ANNOUNCER: After King David’s sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Nathan confronts David by telling a heart wrenching story. It elevates David’s sense of justice, but then David finds out the story was about him. They have great discussion today. Hope you’ll stay tuned. This is Grace in Focus, a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is FaithAlone.org. We have thousands of articles there, and we’d love you to go there when you need to do some theological research. There are literally hundreds of articles that we’ve written and collected over the years, and they’re like a library. They’re free for you to read and research. Hope you’ll take advantage of that. Also on our website you can find a place to donate to our ministry, and we do appreciate that if you do. Once again, it is FaithAlone.org. 

And now with our discussion of the day, here are Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling. 

BOB: Philippe, I think we can finish up 2 Samuel. And in chapter 12, we see Nathan confronting David about him killing Uriah and him committing adultery. How does he do that? We might call it a parable that he uses. 

PHILIPPE: He uses the story of someone having just one little ewe lamb. 

BOB: As compared to a rich man who has a whole flock.

PHILIPPE: He has a whole herd, but a rich man desires for some reason that little ewe lamb and gets it. 

BOB: But when the man won’t give it away, he just takes it from him. 

PHILIPPE: Right. And it says, “And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” And David hears the story and he is furious.

BOB: He thinks this really happened.

PHILIPPE: Yeah, he thinks this really happened. And he says this man is deserving of death. He shall surely die after restoring fourfold for the lamb because he did this thing and he had no pity. In one of the great statements of Scripture, of the prophetic statements and Nathan said to David, you are the man. 

BOB: That’s powerful. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, Nathan’s pretty bold to say that. And then he brings God’s Word, I gave you your house, your wives and everything. And I would have given you so much more. All you had to do was ask, but you have done evil. You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword. And then the consequences: violence will not depart. The sword shall not depart from your house. Adversity will rise against you. And what you did in secret will be done in the sight of all concerning your wives. And we’ll see later on with Absalom and the concubines of David. 

BOB: And by the way, God didn’t cause that to happen. God is just prophesying, that is what’s going to happen. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, those are the natural consequences that will come. Those are not necessarily inflicted by His decree to happen. But those are what’s going to naturally unfold because of what David has opened up that will affect his household. 

BOB: Exactly. And he said, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel. And then David’s response is terrific. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, verse 13 again, another a great statement. You are the man and then David’s response, “I have sinned against the Lord.” 

BOB: And notice he doesn’t say, I have sinned against Uriah. I have sinned against Bathsheba, which are obviously true. But he sees that ultimately his sin was against the Lord God, Yahweh. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, our sin is violating God’s commandments, even though it’s shown in different ways that we do that. 

BOB: But now Nathan tells him you’re not going to die. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah, he follows up. The Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die.

BOB: Now “put away your sin, you shall not die,” doesn’t mean there are no consequences. It just means he is spared the death penalty. But there are going to be some consequences. 

PHILIPPE: So he will not die, will not suffer the death penalty. And that’s purely about God’s mercy and grace. But however, verse 14, because of this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the first consequence will be the child to be born, will die. And God takes the life of the child. 

BOB: Okay, so now in the second half of the book, if you chart this book in chapters 1 through 10, David and the kingdom are all being blessed. Things are better and better. They’re going up, up, up, up. Things look great. Like the stock market is hitting record highs. Then all of a sudden, chapter 11, you’ve got the sin with Bathsheba and you’ve got the sin with killing Uriah. First trying to cover it up and then when that doesn’t work, killing Uriah. And then chapter 12, he’s confronted by Nathan and the whole rest of the book are negative consequences. 

PHILIPPE: And that’s what I call, a hinge, a turning point with negative consequences now. 

BOB: And the first one is this boy dies. And in the grace of God, she has another son named Solomon. And in the grace of God, that son is going to become the one that fulfills the Davidic covenant. 

PHILIPPE: That’s the one that will build a temple. And that establishes a dynastic line that will continue on. 

BOB: Right. But there are lots of consequences and I thought we would just briefly touch on some of them. Now, one of them is one of David’s sons was a man named Amnon. And Amnon really desired his half-sister, Tamar. 

PHILIPPE: Now, David had a number of children by different wives. So, Tamar was a full sister to Absalom. 

BOB: And Absalom was a half-brother to Amnon. And his half-sister was Tamar. 

ANNOUNCER: Just jumping in here to make you aware of our magazine, Grace in Focus. It is a bi-monthly six issues per year, 48-page magazine, full color. And we want you to subscribe by emailing your name and your snail mail address to ges@faithalone.org. The subscription is free. It can be accessed electronically or it can be actually physically sent to you if you live in the lower 48 United States. That’s our Grace in Focus magazine. Send your name and snail mail address to ges@faithalone.org.

BOB: Now, Tamar tells him, look, David won’t withhold me from you. He would let you marry me. At least it seems like that. Isn’t that what she says?

PHILIPPE: Yes. She says, ask of my father. And he won’t. 

BOB: But don’t do this because this would be a great dishonor. Amnon goes ahead and lays with her. And then after he does. 

PHILIPPE: He despises her. 

BOB: Yeah. Which is really crazy, but that’s part of the problem with people who are involved in immorality. The result of him violating his half-sister is that Absalom takes revenge and kills Amnon. 

PHILIPPE: Yeah. Absalom tells his sister. No, I’ll deal with that in my good time. And it’s a while, but eventually he does. He kills his half-brother. 

BOB: But then that leads to Absalom fleeing and Absalom’s exiled for a time. 

PHILIPPE: Yes. And then Joab persuades David to bring him back to Jerusalem. But he doesn’t fully receive him back in fellowship. And that develops further resentment on the part of Absalom. 

BOB: And Absalom ends up rebelling and actually seizing the monarchy. In other words, there’s a time when David has to flee. David and his men flee. And Absalom is now setting himself up as king. It starts out with him just judging people. But then after a while, he seizes control of the throne. And then doesn’t he end up laying with David’s concubines? 

PHILIPPE: Yeah. And that’s a way of asserting the fact that he has taken over. And by sleeping with David’s concubines, I had been left behind just to secure the palace when David had to flee. And that’s to also make himself in the sight of the people, such that for David to come back will even be more difficult. 

BOB: Right. And he did this openly in fulfillment of what Nathan had said. Yes. Wasn’t it on the rooftop or whatever? 

PHILIPPE: Yeah. He was deliberately setting up tents on the rooftop and in the sight of the whole city, knowing that he was engaging in sexual intercourse with David’s concubines. And what David had done in secret with Bathsheba now, Absalom was going openly before all the people. 

BOB: But this then leads to, ultimately, Joab and the army coming after Absalom, Absalom being caught in a tree, and Absalom being speared to death, right? And David’s response, it’s remarkable. 

PHILIPPE: He grieves. He just cries out, “Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son.” 

BOB: And he wishes that he had died instead of Absalom. Which is bizarre because he wasn’t there to stop what went on between Amnon and Tamar. He wasn’t there when, after Absalom kills Ammon, he doesn’t immediately intervene and say, Okay, you’re the man, but confess your sin and God and I will forgive you. But he doesn’t do that. And then after the exile, when Joab convinces him to bring him back, he really isn’t showing him the kind of openness, like he’s truly accepted him back. And this ultimately leads to this rebellion and Absalom dies. And now he’s lamenting the death of Absalom. When Joab says, If you don’t stop this, you’re going to lose the whole kingdom. 

PHILIPPE: And now he does then respond, and he deals with his grief, and then he comes back to Jerusalem and re-establishes the nation, but such great loss. 

BOB: And then right near the end, David is tempted to number the people, and Joab says, Please don’t number the people, but he goes ahead and numbers the people, right? 

PHILIPPE: Yes, and that was indicative of the fact that he was looking away from the Lord and relying upon how great his strength was. 

BOB: And so the result was, God gave him three choices. You want three years, three months or three days. And the three days would be at the hands of the Lord. And he’s like, I’ll take the three days. But a plague starts going through Israel and they’re dying by the thousands. 

PHILIPPE: And then he sees the Angel of the Lord, perhaps a preincarnate Christ, with a sword, ready to do away with the city. And then of course he offers sacrifices. 

BOB: And by the way, he says, Araunah wants to give him the threshing floor. And he says, no, no. I won’t offer something to the Lord that cost me nothing, right? Which is a good thing. And then he buys the threshing floor. He offers the sacrifice and the plague stops. 

PHILIPPE: And then that site of the threshing floor will become the site of the temple that Solomon will build. So again, we see consequences. We see grace. A fulfillment of all of God’s words. 

BOB: I would encourage you to consider teaching 2 Samuel, or 1 and 2 Samuel in your home Bible study, in your Sunday school class. We’ve gone through a whole lot of incidents here. Each one of these would be a good sermon in themselves or a good lesson in themselves. 

PHILIPPE: And the Grace Evangelical Commentary will provide a good overview and a good development that can be the basis of a lesson or a sermon. 

BOB: And it should be coming out, Lord willing, in May of 2027. So we look forward to that. Please pray for this process, as Philippe and Ken Yates and I are working on that. Pray that it goes well. And in the meantime, let’s all keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: We invite you to check out our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday five minute YouTube videos at YouTube Grace Evangelical Society. You will love the content and learn a lot. Maybe you’ve got a question or comment or feedback. If so, please send us a message. Here’s our email address: it’s radio@faithalone.org, that’s radio@faithalone.org. Please make sure your question is as succinct and clear as possible, that would be a great big help.

On our next episode: why do we have to believe to be saved? Please come back and join us again. In the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.