Nathan had the privilege of delivering the message about God’s covenant with David and his descendants (2 Sam. 7), but now the prophet had to perform spiritual surgery and confront the king about his sins. David had been covering his sins for at least six months, and Bathsheba’s baby was about to be born. It wasn’t an easy task the Lord had given Nathan, but it’s obvious that he prepared carefully for his encounter with the guilty king.
The trial (vv. 1–6). In telling a story about the crime of another, Nathan prepared David for dealing with his own sins, and it’s possible that David thought Nathan was presenting him with an actual case from the local court. Nathan was catching David off guard and could study the king’s response and better know what to do next. Since David had been a shepherd himself, he would pay close attention to a story about the theft of an innocent lamb, and as king, he was obligated to see that poor families were given justice.
God directed Nathan to choose his words carefully so that they would remind David of what he had said and done. The prophet said that the ewe lamb “did eat of his [the poor man’s] own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom” (v. 3). This should have reminded David of Uriah’s speech in 11:11: “Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife?” (nkjv). But it wasn’t until Nathan told about the rich man stealing and killing the lamb that David showed any response, and then he was angry at another man’s sins! (See 1 Sam. 25:13, 22, 33 for another example of David’s anger.) David didn’t seem to realize that he was the rich man, Uriah was the poor man, and Bathsheba was the ewe lamb he had stolen. The “traveler” whom the rich man fed represents the temptation and lust that visited David on the roof and then controlled him. If we open the door, sin comes in as a guest but soon becomes the master. (See Gen. 4:6–7.)
David passed judgment on the rich man without realizing he was passing judgment on himself. Of all blindness, the worst kind is that which makes us blind to ourselves. “Many men seem perfect strangers to their own character,” said Joseph Butler, and David was among them. How easy it is to be convicted about other people’s sins (Matt. 7:1–3)! Stealing and killing a domestic animal wasn’t a capital offense in Israel, but David was so angry he exaggerated both the crime and the punishment. Until now, he had been minimizing the consequences and doing nothing, when actually what he did to Uriah was worthy of death. Both David and Bathsheba should have been stoned to death (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22–24; John 8:1–6). Knowing the law, David realized that four sheep had to be given to repay the owner whose ewe lamb had been stolen (Ex. 22:1).
The verdict (vv. 7–9). The prophet realized that though David was very angry, he was also unguarded and ready for the sword of the Spirit to pierce his heart (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17). With one quick thrust, Nathan said, “You are the man!” (v. 7 nkjv) and proceeded to hold up the mirror that revealed how dirty the king really was. Nathan explained to David why he stole Uriah’s little ewe lamb. First, the king forgot the goodness of the Lord who had given him everything he had and would have given him more (v. 7–8). Second, David had despised God’s commandment and acted as though he had the privilege of sinning (v. 9). By coveting, committing adultery, bearing false witness, and killing, David had broken four of the Ten Commandments, and he thought he could get away with it! It was bad enough that David arranged to have Uriah killed, but he used the sword of the enemy to do it!
The sentence (vv. 10–12). David’s adultery with Bathsheba was a sin of passion, a sin of the moment that overtook him, but his sin of having Uriah killed was a premeditated crime that was deliberate and disgraceful. This may be why 1 Kings 15: emphasizes “the matter of Uriah the Hittite” and says nothing about Bathsheba. But the Lord judged both sins and David paid dearly for his lust and deceit. God repaid David “in kind” (Deut. 19:21; Ex. 21:23–25; Lev. 24:20), a spiritual principle that David expressed in his “victory psalm” after Saul died (Ps. 18:25–27).
The sword did not depart from the king’s household, and his wives were taken and violated just as he had taken Bathsheba. Indeed, David did pay fourfold, for Bathsheba’s baby died, and his sons Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah were slain (13:29; 18:14–15; 1 Kings 2:25). David’s beautiful daughter Tamar was raped by her half brother (chap. 13), and David’s concubines were humiliated publicly by Absalom when he captured the kingdom (16:22). For the rest of David’s lifetime, he experienced one tragedy after another, either in his family or in the kingdom. What a price he paid for those few minutes of passion with his neighbor’s wife!
The punishments God assigned to David were already stated in the covenant God had with Israel and which the king was expected to obey (Lev. 26; Deut. 27–30). If the nation rebelled against God, He would slay their sons in battle (Lev. 26:17; Deut. 28:25–26), take away their children (Lev. 26:22; Deut. 28:18), give their wives to others (Deut. 28:30), and even take Israel out of its land into foreign exile (Deut. 28:63–68). Because of Absalom’s rebellion, David was forced to flee Jerusalem and live in the wilderness. But the covenant also included a section on repentance and pardon (Deut. 30; Lev. 26:40ff.), and David took it seriously.
The pardon (vv. 13–14). The condemned prisoner knew that the verdict was true and the sentence was just, so without any argument, he confessed: “I have sinned against the Lord” (v. 13). Nathan assured David that the Lord had put away his sin. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: nkjv). “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared” (Ps. 130:3–4 nkjv).
No wonder David later wrote that the Lord “forgives all your iniquities … [and] redeems your life from destruction.… As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:3–4, 12 nkjv).
But there was a “however” in Nathan’s reply, for though God in His grace had forgiven David’s sins, God in His government had to permit David to experience the consequences of those sins, beginning with the death of Bathsheba’s baby. All during David’s months of silence, he had suffered intensely, as you can detect when you read his two prayers of confession (Ps. 32 and 51). Psalm 32 pictures a sick old man instead of a virile warrior, and Psalm 51 describes a believer who had lost almost everything—his purity, joy, witness, wisdom, and peace—a man who was afraid God would take the Holy Spirit from him as He had done to Saul. David went through intense emotional and physical pain, but he left behind two prayers that are precious to all believers who have sinned.
Because of Christ’s finished work on the cross, God is able to save lost sinners and forgive disobedient saints, and the sooner the lost and the disobedient turn to the Lord and repent, the better off they will be. David wrote, “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found” (Ps. 32:5–6 nkjv). “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Isa. 55: nkjv).