Chapter 11 concludes with David enjoying the fruits of his sin. Every thing appears to be settled and the evil covered. But that chapter in David's life concludes with, But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
This chapter could seem to be divided thusly:
Vs. 1-6, Nathan's parable to David & David's response.
Vs. 7-14, Nathan's confrontation of David concerning David's sin, & David's confession.
Vs. 15-25, David's genuine contrition and submission before the Lord & God's acceptance of that contrition.
Vs. 26-31, David picks up where he left off before he got himself into the mess with Uriah's wife. He completely subdues Ammon.
Vs. 1-6, this chapter opens with the Lord sending one of His prophets to David to point out his sin. Nathan comes to David with a parable. The rich man had an abundance of flocks and herds. The poor man only had one ewe lamb. A stranger came to visit the rich man and, rather than kill and eat out of his own flock, he took the poor man's one ewe lamb for his dinner table.
1) Notice the parable was concerning sheep and lambs for a purpose. The Lord knows how to strike us where it hurts, He knows how to get our attention.
I am sure this upset David a great deal because of his attachment to lambs. More than likely, he had become very attached to some lambs when he was a shepherd. As Nathan told David of the rich man wanting to protect his own lambs, so he ate the neighbor's lamb, David remembered the many long days and nights he had spent protecting the few lambs he had in the wilderness from the bears and lions.
David remembered the love he had for that special lamb that was without a mother; how he had to keep it close to him and protect it, feed it and probably even let it sleep close to him to prevent it from crying all night.
He remembered how he had become attached to it and it to him, of how he even was willing to lay down his life, hazard his life many times for its protection.
Undoubtedly the Lord brought this and much more to David's mind as Nathan delivered God's word to him.
2) When Nathan finished, David's anger was greatly kindled. Note how quickly we can spot the mote in other's but not the beam in ourselves. I can tell you a thousand things wrong with Steve, but very few about me.
3) David said, he shall surely die. He had no toleration for sin in others, yet it was the identical sin of which he himself was guilty. How like human nature, as the Lord warned us about the mote in our own eye.
Vs. 7-14. Then Nathan said, Thou art the man.
1) Note Nathan's boldness in confronting the king. We might say, "Well, he was confronting King David, a godly man." Nathan was an unusual man when it came to confronting the king because almost all of the other OT prophets got in a barrel of trouble for confronting a king. Read Heb 11.
But for us here is the fact that we have the authority of the word of God behind us when we confront others on clear biblical grounds, and we are to have the boldness to do so. We are speaking for the Lord.
2) Nathan retells the goodness of God to David with How could you do this thing? God has given you all your heart's desire and would have given more.
3) V. 8. I sure don't know why David would want more wives, but God would have given him what ever his heart would have desired. The Lord promises to give the desire of the heart to His faithful people.
4) Slain him with the sword of Ammon.. David himself did not do the murder, but he ordered it.
Notice that in this murder, Joab is only carrying out orders. Should he have rebelled against this order? His part in the murder of Uriah is not mentioned here by Nathan, nor is it mentioned in David's final charge to his son Solomon concerning Joab. He only follows orders, and evidently Joab is considered guiltless in the matter.
We live in a wicked day of the use of warfare to gain the desires of a few powerful men. God will not hold the motivators of the wars guiltless, but how much guilt is upon those fighting the wars to further the desires of the wicked?
5) Vs. 9, 10 Now we get down to the key of this passage and Nathan's confrontation with David. Nathan confronted David over sin; David had sinned, but the sin was not actually the adultery or murder. David's sin is that he despised the Lord. The way that he despised the Lord is by violating the commandment of the Lord.
David wrote many Psalms and hymns about his love for the law of the Lord, yet here the Lord says that David despised the commandment of the Lord. Obviously, it takes more than words to prove to God that we love His words. We prove our love for Him and His commandments by obeying them under all circumstances. David loved God's commandments until something better came along.
Keep this in mind: DAVID'S SIN WAS THAT HE DESPISED THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD; THEREFORE, HE DESPISED THE LORD HIMSELF.
Now, the Lord lists four judgments for despising Him by despising His commandments.
1) God's first judgment for despising God's commandment is that there will be a never-ending battle within his own house. the sword shall never depart.
Today there will always be a sword upon those who despise the commandments of God. Without the exaltation of the Prince of Peace, there will be no peace in a home or in a society. Turmoil is promised by God as His judgment for forsaking His commandments.
2) The second judgment against David's despising the commandment of the Lord is that evil will raise up from his own house. The evil will not be from other nations, but from his own house.
Again, the nation or people that despise the commandments of the Lord will always have evil against them out of their own house. This is why rebellion and revolution is so prevalent right here in America. The rebellion within the families and the riots in the streets are promised by God as His judgment against a people who turn from the commandments of God.
3) David's wives would be given to another in the sight of every one. David's secret sin would be practiced in the open.
This judgment is clearly seen today in the openness of immorality every where we look. What we are seeing practiced as open immorality today is only the thoughts of the heart coming out.
The pornographic video sales and rental is growing by leaps and bounds. Mrs. Fields would tell you that she is amazed at who rents the dirty movies there at the store where she works. People are professing to love God with their words, yet they despise the commandment of the Lord, they despise the Lord himself when the ignore His word concerting evil pictures and thoughts. (I had a woman who loved the Lord tell me one time that her husband, who is a professed Christian, snuck dirty books and videos into their house.)
Luke 12:1-3, David was promised that what he did in secret would be practiced in the open. What we are seeing paraded before us today in the form of open nudity is no more than God's judgment for people despising the commandments of the Lord.
4) The fourth result of David's despising of the Lord: the child will surely die..
We are in the midst of probably the greatest slaughter of innocent children in history. There is only one reason it is taking place: The commandments of the Lord are despised; God Himself is despised. God's judgment here against David's despising of the Lord is the death of an innocent child, and not only this child, but many children after this one.
It is not difficult at all to see all of these things taking place in our society. Why are they becoming so prevalent? Because they are part of the judgement of God against the despite of His commandments.
All of these things came to pass in David's house, as we will see as we proceed.
The sword.. David's children killed each other.
Evil against thee.. David's own son rebelled and tried to kill
him.
The child died.. probably the next day.
His wives were given to another.. Absolom did this evil deed.
As we follow the story on through, we see that his children's rebellion and murder of each other was only a result of David's despising of the Lord. David despised the commandments of the Lord in regards to his children: he refused to take a stand for God and against his kids. The boys were rotten, and it was no ones fault but David's. Neither Amnon nor Absolom were ever told by David their dad. It is amazing that David could be strong in warfare, but would not confront his own children to make them do right.
I really cannot think of any evil that has come into my life that I did not bring on myself by my own blindness. And, furthermore, what does happen happened for my good.
Would David have reaped the results of spoiling his kids anyway? Or was David's activity with Bathsheba and Uriah only an outgrowth of his lack of discipline in his own spirit and in his own home with his own kids? I am inclined to believe that David's sin with Uriah's wife was only an outgrowth of his failure in his home.
6) One last point from this section, vs. 1-12, Notice that Nathan does not tell David where the results will come from, or when they will come to pass. All Nathan tells his is be sure your sin will find you out.
That sin will meet us in public and point a finger at us and say, "He's the One.
"WHAT IF" David had trained his kids right? Interesting speculation and question.
"WHAT IF" David had not sinned here and still had his kids trained as he did?
We cannot answer "WHAT IFS." All we know in this matter is that it all worked together to fit God's plan and purpose.
We will look at David's confession and God's forgiveness next time
July 26, 1992
2 Sam #2
We saw that this chapter is divided thusly:
Vs. 1-6, Nathan's parable to David & David's response, which we saw last week.
Vs. 7-14, Nathan's confrontation of David concerning David's sin, & David's confession.
Vs. 13, 14 David confesses his sin and is pardoned by the Lord. David was an inspired writer of the word of God, he was a prophet.
This brings us to another point in this section. Actually a Question:
Why did David, or how could David hold out nine months at least without confessing these sins? During this time David couldn't pray or sing or write a Psalm. Ps 51 describes David during this lengthy period of time.
How could he excuse the terrible sins he had committed?
Could he not see that something was wrong.
I know many today who are the same way. Sin but no conviction. How can this be?? David was able to cover over his sin for better than 9 months, and God gave him plenty of time to repent.
Notice that a heart out of tune with the Lord in little things: David tarried at Jerusalem is open to major sins.
James 1:22; 4:17, gives us the answer to what happened to David.
David was not doing what he knew he should have been doing. He was at home while his army was fighting his battle. Therefore, he was open and blind (Deceived) to the next thing that came along. Adultery and murder was next, and he did not recognize it. Not even a man after God's own heart can escape the deception of not doing what he knows he should be doing according to the word of God.
As we see people go astray and seem to get harder in their commitment to their sin, we can probably place our finger on the point where they refused to do the word of God. The result is hardened in sin and getting deeper all the time.
Observe:
Gen 20:2, the Lord appeared to Abimelech the King of Gerar when he took Abraham's wife and protected Abimelech. In fact, God tells the King of Gerar that He kept the king from sinning. Why did the Lord protect Abimelech from sin in this same area, with another man's wife, and He did not protect David in the same situation?
The answer is clear, Gen 20:5, Abimelech was acting on the knowledge he had. He was under the impression that Sarah was Abraham's sister. If he would have known that she was his wife, he would not have taken her. David, on the other hand, was not acting on what he knew he should be doing. He blew it in one area and it blinded him in everything else.
David's tarrying at Jerusalem probably seemed like such a small thing that this man of God saw no problem with it even though he knew better. He knew he should have been on the battle field with Joab and the rest of God's people, v. 29. But he saw no harm in laying out this one time. He excused, rationalized or dismissed the small thing enough that he became hardened and could live with the results for better than 9 months.
James tells us though, that once we do not do what we know God wants us to do, we are then BLIND, DECEIVED and the bigger things can come along and we will fall for them.
It is the little sins (the staying in Jerusalem) that cause the big things.
It is the little foxes that spoil the vines.
It was the little thing here that blinded David to the big thing of adultery and murder.
I don't know how many people that I know of who are as blind as a bat to spiritual things (commit adultery against the Lord). They are blinded to major things, but it can be traced back to probably single or a series of small events in their life: they tarried at Jerusalem when they should have been carrying on a warfare for God against those who have reproached the Living God. The small event deceived them and they have been blind every since.
I really believe this happened to David here. David in this action only illustrates what James tries to tell us. We are blind to whatever sin the devil may throw our way as a temptation because we fail in the small areas that we know we should be doing.
The man after God's own heart takes a little thing for granted that the world, flesh and the devil might offer him. Then he is open to the big things that come along. Satan knows this. This is why it is the little things that are so dangerous. We lose our walk over the little things. We lose our grace & power to stand in the big areas when we fail to stand in the little unimportant things, He 12:15.
David failed of the grace of God to stand against the temptation of a beautiful naked woman in front of him because he failed to do what he knew was required of him by the Lord.
After all, Joab did not need him. Joab could fight the battle and win without David, so, in David's eyes, it was no big thing that he stayed home. But it cost him his grace to stand for godliness.
By waiting to bring this sin to David's attention, God gave him time to repent, but David is so blind he could not repent. Now, would this same curse have been on David's house if he had repented on his own?
Another point about v. 13,
Conviction of sin comes from the preaching of the word of God. Nathan proclaimed the word of God. The Spirit used that preaching to speak to David's hardened heart. David responds to the preaching of the word with, I have sinned.
My, how we need some good strong preaching of the law of God. Only the presentation of the word of God will convict of sin and bring repentance
Another point about v.13.
Judah said I have sinned in the matter of his daughter-in-law, and he forsook his sin, and became the ancestor of the Lord Jesus, the sinless One.
David said I have Sinned as soon as he was confronted with they sin, and became an ancestor of Christ, the sinless One.
Saul said I have sinned but Notice the difference between David and Saul. Both said I have sinned. When David said this, he made no excuses for his sin. It was a heart-felt statement of fact and casting himself upon the mercy of God.
Saul's I have sinned found in 1 Sam 15:24, was followed with, because I feared the people. He admitted sin but blamed his sin on others than turned right around and did it again. He died a miserable death and lost the throne for his children.
Do we blame our sin on others?
There is abundant pardon and grace for those who will confess and forsake, Pr 28:13, 14.
Another point about V. 13,
David deserved to die under the law just as one does today. But notice there was grace and mercy even in the OT. The law even in the OT only reveals the result of sin: death. No matter where we open the word of God, there is mercy and grace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The OT saints had mercy also for anyone who was willing to confess and forsake sin.
Thou shalt not die is the promise here for anyone who will confess and forsake sin. But many times there is still a high price to pay. Also, we should mention that the Lord is the only one who is permitted to show mercy when it comes to His law.
V. 14.
The child shall surely die. Children pay for the sins of the
parents. The enemies of God had the occasion to blaspheme so the
child died.
"See, David got away with it... You aren't fare Lord" The Lord showed that David did not get away with his sin even though it took a year or so to catch up with him.
August 2, 1992
2 Sam 12 #3
I titled this section, "David learns to fear the Lord."
Now, the third section of this chapter, Vs. 15-25, David's genuine contrition and submission before the Lord & God's acceptance of that contrition.
V. 15. Nathan departed.. and David met the Lord. He probably wrote Ps 51 here.
First, 1 Chron 3:5, David has four sons by Bathsheba. He is so grateful for the truth presented to him by Nathan that he names one of them Nathan. We find Nathan in the genealogy of Christ in Luke 3:31.
Question:
How do we respond in our heart when someone corrects us by the
word of God? I know that I have met some who profess to love the
Lord, yet I was fearful to confront them with anything of the
word of God. I felt certain that there would only be a bad confrontation
and they would never listen to me again. I have seen it happen
far to often.
Second, the child was very sick.
Evidently the child was sick for 7 days, v.18. It was a protracted
serious sickness in an innocent child because of its parent's
sin.
How many sickly, and dead, children are in society today for this very reason: sin in their parents?
Third, in God's mercy this result of David's sin took place quickly; the sickens only lasted 7 days. The warfare in David's house lasted for several generations. Actually, this child was the better off; the Lord could have allowed the child to grow up a helpless cripple as a continual reminder to its parents of their sin, but God took him quickly.
Fourth, we see that David's confession was genuine, and the Lord forgave him totally. Latter Nathan was born and placed in the line of Christ. The list in Mat lists Solomon; the list in Luke lists Nathan. We see that both Mary and Joseph could trace their linage back to David through Bathsheba.
Fifth, genuine repentance will bring total forgiveness, but only the grace of God can stop the results.
V. 16, Nathan went David about David's sin. Nathan delivers his message and goes home. David responds properly and takes his sin to the Lord. Here the man of war humbles himself before the Lord and prays for his child.
Observe:
At least two of the sons born after David's humility before the
Lord had a desire to serve the Lord. The ones before this had
no such desire,that we know of. Absolom was Rebellious, Amnon
was controlled by his passions and was a rapist, Adonijah was
a mess. Adonijah was David's fourth son, and his mother was Abigail,
2 Sam 3:4. Adonijah he tried to usurp the throne after David's
death because he was older than Solomon.
Did David's experience with the prophet Nathan and the death of the child teach David that he had better train his children better?
As far as the training of his children in the ways of the Lord, this experience here in v. 16, seems to have been a turning point in David's life. Evidently there are two things that result from the death of this child.
1) it is at this death of his child that David learned to
fear God.
2) this is where David decided to teach his children the fear
of the Lord. Pro 1:7 was written be a child of David who was born
after this experience with the prophet Nathan.
Maybe the problem was that David had never had the opportunity to see the "fearful" side of the Lord, and only regarded the Lord as a God of love and mercy. But now David sees the Lord in a light that he had never seen before: Just, righteous and holy. The Lord is a righteous judge to David here in this passage.
12:8, David had been faithful to the Lord, and the Lord had given him all of his desires. Because the Lord had never said no to David, he had never said no to his children up to this point, 12:13. Of course, as long as David was walking in obedience to the Lord, the Lord had no reason to be wrathful against him, so, evidently, David took God for granted and passes his attitude on to his children. Now he learns better.
This seems to be a major problem of the "Christian Society" today. We have not seen or experienced the righteous judgment of God, and the result is that we have replaced the "Fear of the Lord" with the love and mercy of the Lord. We have taught this generation the love of the Lord at the expense of teaching them the fear of the Lord.
The result of teaching only the love & mercy of God is
a generation of Absoloms (rebels), Amnons (controlled by lust
with no more respect for the opposite sex than a wild animal)
and Adonijah's (presumptuous, trying to claim what is not their's).
If we expect to have some Nathans and Solomons, we must learn
to fear God ourselves, then teach our children to fear God. The
reason the upcoming generation does not fear God is because the
parents do not fear the Lord. First the parents must learn, they
must teach their children that God does not look at sin lightly,
God will not allow sin to go unpunished and God will hold his
people responsible and accountable to Himself. David sinned against
God.
It took this situation with Bath and Nathan for David to learn these things, and to start teaching his children what he should have been teaching them all along. Read all the first chapter of Proverbs and see what David now decides to teach his children, Prov. 1:31. Furthermore, vs. 32, 33 describes Absolom and Amnon very well.
David learned that secret sin will be made public, and he taught this to his children from this time on. But to the ones born and raised before 2 San 12, Amnon, Absolom and Adonijah who were born and set in their ways before this, it was to late. Nathan told him that his chickens are going to come home to roost in them, and they did.
The parents of our day who have failed to train the fear of the Lord into their children are starting to reap some very sad effects in them. It is time for parents to learn to fear God.
I think the death of this child taught David to fear the Lord. It certainly got his attention. What will it take to get the attention of God's people today?
Vs. 16-23.
The passage reads like this:
1) We do not know how old the child is, but Nathan comes and speaks concerning David's sin. David repents.
2) Nathan departs, and when Nathan leaves, the Lord strikes the child with a terrible illness.
3) David goes to the Lord in prayer and fasting for the child, that the Lord, in His mercy, would see fit to spare the innocent child's life.
4) His cabinet members come to him and try to get him to eat. David refuses.
5) David continues his fasting and prayer for seven days, until the child dies.
6) Evidently David was separated from his household because he does not know the child dies. He sees the men of his household talking in whispers and afraid to tell David the sad news. They say among themselves that if he would spend 7 days fasting and praying for the child while the child was still alive, then he might do himself harm when he finds the child is dead.
7) David perceives that the child is dead, so he rises, cleans himself up goes into the house of the Lord to worship. He then goes to his own house and eats.
8) The men question why that now that the child is dead, he rises and carries on as normal, when, in their opinion, he should now be carrying on and mourning over the child's death.
9) David's answer is that he had cast himself upon the Lord's mercy and now that the child is dead, he might as well go on. The Lord has been faithful to His word.
Now, just a few points to conclude this section with:
I. He prays and prays, but the Lord takes the child anyway, according to the word of the Lord delivered by Nathan. The purpose of prayer is not to change the Lord's mind; rather, it is to claim the Lord's mercies.
II. David's response shows us that he had indeed placed the whole situation in the Lord's hands. He had truly submitted to the will and just judgment of the Lord.
III. As children of God, we are not to mourn as those who
have no hope. David had a justified hope that he would be reunited
with the child.
IV. Can we accept an answer to prayer like David does. No answer.
V. 24.
There seems to have been a period of time between v. 23 &
v. 24. V. 24, 25, seem to be inserted at this point simply as
a contrast between Solomon (peaceable), who the Lord loved, and
the first son who died because of the judgment of God.
1 Chron 3:5, David and Bath had 4 sons, and Solomon was the youngest; therefore, between v. 23 and v. 24 there must be at least 2 other sons born if the first one named in Chron. is the one that died.
Shimea= fame, rumor..
Shobab= Returning..
Nathan= giver
Solomon= peaceable.
The names are interesting. Let me speculate...
The first born, Shimea, was the one who died. He was a famous boy. There were rumors galore flying around about him. "Did you hear what the king did? Just add up the months. 7 months after Uriah is killed in battle and David marries his widow, the boy is born. Something is wrong." And they were right.
Then Shobab was born. God was dealing with david. His conscience was killing him. God was calling David to return to Himself, but David refused.
Then Nathan came to David. He pointed his finger at David and told him to get it right. David did and David found such peace and joy from confessing his sin that he named the next son Nathan, giver.
By confronting David with his sin, Nathan gave him peace after about 18 months of pain and turmoil.
Now, the next one, Solomon... Peaceable. David had peace with God, sins forgiven, fellowship restored. This one born maybe 30 months after David killed Uriah.
David had about 20 months or so of pure misery from the death of Uriah to the finger of Nathan. Probably more than that. 7 mo to first child, Shimea. 11 months to Shibab, then maybe Nathan came to him before Nathan was born, so probably 20-24 months here from Uraiah's death to Nathan's rebuke.
Again, only speculation, but according to 1 Chron 5, David had 4 sons by Bath, and the last one was Solomon, and the 4 names indicate a progression from the rumors flying about his first born, Shimea to Peach he found in the confessed sin before the Lord in Solomon.
V. 18, seventh day, probably after 7 days of illness.
Vs. 26-31 seem to fit in between Shimea and Nathan. These verses just don't sound like David who has enjoyed the mercy of the Lord after the birth of Solomon.
these actions are more like a man eaten up with guilt and bitterness. This is the city that David had killed Bath's husband and if you take V. 31 as the torture or cruelty as the commentators say, then it would be typical of a man away from the mercy of God. K&D says this verse indicates, speaks of torture of the enemy.
Is this verse typical of the torture that David was going through because he had kept his sin unconfessed?
Again speculation, but something to think about. David is tortured for a couple of years over his unconfessed sin. The boy appears to be 7 days old when he dies.
August 9, 1992
Some concluding thoughts about ch. 12
V. 14, Enemies of God the oportonity to blaspheme... this could well be living people who saw what was going on and said, "I though David loved God. Why hasn't he made this right?"
V. 16, David dispised the law of the Lord and the results come to pass. David responds to the results by fasting and all night prayer. I am afraid that we desire to escape the bad results of our spite of the law of God by fasting and all night prayer. Only we would get a prayer chain together. see my 2 sam file for this documentation.
V. 23, must go on. Cannot allow grief to hinder our progress for the Lord.
V. 24 Note that before this contrition and repentance before God, Bathsheba is called Uriah's wife; afther this time, she is called David's wife.
V. 24, Solomon, Peaceable. David confessed and repented of his sin and he had peace with God after his great sin with Uriah and his wife. But the child died and David's own house revolted against him.
Vs. 25, David's genuine contrition and submission before the Lord & God's acceptance of that contrition. Thus, the birth of Solomon, Peace with God. The Lord sends good news by Nathan also, not just bad news.
Vs. 26-31, David picks up where he left off before he got himself into the mess with Uriah's wife. He compleatly subdues Ammon.
V. 28, Joab has great concern for David's name. He was an extremely loyal, though probably unconverted, captian of David's army. This is probably why David kept him around.
V. 29, this victory is after the deal with Uriah's murder and after David's confession of his sin.
V. 30, the king of Ammon.. The would be the man from 10:1, the son of David's friend. Hanun was the son's name, and Nahash was the dad's name. The battle which Hanun started cost him his kingdom, and placed all of his people in servitude to David, v. 31.
V. 30, the King of kings, the Son of David will also have the crowns of kings of this earth delivered to Him. In fact, we will cast our crowns at His feet.