Truth, Consequences, Forgiveness, & Restoration - 2 Samuel 12
Prayer: Lord we are thankful for your hand in our lives. We thank you that you don't let us go our own way but instead take action in our lives. I pray that we will learn from David this week, last time we saw the importance of resisting temptation, this time we need to learn the importance of repentance - of coming clean & staying clean with you. Lord, for whatever areas of our lives that we've failed & fallen we ask for your hand to be on us in order to restore us. Amen!
Quickly Form Groups:
1. What is your favorite Bible parable? What is the main lesson of that parable?
Last time we met we saw David fall deeper & deeper into the trap of sin. He started out by being a little too self indulgent, fell into adultery, tried several times to cover up his sin & eventually ended up ordering a man's death in order to cover up what he had done. If we didn't have the passage recorded in the Bible we might think he got away with it, but he didn't.
God knew what David had done & God was not pleased, now God is sending Nathan to David to expose his sin. Why would the sin need to be exposed? So it could be repented of & David could be clean & forgiven once again.
Truth:
2 Samuel 12:1-4 - Nathan is using a form we're familiar with from the New Testament, he is using a parable. He tells of a rich man & the awful thing he has done to his poor neighbor. The rich man who had many sheep & cattle of his own stole a young lamb, the only lamb & beloved family pet of his impoverished neighbor, and used it to throw a feast. A modern-day equivalent might be: Governor Dayton came into your house, walked off with your cat or dog, and then used it to feed a visiting dignitary. It is a viciously unkind & unnecessary action, there is no justification for this, this is nothing short of cruel hard-heartedness
2 Samuel 12:5-6 - David's response shows us that he's not aware that what Nathan has told him is a parable. David is indignant, he wants the man brought to justice at once, he wants not only the debt to be repaid - 4 times was the prescribed amount - he wants the man put to death.
2 Samuel 12:7-9 - About a year had passed, and apparently David had been contentedly living a lie, apparently he hadn't told anyone & apparently he hadn't confessed his sin before God. Perhaps he had justified himself in his own eyes, after all he is the king & has rule over all the people, in any case it's been a year and he's gotten away with his sin... or so he thinks. So can you imagine how David's heart must have been crushed when Nathan proclaims "You are the man!". Nathan interprets the parable, God has given David much & would have gladly given him more, but David instead has taken what belonged to someone else. David is accused of despising the word of the Lord, of doing evil in God's sight. Nathan doesn't cushion the blow, he proclaims David's guilt in Uriah's death, it may have been an Ammonite sword that struck the blow but David is guilty of murder.
Consequences prophesied:
2 Samuel 12:10-12 - David's sentence involves 3 prophesied consequences:
- A prophecy about the sword not departing from his "house" - from Biblical history we know that 3 of David's sons died violent deaths, and this seems to be a long-term prophecy that would go down through the generations of his family tree.
- A prophecy about a specific calamity that would come upon David & his wives - we will see this play out in chapter 15 when Absalom (David's son) seizes the throne from his father & takes his father's wives. This is a mid-term prophecy, one that would play out within David's lifetime.
- A short-term prophecy that has immediate consequences, but we'll get to that one in a moment, because suddenly David has a realization!
Forgiveness:
2 Samuel 12:13 - David confesses his sin, notice what he says "I sinned against the Lord". This isn't between David & Uriah, or between David & any other person, this sin is against God. David's actions have separated him from God, and David appears to be saying "may God do with me as He pleases, I have sinned against him". Nathan declared that David is forgiven, he has received God's mercy, he will not be given the death sentence normally required for either adultery or murder (according to God's laws). Mercy - not getting the punishment you deserve (as opposed to Grace which is getting a gift you can't earn & don't deserve). Mercy comes when we confess our sins before God, and that mercy is God's forgiveness.
Consequences Begin:
2 Samuel 12:14-15 - Despite forgiveness there are still consequences for sin, the sentence already given remains, and the third consequence is prophesied:
- The child conceived in sin will die. This is the short-term prophecy, one with immediate consequences.
God didn't take it easy on David, God dealt a hard blow in 3 tough consequences, any one of which would have been a severe punishment. There is a long-term prophecy against his family line, a mid-term prophecy against himself & his wives, and a short-term prophecy which will take his baby boy. God was hard on David because God loved David, sometimes God deals tenderly with His people when they fall & sometimes God is tough. From my recent studies in the life of Elijah I've seen that God deals tenderly with those who fall when they are broken, and here we see that God is tough with those who fall when they are in defiance.
The child is struck ill. There is a part of me that wants to say "but this baby didn't do anything wrong!" I need to remember that this is God at work, and God is always loving & always just. For anyone else that is struggling with this I'd ask that you hold off on thinking God is being cruel, because there is a verse later in today's passage that gives us deeper insight.
2 Samuel 12:16-17 - David pleads with God for his baby boy to be spared. David fasted, he spent his nights on the ground (fasting from comfort as well as from food). The elders were quite concerned, they couldn't get him to get up off the ground or to eat with them.
2 Samuel 12:18-19 - God says no. Ouch!! David has been God's man up to this point & will be again, but this time God said no, and the child died. David's servants aren't sure what to do, David has been beside himself up until now & they fear for how he will react once he knows his child has died. If you've ever known anyone who has lost a child you know how devastating that can be, there is something in our guts that tells us it's unnatural for a child to die, and it is a crushing blow.
Restoration:
2 Samuel 12:20-23 - David's reaction to the news of the death of his son puzzles his servants, they expect him to grieve even more. David's reaction may seem strange, but after 7 days of fasting & prayer David has God's perspective on the situation.
I lost my Dad to cancer, watching my Dad die & knowing he was dying was extremely painful - it was a period of extended grief for my family prior to his death. This wonderful sweet man of God was put through a living hell on this earth, it seemed so unfair. When my Dad finally died the family experienced an unexpected surge of joy, my Dad was no longer suffering & we knew with confidence that he was walking with the Lord - and in fact most of us experienced a jealousy of sorts, that he was able to go before us & we'd been left behind. People didn't understand what my family experienced, even believers didn't & usually don't understand still, but God gave us a glimpse of things from a heavenly perspective.
David gets up, washes up, puts on some lotion, and puts on some clean clothes. This marks the end of his period of fasting & prayer. The very next thing he does is goes to the house of the Lord (the tabernacle) and worships God. After he has worshipped God he goes home & eats a meal. David has been Spiritually & Physically restored.
The servants don't understand, they are like the people I said didn't understand my family, so they ask & David attempts to answer, but I'm guessing they still might not have understood.
God is not cruel, verse 23 makes it clear that David knows that his baby is now being nurtured in the hands of his loving God - the child will not be returned to David, but David will some day be reunited with his child in heaven. Was it cruel for God to take the child? Absolutely not! That child was in a much better place than he would have been living out a mortal life on earth, he was in the loving arms of God.
2 Samuel 12:24-25 - David is doing much better but poor Bathsheba has probably been trying to nurse the baby back to health & likely feels like a failure. David goes & comforts Bathsheba, the love of a husband can do wonders for a hurting wife, and David is a loving husband to Bathsheba. In time another son comes along for David & Bathsheba, that son we know would eventually become King Solomon, a man loved by God, and God assigns him a name that means "loved by the Lord". David is emotionally restored, and his family with Bathsheba has been restored.
2 Samuel 12:26-31 - During this period Joab has been out leading a portion of the army, still swatting at those annoying Ammonites, and he's laid siege to the royal citadel (fortress). Joab sends word that he's cut off the water supply & it's time to bring the rest of the army & take care of the Ammonites for good. Joab says something odd, he basically says "get out here & help me finish this or this kingdom I've defeated is going to be mine", that's some pretty strong words from the General to his King, but they are words that get David back to doing the job he should have been doing to start with (instead of lazing around the palace seducing the neighbor girl). This in effect brings about David's positional restoration, that of being the active king.
Rabbah is captured, and the crown is taken - symbol of the authority of their king - and it is symbolically place on David's head to signify him as the new authority over the Ammonite people. From the passage we read that the crown contained a talent of gold (about 75 pounds) and was set with precious stones. Apparently the Ammonites had a great deal of wealth in valuable items in Rabbah, and David took the wealth of the city as plunder. David also took the people and put them to work as laborers to the benefit of Israel (common practice of the day). From there they went out and conquered all the rest of the Ammonite towns, bringing the entire peoples of the Ammonites under David's rule. Finally these pesky Ammonites have been taken care of, and the army returns to Jerusalem.
Closing Prayer: God we thank you that you show us that there are consequences for our sins, but we thank you even more that these consequences are designed for our sanctification & restoration. Help us to have soft hearts so that you can deal with us tenderly, keep us from being hard hearted & having to face such dire consequences, but in either case Lord keep us close to you. Amen!
Quickly Form Groups Again:
2. Read Psalm 51, this was the Psalm written after David was confronted by Nathan. What in this Psalm could you point to as evidence of true repentance on David's part?
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