Israel’s Experience With Human Kings” Series

His blood pressure rises. His pulse rate shoots up. He is really upset. "Then David's said to Nathan, 'As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.'" (II Samuel 12:5-6)

Nathan knows David well enough to know this will not go unpunished. When David passed judgment, he was just keeping what the law demanded. The Bible says in Exodus 22:1, "If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep." (Exodus 22:1)

David wants the man who did this to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the O.T. law. …….Just like a wide-mouthed bass seeing that big juicy worm, David bites hook, line and sinker. With four words, Nathan pulled the line and David found himself hooked. "You are the man!"

David had passed judgment on himself. David thought he was looking through a window, but he was actually looking in a mirror. He was "The Man In The Mirror."

Under the O.T. Jewish law, when you committed adultery, you were to be stoned to death. When you murdered someone, you were to be killed. It was God who spared David’s life. God’s grace saved him. We know God’s grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus …”for it is by grace, through faith that we are saved”, not by our good works.

Because David had seen to it that Uriah had been killed with violence; God through Nathan tells David that violence would never depart from his family. As we will see later, his sin paralyzed David when it came to dealing with sin in the lives of his children. The knowledge of his own sins caused him to do nothing about the sins of his sons.

II Samuel 12:9-14

Remember the parable? Lamb #1…the baby born to Bathsheba and David…died. V 15

LAMB #2. DAVID’S SON AMNON

After Amnon had violated his sister Tamar, Absalom purposed to kill his brother. Two years would pass before he would accomplish his purpose. Absalom had his brother killed…. All David did was exile Absalom from the kingdom for 2 years.

LAMB #3. DAVID’S SON ABSALOM

Absalom later leads a conspiracy against David. His rebellion would end tragically. David’s forces gained a great victory over the insurgents led by Absalom. In fleeing, Absalom was caught by his hair in a large oak tree. A man happened to see Absalom helplessly hanging there and Joab had him killed.

LAMB #4. DAVID’S SON ADONIJAH (Absalom’s younger brother).

When David lay gravely ill. His son Adonijah, seeing his father at the point of death, took advantage of the situation and was in the process of having himself proclaimed king. Bathsheba realizing the extreme gravity of the situation went to David and requested him to name her son Solomon as king, which David did.

Once established on the throne of Israel, Solomon ordered the death of his brother Adonijah. David’s prediction. David’s oath resulted in the death of 4 sons in this “Game of Thrones.”