 we saw the dark pit David’s life had become. He committed adultery with the wife of one of his best soldiers. She got pregnant, to cover it all up, David set up her husband to be killed in battle.
But David couldn’t hide his sins from God. 1 Samuel 11:27 is like a radioactive glow from his evil. “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (1 Samuel 11:27). God wasn’t just displeased; He was angry. God was lit! David thought he was like a dog with a bone and had buried all of the evidence. But God saw it all. And for nearly a year David played the game, acting like all was well. He marries Bathsheba and the child was born. But a storm was about to break – God’s storm.
God sent His prophet Nathan to confront David. This is a heartbreaking chapter, yet it overflows with God’s grace. Think about it. God could have just punished David. It would have been justice for a cold-blooded murderer to pour out retribution. Or, God could have walked away as we find in Romans 1 and renounced David. But God wants to restore David. As we continue our 2 Samuel series, we want to pull back the curtains of When God takes you to Court. If you’re taking notes…
1. The Prosecuting Attorney: God sends His prophet to accuse David
Poetry has become unpopular. It’s a great loss. In 1890 Francis Thompson (picture) wrote a long poem called, “The Hound of Heaven.” Thompson was troubled by his addiction to opioids and even attempted suicide. He describes how he ran from God while searching for satisfaction in experiences which left him unsatisfied. Here’s how it begins…
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days
I fled Him, down the arches of the years
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the mist of tears I hid from Him.
One repeating refrain captures the loving heart of God chasing down a fleeing sinner: “I sped…from those strong feet that followed after me.” In 2 Samuel 12 David is being chased by the “Holy Hound of Heaven.” He hid his sin but couldn’t shut off his conscience.
In Psalm 32 he describes living with His guilt. “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer” (Psalm 32:3-4). God put in each one of us a conscience. It cries out against us when we sin. There is potentially no greater argument for the existence of God than a conscience. There’s no greater proof of the existence of moral absolutes and a Lawgiver than this light in the soul. It’s God’s voice in our heart. Polybius (picture) said, “There is no witness so dreadful, no accuser so terrible as the conscience that dwells in the heart of every man.”
David couldn’t shut off his heart. It’s frightening when we can. Our world is trying to kill its conscience. It’s one reason why addiction is rampant. It’s an attempt to anesthetize guilt. 1 Timothy 4 warns of the danger of a “seared conscience.” David tries to sear his, but God won’t let him. Like David many people, far too many Christians, are hiding from God.
There’s a vile saying that’s become a joke: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. The implication is that you can do evil, and no one will know. It’s a lie. God knows. Numbers 32:23, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”
So, what do you do when a very powerful person abuses their power? How do you confront them? How do you hope to break through their defenses?
God sends Nathan to David. Sent or send is a key word in both chapters, appearing 11 times. David sent for Bathsheba; he sent a message to Joab; he sent for Uriah; David sent a letter by Uriah and sent to take Bathsheba as his wife. David thinks he’s in control, God is and now God sends Nathan.
2 Samuel 12:1, “And the Lord sent Nathan to David.” David thought he got away with it. The Lord seemed distant and unconcerned to David. It wasn’t true. God was watching every occasion when David “sent” to continue his sinful path. Finally, God takes action, sending His prophet to confront.
God isn’t asleep. Many believe there is no God, or that He doesn’t care. God isn’t a passive onlooker. He’s active. We may think we’ve succeeded in covering our sin and gotten away with it, but God will come after us.
Apparently, Nathan arrives at the palace the very day Bathsheba gives birth. It wouldn’t be easy to confront the king. Nathan walks into the royal court and tells of an incident, a case history of a poor man abused by a rich man.
David is the supreme judge of the land. He thought Nathan was relating an actual case and it may have been. It’s clearly a picture of what David had done. Those words about the lamb, “It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him” (2 Samuel 12:3) echo what Uriah said to David as he explained why he wouldn’t go home to his wife. “Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?” (2 Samuel 11:11).
We are on spiritually dangerous ground if we don’t have a Nathan in our lives. Nathan is not only a prophet, but he is also David’s true friend. They were close. David had named one of his sons, “Nathan.”
How do you reprimand a friend who’s sinning? Many of us would rationalize that it’s none of our business. God’s Word says it is our business. Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” How we handle rebuking one involved in sin shows our spiritual maturity. So, how would you respond if a friend reproved you for sin in your life? Would you get mad or become defensive?
As Christ-followers, we’re family. We’re responsible for each other. “Restore” is a medical word, used for the setting of a broken bone. Nathan is an example of how to lovingly confront a brother or sister who’s sinned.
Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Literally, the verse reads “Trustworthy are the bruises caused by the wounding of one who loves you.” Those who love you are willing to bruise you. Nathan was that kind of friend. Are you?
2. The Judge: David is the defendant and judge of his own sin
What Nathan did was so wise. We’re not given details, but I’d assume he prayed and considered carefully how to approach David. It wouldn’t have been difficult for him to get an audience with David. They’re friends, but how does one confront another person about his sin? It’s not easy.
Nathan used an indirect approach. If he’d started by pointing out that David had sinned, David might have become defensive. Instead, Nathan found a way that caused David to convict himself with this case history.
Nathan told about two men. One was very rich with many flocks; the other poor with only one little lamb that was very loved. This lamb was like a daughter to him. When a traveler visited the rich guy, he provided a meal. It was the Middle Eastern custom of hospitality. Instead of slaughtering one of his own “many flocks,” he took the poor guy’s one precious lamb.
It’s a “sheep story,” one a shepherd could easily identify with. David had been a shepherd boy. Maybe in those lonely days and nights David had made a “pet lamb” of one or more of his sheep? Did this sheep eat his food and drink from his cup? Possibly.
Nathan does a play on words here. The Hebrew word for “daughter” (bath) is the same as the first part of Bathsheba’s name – Bath-Sheba, which means “daughter of Sheba”. But David missed that literary nuance.
David is furious at the rich man’s cold-heartedness. “Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’”
His sense of justice kicks in. He demands restitution. David had more compassion on this poor man than he had for Uriah. He passed judgement without realizing he’s passing judgement on himself. “Many men seem perfect strangers to their own character,” said Joseph Butler.
Verse 7 is the key verse. “Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” In the Hebrew there are only two words. It reads something like, “You the man!” We use a similar expression when we tell someone, “You the man!” By it we mean the person has done something good or heroic. But Nathan was telling David that he’d done something horrible.
Though David was rich with many wives, he stole poor Uriah’s one wife. He had Uriah taken out to cover his sin. Nathan pulls off the mask David has been wearing for nine months. This confrontation contains two messages:
David was guilty of despising God and His blessings. “‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more” (2 Samuel 12:7-8). David had power and position. God had given him so much and would have continued to give him more.
Satan loves to get our eyes off of God’s abundant blessings and on to his few restrictions. God’s restrictions are designed to protect us from harm. His blessings are incentives for us to love, trust and obey him.
Nathan stresses the senselessness of it all. David didn’t need to take another man’s wife or life. He’d despised God’s commands. To despise God’s Word is to despise the One who gave His Word. The root cause of all sin is self-sovereignty. Sin is a form of rebellion against God. David made a mockery of the Ten Commandment. We despise God’s Word when we chose to do what we want instead of what we know is right. Sin is contempt for God’s ultimate authority and opens the door for God’s enemies to mock. Every time a pastor or Christian commits a heinous sin, it gives ammo for pagans to mock God. Most Christians take sin too casually. We think that if we sin, it’s no big deal, after all, we have a get-out-of-jail-free card named Jesus.
Will Jesus forgive our sins when we call on Him? Yes. It doesn’t mean we’ll escape the consequences. We think that if there are consequences for our sins, they’ll last like 15 minutes. That’s not true. The consequences of some sinful choices last a lifetime. Sin is very serious.
The only way to escape the consequences of our sins is that Jesus, God’s own Son took on human flesh to become one of us and then died in our place for our sins. Sin is so bad that God the Son had to die for it.
The consequences of sin will be experienced. Since David chose the way of violence to cover his sin, the sword would never depart from his house. God’s discipline matches the crime. What David had sowed he’ll reap.
My friend, if God would bring such judgement on a man He loved like David, what will He do to us? It’s why the writer of Hebrews warned, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).
The remaining chapters of 2 Samuel are a downward cycle of these consequences: Amnon rapes his sister; brother kills brother; Absalom leads a coup; sleeps with David’s concubines on the palace roof.
One can’t escape the natural laws of a sin harvest. Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”
Nathan obeyed God, delivering God’s message to David. Too often we try to avoid confronting a brother or sister by rationalizing, “It won’t do any good.” That’s not the point. Regardless of how one reacts when confronted, we must obey the Bible and point out the spiritual danger.
David was the man God loved yet faced terrible consequences for his sin. What makes us think that when we sin, we’ll escape the consequences?
How will David respond? Will he be like Saul who refused to admit he was ever wrong? Will he have Nathan executed for speaking to him this way?
3. The Verdict: God doesn’t want punishment, He wants repentance
“David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die’” (2 Samuel 12:13:14). David loved God. I believe a gush of emotions swept over him, as he thought: “Finally, someone knows the truth. The secret is out. Now I have the assurance of God’s forgiveness.”
“I have sinned,” wrote Augustine (picture), “is just three syllables; and yet in these three syllables the flames of the heart’s sacrifice rose up to heaven.” David’s sin, enormous as it was, was wildly outdone by God’s grace. His sin can’t be minimized yet it’s miniscule compared to God’s salvation from it. It’s a mistake for us to focus on our sin. Instead, we must concentrate on God’s grace! We have a finite number of ways to sin; God has an infinite number of ways to forgive. David deserved death yet God gave him grace.
David doesn’t deny his sin. He comes clean. He doesn’t blame others or make excuses, “Bathsheba should have pulled the blinds.” Many, when confessing sin hold back or seek to justify it. That’s not a true confession.
David’s words aren’t said lightly. The Mosaic Law said he deserved death. He’d pronounced this judgment. He isn’t trying to bargain his way back to God but accepts the verdict. Under the Law he has no hope. He expects to pay for his sin by being executed. But in grace God commutes the death penalty. There’s no reason given. God’s forgiveness is always of grace – undeserved, unearned. The gospel message is not condemnation. The gospel message is an invitation. The gospel message is not “You are the man!” The gospel message is “God has paid for and put away your sins.”
The reason some never come to God like this is because they’ve never faced the fact that we’re all sinful. We’ve never faced the truth that sin is not what we do, sin is fundamentally what we are. We’re born sinners. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). In terms of any opportunity to alleviate ourselves of that guilt, where can we go? We can only run to Jesus. We can only run to the cross.
4. The Penalty: Repentance doesn’t stop the ripple effects of sin
Repentance is like throwing a rock in a lake. You can retrieve the rock, but you can’t stop the ripples. You always reap more than you sow. A single kernel of grain can produce a hundredfold. It’s true with sin. No one sins in a vacuum. Like David, your sin may bear fruit in your family. It may hit hard on your church. Robert Louis Stevenson (picture) wrote, “Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” We don’t usually believe that. Ours is a day when many Christians, shrug off sin by saying, “We’re under grace.” Sin always has far reaching consequences.
The Law taught that David deserved death. David himself had pronounced this judgment, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die” (2 Samuel 12:5). He doesn’t bargain with God. He accepts the verdict. Under the Law there’s no hope, but in grace God commutes the death penalty. There’s no reason given. God’s forgiveness is always of grace – undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor. God’s grace is scandalous!
But David still had committed a sin unto death. Someone had to die if God was to vindicate His Word. This is tough. It really bothers us. Why would a loving God do this? It wasn’t the baby’s fault. Why is David forgiven while the innocent child dies? Part of the answer is found in the difference between punishment and consequence. The baby is a scapegoat for the father. This is one case where the illness of the child is connected with the sin of a parent.
Yes, God can forgive our sins, but the consequences of those sins remain. A crack baby may die soon after birth because his mother used drugs during her pregnancy. The child’s death isn’t punishment. It’s a consequence.
This infant’s death was to be instructive – to silence any criticism that God is soft on sin. Warren Wiersbe (picture), “In His grace God had forgiven David’s sin but in His government, God had to permit David to experience the consequences of those sins.” His baby’s death is a substitution for David’s. David deserved to die but God takes the child instead.
I don’t pretend to understand that. I do know that when we come to the New Testament, you and I deserve to die for our sins but God the Father in love substitutes, David’s greater Son, Jesus, for us. I can’t begin to understand such grace! Maybe you think you’re a good person. I know I’m not and deserve God’s punishment of hell. I’m amazed by God’s grace for me.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Scott, I can’t believe that you believe in hell.” It’s what the Bible teaches. But how can any sin deserve everlasting punishment? If God is loving and just, how can He punish like this?
The best answer I ever heard to that question was shared by Colin Smith (picture): Suppose a middle school student punches another student in class. What happens? The student is given a detention. But suppose during the detention, this boy punches the teacher. What happens? The student gets suspended from school. Suppose on the way home, the same boy punches a cop in the nose. What happens? He finds himself in jail. Suppose some years later, the same boy is in a crowd waiting to see the President of the United States. As the President passes by, the boy lunges forward to punch the President. What happens? He’s shot dead by the Secret Service.
In every case the crime is the same, but the severity of the crime and penalty is measured by the one against whom it is committed. What comes from sinning against God? The answer: Everlasting destruction.
5. The Restoration: There’s a transformed life
We have a parallel account of all of this in 1 Chronicles 20. So, if you were asked to write a biography of David, how many pages would you devote to the incident involving Bathsheba? Would you be tempted to elaborate on it? Do you think that you might be tempted to add a little color to it all?
Amazingly, when we come to the record in 1 Chronicles 20, it never mentions any of this sordid story. He passes over the incident entirely. It starts off, “This is what happened, and then David went to Jerusalem.” When you come to the final verse it’s, “Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem” (1 Chronicles 20:3). Why? When God forgives, He forgets.
David repented. There’s a change. Many people will tell you that they’re Christians. If one is a Christ-follower, there’s a change, a transformation. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT).
It’s a lie to say that you love and follow Jesus if you don’t live and act like Jesus. Salvation means that there is a transformation.
David prays for the survival of the child. You may be thinking, “Of course.” But remember all David has done to not get caught for this child. Nine months before David would have aborted the baby to hide his adultery. Now he fasts and prays for the baby’s survival.
I can almost imagine David praying something like this: “God, if you will preserve his little life, I’ll take him with me everywhere. His presence by my side will be an opportunity for me to share with others that I’m a great sinner and that you, God, are a great forgiver, the only one who puts away my sin.”
But the baby dies. Under Mosaic Law he would have been circumcised and named on the 8th day. He dies on the 7th, so he’s never given a name.
David though has hope of a reunion. When his servants question why he’s not broken up over the death of his child, he responds, “But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23). This passage is such a comfort for grieving parents when their child dies. David found peace in being reunited with his child in the future. David knew where he was going when he died. While the child couldn’t return to him, he’d go to the child in heaven.
After the child dies, David doesn’t break his fast until he’s worshipped. Worship under the Old Covenant required a sacrifice. David doesn’t offer an animal sacrifice, he gives himself.
David treats his wife differently. “Then David comforted his wife” (2 Samuel 12:24) His wife! She’s no longer the wife of Uriah. She’s “his wife.” He “went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son.” It’s beauty for ashes. Bathsheba is “his wife.”
Did he bare his heart at this point? Did he sit down with her and come clean about the whole rotten business? Did he say to her, “You know, I’m not the man I was. I’m not the man of the afternoon siesta. I am that man, but I am not that man. I’m a broken man. I’m a forgiven man. I am a new man.”
One of the evidences that you’re truly a Christ-follower is how you treat your spouse. Christ’s love starts first at home. It starts in your marriage.
Bathsheba bore a son. They called him Solomon, like shalom, “peace.” Nathan gets another call from God and is dispatched to the palace: “Nathan, I’ve got another message for you. Get over there and let David know we’re gonna add to the name, Jedediah, because I love this boy.”
Wow! Tears comes to my eyes when I read verse 24, “And the Lord loved him…So he called his name Jedediah, because of the Lord.”
God takes the scars of sin and transforms them to symbols to glorify His name. Solomon will be David’s successor. His name means peaceable. God renames him “loved of God.” What a wonder! No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. No one is beyond the reach of His steadfast love or abundant mercy. God is the God who restores.
Sometimes when I look back at the sinful messes and waste of my own life, I cry out to God with Joel 2:25. “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, My great army, which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25). God is merciful! God is the great Restorer! He restores the years that the locusts have eaten.
David wins the victory at Rabbah. Because of his sin, David’s kingdom was tottering. But now he’s repented and been delivered. The victory at Rabbah gave hope. David is back as the victorious warrior.
In 2 Samuel 11:1, David stayed home and didn’t go out to war. The whole event is framed by the Ammonite war. While all of that is taking place over a period of time these events are unfolding. But now he’s gone out at the invitation of his second-in-command, Joab, who, as we’ve seen, is quite a character. Joab realizes that if things proceed, the victory will be given to him. People will say, “Look at what Joab did.” So, he sends for David and says, “David, you need to get out in front of this.” In the last part of chapter 12, David took the crown of the king of the Ammonites, a big, heavy crown with a big stone and puts it on his head. He subdues his enemies and he “and all the people returned to Jerusalem.”
Conclusion
A few weeks after I’d been in court and given a break by the Judge, I checked the second ticket and called the court. I found out that though I’d brought both tickets when I went to court, only one had been cleared. Only the first one was forgiven. I had to go back and ended up paying a fine for the second one. And while Detroit may not understand forgiveness, God does. When God forgives, He forgets. So, what can we learn? What are the take home truths for us?
First of all, this is not simply a story of sexual sin. It’s actually a life-sized illustration of what happens when we resist the rule of God in a quest for moral autonomy. It’s true of an individual. It’s true of a church, a nation and the world. When we say, “No, we’re not gonna do what God says. We’re autonomous! We’ll run our own lives.” This all is a graphic illustration of it.
Grace is free, but not cheap. You can’t ever earn or merit God’s grace. It’s not dispensed to those who work really hard to clean up their lives. It’s not given to those who promise to try harder. It’s completely free to us!
But it’s not cheap. It cost the life of God’s Son to be able to provide complete pardon for us. God can’t wink at or paper over sin. Grace is a free gift, but the price to God was the cross. When you see that grace is free to you, but so costly to God, it will make you love Him more and hate sin more.
Sin is cheap, but not free. You can buy into the sin market very easily and inexpensively. It didn’t cost David a thing to have sex with Bathsheba, not that night, anyway. It won’t cost you at first to compromise your morals. It won’t cost you at first to violate your marriage vows. Sex is readily available and inexpensive in terms of personal sacrifice and discipline…at first!
When you buy into so-called “free sex,” you find it turns out to be very expensive in the long run and you end up being enslaved. Sin is the same way. At first, it seems great. But after you gorge yourself on it, you grow sick of it. Sin is cheap, but it’s not free. You’ll pay a terribly high price in the long run.
It’s an illustration of the wonder of CRRP. This seemed like a simple way to remember this that I got from Alistair Begg (picture) in his study of this passage. CRRP. Not CPR, CRRP. Read the Psalms for your homework, and you’ll find it…
C: Confess your sin to the Lord.
R: Rejoice in the provision that He has made in the person of His Son.
R: Repent and turn from your sin and the old life.
P: Proceed with life on that basis.
CRRP is simply: “I come to you today to confess my sin before you. Lord, I rejoice that You’ve made provision for me and have put away my sin. And now I will proceed on the pathway of life.”
If only 2 Samuel ended here! But this, as we will see, is the calm before the storm and still coming are the terrible consequences of David’s sin.