Nathan the prophet confronts David by parable. Note when one in a weak position like a prophet, confronts power, king, he uses parable. Jesus does the same thing in Matthew when the religious leaders seek to kill him Mat 12:13-14 Jesus has a tactical change to parables in Mat 13.13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, whole like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how to destroy him. After this incident, parable of the sowers. RSV
VII. DIFFERENCE TO SAUL, David says, “I have sinned.” David pleads for the same mercy that God revealed to Moses Ex 34:5-7[1]
[He allows himself to feel the shame, does not make a quick excuse, made aware through storytelling, first reaction to admit his wrong.]
5 And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
The child conceived from this union dies, despite David’s prayer and fasting. But another son by Bathsheba will inherit David’s throne and build the Temple. Solomon
Consequence of sin.
VIII. David’s kingdom not stripped from him for his murderous sin, but the sword never departed from it. Wis 11:16 “that they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins.”
Amnon, David’s first-born lusts after his half sister Tamar. Feigning illness, Amnon asks David to send Tamar to care for him. When Tamar arrives, Amnon rapes her at his house.
David takes no action against this outrage, which then triggers Absalom, Tamar’s brother to plot revenge against both Amnon and David. Absalom kills Amon and will mount a rebellion against David.
Absalom will sleep with David’s concubines on the palace rooftop as a public and permanent break with his father David. David meanwhile is cast into exile, traveling east out of the Promised Land.
Joab, the commander who had Uriah killed, will eventually confront Absalom and kill him in cold blood against David’s command.
Truly the sword does not depart from David’s house.
‘Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ (2 Sam 12:10 ESV)
NB few of these details are mentioned in the Psalm 51. Sometimes what the Scriptures don’t say is more telling than what they do.
[Remember reality of consequence, Mercy of the Lord amazing, but not free from what sins produces. Awareness of death that sin brings. Don’t gloss over it. May think not a big deal but death attached.]
[1] Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins, Walking with God a Journey through the Bible (Ascension Press: West Chester PA 2010) 152-155
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