2 Samuel 12:1-15
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. 2The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3but 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.”
5David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7Then 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. 8I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9Why 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. 10Now, 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 on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ”
13Then 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. 14But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
15After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
David needed a wake-up call. He was no longer acting as the man who relied so much on God through his trials with King Saul, his encounter with Goliath, or even as the man who wrote loving, longing psalms to God. At this time in David’s life is where we meet Nathan.
Nathan was a trusted advisor to King David, a prophet whom David had relied on for spiritual guidance and words from God. Nathan didn’t directly come out and confront David about his sin, but instead, he awakened David’s moral awareness and shared a story that stirred David to anger. Only then does Nathan lay the truth bomb on David by saying, “You are that man!” (2 Samuel 12:7).
Have you ever had a similar wake-up call?
Nathan recounts to David all that God had done for him, and he assured David that God had pardoned him for his sin because of his true repentance. God will do the same for each of us as we truly repent of our sins. But like David, God’s grace and mercy does not shield us from the earthly consequences of our sins.