Why is it so much easier to angrily condemn others’ sins than to recognise our own? Did David think he’d got away with adultery and murder and hoped it would never surface? Or had it simply not dawned on him how gravely he had offended God? Whatever, he had somehow blanked his mind of guilt. But he is quick to boil over when he encounters the self-centred rich man, abusing power to crush a poor family. 

Most lacked the courage to call David out. Nathan, a true prophet, refuses the ‘yes-man’ role. Speaking truth to power demands huge courage and great wisdom. Nathan’s parable evokes a self-righteous reaction that demands an over-the-top penalty (v 5). Nathan makes the link explicit (v 7) and David gets it. He could have remained in control, silencing Nathan and burying the whole sorry episode. But he is immediately repentant. David is a sinner but one who listens to God’s voice, who in his heart of hearts loves God and wants to please him. There will be sad consequences of his sin; ‘a long destiny of sword-shaped life’;* but God remains true to his promise (see 2 Samuel 7:4–17). All this is the prelude to a series of tragic but not pointless events. They will still lead somewhere in God’s purpose.

* Brueggemann, p281.

‘How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.’¹

We have probably all encountered situations where minds are changed and actions taken because someone is persuaded that it was their own idea! Nathan’s brilliant story causes David to condemn his own behaviour! Perhaps even the pet lamb picture made David remember his own youth. He recognised that the story represented a real situation and he was shocked and furious. A man who had abundant wealth, including many sheep, felt so entitled that he took and killed a poor man’s pet lamb. If the poor man was a bonded tenant, that would in theory have been legal, but there was no doubt it was a horrific misuse of privilege. 

David clearly had many deficiencies as a king, but his anger here does indicate his basic decency as a human being! He knew instinctively that anyone who behaved in such a contemptible and mean way deserved the strongest condemnation and punishment. Imagine his horror when he realised that the story was about himself. He had been given so much (v 8) yet his behaviour not only ignored or even despised God’s Word, but despised God himself by acting as if God’s many gifts to him were not enough (v 9). He had sinned not only against Bathsheba and Uriah, but against God. Nathan makes it clear that there would be both short-term and long-term consequences. Prophecies like this are not necessarily suggesting that God will deliberately cause David’s own family to offend against him, but that David’s behaviour provides them with an example and an excuse. 

Jesus’ story of the lost son² picks up on the message of verses 13 and 14: the prodigal can be forgiven and welcomed, but consequences remain. The prodigal will not regain the inheritance he has wasted: everything now belongs to his older brother. 

Lord, if my sense of entitlement ever causes the deprivation of others, please help me to recognise what has happened and take what action I can to put it right. 

¹ Ps 36:7  ² Luke 15:11–32