2 Sam 11–12 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, God made a covenant with David: “Your throne will be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16). In this lesson, the king who received that promise commits the greatest sin of his life.
At the time when kings go out to battle, David stays in Jerusalem. From the roof of the palace he sees a woman bathing. He asks who she is and learns she is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. He sends for her and lies with her, and she conceives. David calls Uriah back from the army and tells him to go home, but Uriah does not go home. So David writes to Joab to put Uriah where the fighting is fiercest, and Uriah is killed. When the mourning is over, David brings her into his house, and she bears him a son. The chapter ends by saying that what David had done displeased the LORD. (2 Sam 11)
1The LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city: the one rich, and the other poor.
2The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
3but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him.
4A traveler came to the rich man, and he didn’t want to take of his own flock and of his own herd to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
5David’s anger burned hot against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die!
6He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity!”
7Nathan 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 out of the hand of Saul.
8I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.
9Why have you despised the LORD’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
10Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’
11“This is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
12For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’”
13David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die.
14However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the LORD’s enemies to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you will surely die.”
15Then Nathan departed to his house. The LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he was very sick.
The child is sick. David fasts and lies all night on the ground, pleading with God. On the seventh day the child dies. Later Bathsheba bears another son, and he is named Solomon. (vv. 16–25)
To read it all: 2 Samuel 11–12.
The king gives the orders. “At the return of the year, at the time when kings go out … David stayed at Jerusalem” (2 Sam 11:1). Then the text records it step by step: he sees, he sends to ask, and “David sent messengers, and took her” (2 Sam 11:4). At every step, it is the king giving the orders. The only words of Bathsheba the text records are “I am with child” (2 Sam 11:5). The text does not tell us what she was thinking. The one God later sends Nathan to rebuke is David.
Uriah. David tells Uriah to go home, and Uriah does not go. He says, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents … Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife?” (2 Sam 11:11). So David writes a letter to Joab to send Uriah where the fighting is fiercest, and he “sent it by the hand of Uriah” (2 Sam 11:14).
Nathan’s story. “The LORD sent Nathan to David” (v. 1). Nathan does not begin with an accusation. He tells a story about a little ewe lamb. David is furious: “The man who has done this deserves to die!” (v. 5). He judges quickly and harshly. The man he is judging is himself; he just doesn’t know it yet.
You are the man. Nathan says, “You are the man!” (v. 7). What he says next on God’s behalf is not first the sin, but grace: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul” (v. 7); “if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things” (v. 8). Only then does he ask, “Why have you despised the LORD’s word” (v. 9). David did not take because he lacked anything. Twice the word used is ‘despised’ (vv. 9, 10).
I have sinned against the LORD. David makes no excuse. He says just one sentence: “I have sinned against the LORD” (v. 13). Nathan answers at once: “The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die” (v. 13). The heading of Psalm 51 says it is “A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him” (Ps 51:1).
Forgiveness is real, and so are the consequences. The sin was put away; and God also said, “the sword will never depart from your house” (v. 10), and “the child also who is born to you will surely die” (v. 14). The child was sick for seven days; David fasted and pleaded, and on the seventh day the child died (2 Sam 12:16–18). The only reason the text gives is that one sentence in verse 14, and it explains no further. In the end David said, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam 12:23). Forgiveness did not make the consequences disappear, and the consequences did not cancel the forgiveness.
God did not let go. Later Bathsheba bore Solomon, and the text says, “The LORD loved him” (2 Sam 12:24). God did not leave a family that had sinned this greatly.
God made David king, but the king was still under God’s word. God told David, “For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun” (v. 12).
In Israel, when the king sinned, God sent someone to find him. The prophet Nathan dared to stand before the king and say, “You are the man!” (v. 7).
Perhaps there is something in your heart too, something done in secret. This lesson is not here to shame you. God sent Nathan to bring David back. Forgiveness is real; sometimes the consequences are real too, and you can ask God to face them with you.
This week: Find a quiet moment and read Psalm 51. Then write one sentence to God in your own words. You don’t need to show it to anyone.
Paul quotes David: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered” (Rom 4:7). Paul says David is speaking of “the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works” (Rom 4:6).
In the first chapter of the New Testament, Jesus’ genealogy says: “David the king became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife” (Matt 1:6). The genealogy records it plainly. Jesus is the one who came from a family like this.
Scripture: World English Bible.