GUILTY AS CHARGED (2 SAMUEL 12:1-25)
A convicted felon, sentenced to death merely for stealing a horse, protested at the bar to the judge against the injustice of being condemned. He cried, “For it is very hard, my lord, to hang a poor man for stealing a horse.”
The judge answered, “Sir, you are not to be hanged for stealing a horse, but you are to be hanged that horses may not be stolen.”
It’s been said, “When someone gets something for nothing, someone else gets nothing for something.”
The law is a needed deterrent against sin and crime. In a just society, no one is above the law, not even the king, the president or the prime minister.
David, the man who is considered in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart”
(1 Sam 13:14), the greatest king in Israel’s history and the forefather of the Messiah, slipped and failed big time when he allowed success to get to his head. He was a pale semblance of his former self. The shepherd boy, the prayer warrior and the fearless leader had become a monster, an oppressor and a murderer. His moral courage, able leadership and godly principles were long gone, and he paid dearly for failing to uphold truth, justice and mercy.
Does sin pay? What does God expect of His children when they sin? Why is confession of sin necessary for forgiveness to begin?
People May Be Silent But God Speaks for Them
12:1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” (2 Sam 12:1-4)
A certain senator had a friend whose company he enjoyed because the man always argued with him. They would argue far into the night. The senator thoroughly enjoyed the intellectual simulation.
One day the friend needed a loan and the senator gladly granted it. From that moment on, however, their relationship changed. The friend no longer argued. Instead, he began to agree with everything the senator said.
After several weeks the exasperated senator, now thoroughly bored with the man’s company, blurted out: “Look, either start arguing with me again, for heaven’s sake, or pay me my money!” (Bits and Pieces 4/28/94)
The justice bells were silent, the truth was compromised and the courts were muted the day David Bathsheba brought to his house and made his wife (2 Sam 11:27). Tongues were wagging, heads were shaking, but for many months, no one dared to confront the king, pulled him aside and questioned his defiance of God’s commandments, his decision to execute Uriah or his determination to marry Bathsheba, until Nathan’s unexpected visit. Nathan turned the tables on David quick and early. David was the poor man who had become rich. In his early, hungry years, when David heard that Saul wanted him to be his son-in-law, he exclaimed the same Hebrew word for “poor” in verse 1: “I’m only a poor man and little known” (1 Sam 18:23). Now he was anything but poor or little known; he was the richest and the greatest. He was the top dog and the big shot, and not the underdog or the long shot anymore or sympathetic to the poor man’s plight. David had long ceased walking in the poor man’s shoes or drinking from a poor man’s cup.
The contrast between the rich and the poor couldn’t be any greater in Nathan’s story. The rich man did not merely have sheep, but sheep and cattle. He did not merely have a large number of them, but a very large number, or lots and lots of them. The poor man, however, did not even possess a full-grown ewe lamb, but a pint-sized ewe or female lamb, which he bought with his hard-earned savings (v 3). The word “little” is significant. It was too small even for temple sacrifice. The Cantonese say “Not enough to fill a plate.” The lamb was the poor man’s only major purchase, his most valued possession, his pride and life.
The lamb was like family to the poor man. The poor man did not throw his extra food to the lamb; they ate at the same time at the same table from the same plate, bowl, cup and saucer. The lamb did not sleep in his arms; she rested her head on his “chest,” or the word “bosom” in Hebrew.
The lamb was not fad or food, but family and fun to the poor man; not hobby to the man, but heir in the family; not animal, pet or houseguest, but company, child and cheer to him and his family. Further, the lamb had not spent a day outdoors at night, eating pet food or sleeping on hay.
Men May Have Their Secrets, But God Searches the Heart
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” (2 Sam 12:5-6)
Once upon a time a man decided to sneak into his neighbor’s fields and steal some wheat. “If I take just a little from each field, no one will notice,” he told himself, “but it will add up to a nice pile of wheat for me.” So he waited for the darkest night, when thick clouds lay over the moon, and he crept out of the house. He took his youngest daughter with him. “Daughter,” he whispered, “you must stand guard, and call out if anyone sees me.”
The man stole into the first field to begin reaping, and before long the child called out, “Father, someone sees you!” The man looked all around, but he saw no one, so he gathered his stolen wheat and moved on to a second field.
“Father, someone sees you!” the child cried again. The man stopped and looked all around, but once again he saw no one. He gathered more wheat, and moved to a third field.
A little while passed, and the daughter cried out, “Father, someone sees you!” Once more the man stopped his work and looked in every direction, but he saw no one at all, so he bundled his wheat and crept into the last field.
“Father someone sees you!” the child called again. The man stopped his reaping, looked all around, and once again saw no one. “Why in the world do you keep saying someone sees me?” he angrily asked his daughter. “I’ve looked everywhere, and I don’t see anyone.”
“Father,” murmured the child, “Someone sees you - from above.” (The Book of Virtues 604)
David dug his own grave, slept on the bed he made and hanged himself on his own rope when he took the words right out of Nathan’s mouth and said, “The man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity” (vv 5-6). The king was rebuked not for his lack of compassion, but the absence of it. Nathan indirectly accused David of having no sympathy, sorrow or shame in his heart. True, David felt nothing. He had the heart of a stone, the skin of an ox and the venom of a snake. God faulted David for doing worse what was illegal and immoral; it was intentional. David’s malice was inexcusable. Uriah the Hittite died of premeditated murder, far from home and without a fight, a burial or a clue. Uriah lived as a Hebrew but died like a dog in the land of the Ammonites. The plot was handled to perfection, executed with perfection and worked to perfection. Everything worked like clockwork, according to plan and to David’s advantage.
Things got slightly out of hand and some men were sacrificed with Uriah, but David did not ask about Uriah or his men’s welfare for fear of suspicion (2 Sam 11:25). Through it all, he did not feel a thing, blink an eye or lose any sleep. David thought only of himself. He thought he had no way out, but it was Uriah who had no way out. He thought that people would forget eventually, that the “thing” was already done and that Uriah was collateral damage.
Twice the Hebrew word “spared,” translated in NIV as “refrained” in verse 4 and “pity” in 6, and thrice the word “evil” (vv 9, 11, 18) appear in the text to reveal how vile David’s deeds were in the eyes of the Lord. David spared no chances to kill Uriah, spared no expenses to trick him and spared no thought of his whereabouts.
God couldn’t stand or stomach David’s sorry act of righteous anger. Three Hebrew words describe David’s anger - not just “anger” or the two words “anger kindled” or “great anger,” but “great anger kindled.” The only other similar language for expression of anger in the Bible was when God’s anger was greatly kindled (Num 11:10) against the Israelite families that were weeping at the door of Moses’ tent, triggering Moses’ wish for death (Num 11:15). At the moment when David blew his top, he was exposed as the world’s biggest hypocrite, playing God with such aplomb and giving such an Oscar performance.
God Might Be Stern in Judgment But Steadfast in Forgiveness
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” (2 Sam 12:7-14)
A wife went to the police station with her next-door neighbor to report that her husband was missing. The policeman asked for a description.
The wife said wistfully, “He’s 35 years old, 6 foot 4, has dark eyes, dark wavy hair, an athletic build, weighs 185 pounds, is soft-spoken, and is good to the children.”
The next-door neighbor protested: “Your husband is 5 foot 4, chubby, bald, has a big mouth, and is mean to your children.”
The wife replied, “Yes, but who wants him (a person like that) back?”
People may treat David with kid’s gloves and regard his behavior as child’s play or kingly perks; but not God. God slapped David with the worst possible charge, a seldom used but a carefully worded charge: to “despise the word of the Lord.” God wasn’t going to let David get away with pretension or murder. He charged David not with despising the little man and acting like a tyrant or betraying his soldier’s trust and losing his men’s confidence, but with despising the Lord’s word (v 9). The only two other verses that refer to the charge of “despising the Lord’s words” or “despising His words” in the Bible lead to death by stoning and captivity in exile.
The Mosaic law distinguished between the unintentional neglect of God’s commands, which was deemed forgivable (Num 15:22), and the intentional transgression of God’s word, which was deemed blasphemous (Num 15:30-31). The man committing intentional sin “despised the Lord’s words,” an act punishable by death (Num 15:36). Intentional sin was sin with the intention to mislead, to betray or to deceive.
The other reference to “despise His words” alludes to the captivity that was inescapable, impending and imminent as a result of their continuous rejection of God and his words (2 Chron 36:16).
Though David’s sin was against Uriah or Bathsheba, too, but ultimately his actions and attitude were nothing short of despising the Lord and His word. It was a slap to and a spit in the face of God, a slur to and a stain to the name of God, a scandal and a shock among God’s people.
David’s sin was intentional, willful and defiant and he should be cut off or stoned (Num 15:36). Even though God did not put or sentence David to death, He gave him what was worse than experiencing his own death, which was to see some of his loved ones suffer and die - child by child, family by family, year by year. Deceit, denial and destruction would consume, curse and collapse the king, his children and his throne. History would repeat itself, lie would beget lies and child would imitate parent.
David deserved death, but still the Lord had mercy on him. Divine judgment is redemptive and not repulsive, compassionate and not cruel, unpleasant and not unbearable. It is not pleasant but it is not ugly. God was more interested to make David a better person and king than make him a powerful or popular person and king.
Conclusion: God does not care if you are rich or poor, for your track record and past history or for your superiority or success in people’s eyes. He examines, scrutinizes and judges the heart. God disciplines us, not demean us. Man’s discipline can be vague, vindictive and vacillating. Man’s judgment may be condemning and destructive, but God’s judgment is corrective and constructive. How have you treated people? Do you feel for them? Do you have compassion for the weak, the poor, the unfortunate and the friendless?
Victor Yap
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