II Samuel 12:1-15a – You are the Man
The Living Word With Chuck Davis
II Samuel 12:1-15a – You are the Man
Welcome to "The Living Word" with Chuck Davis. 2 Samuel 12, 1 to 15a. You are the man. And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich in the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little eulam, which he had bought, and he brought it up and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms. It was like a daughter to him." Another came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. 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 forefold because he did this thing and because he had no pity." Nathan said to David, "You are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 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. Why have you despised the word of the Lord and do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have given his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, "Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of his of this son. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before Israel and before all the son." 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." Then Nathan went to his house. We finished David's rebellious chapter with his declaration, "It displeased the Lord." And so the Lord sent someone to deal with David's sin. Remember it was David sending. It was David acting to cover up his sin. And there might have been a few moments of a sense of relief for him. Uriah was dead. Bathsheba was now part of his entourage. He could exhale a little bit. But here comes Nathan. See, you can avoid the eyes of others, but you never are beyond the gaze of Yahweh. There's a real risk to Nathan. David has already proved to be ruthless and cover up of sin. He could have done the same to Nathan. Nathan uses a simple parable, brilliant indirect communication. He sets a trap for David. This is how truth speaks to power with wisdom. In the echoing words, "David, you are the man." Nathan goes on to say, "The Lord gave you all of these things, and his word to you is, if you even wanted more, he would have taken care of it. But now comes the declaration of consequences." Yes, David is pardon. David's response is utter humility. "I have sinned against the Lord." He's going to echo this in Psalm 51, "Against you and you alone have I sinned, O Lord." Nathan pronounces the pardon over him, "The Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die. But there are consequences, a sword is coming to your family." The so what of this passage is a reminder of the blessing of getting caught early. I have a feeling that if David hadn't been exposed, maybe he would have gone into even greater evils. So it's not necessarily grace that things get hidden, but the grace is when we're captured early. I probably have said this before on these podcasts, but English prayer for our kids growing up was, "Lord, help them not to sin, but if they sin, help them to get caught early." The now what is, don't wait to get caught, but recognize our sin, confess it, and move away from it. Better to be in that space of freedom, even with consequences, it still may proceed from our failure. So Lord today, we declare that we have sinned against you, and we know that you see the areas of our rebellion. We know you forgive us, but Lord, we pray that you will separate us from that, so that we would walk in your ways and find strength in you, in Jesus' name, amen.