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Scott's Reference Library
2 Samuel 11:26-12:10,13-15
Sunday Between June 12 and 18 (Proper 6) C (First Reading) June 14, 1998
2 Samuel 11:26-12:10
When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. [27] After the
time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and
bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
[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."
[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."
[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.'
2 Samuel 12:13-15
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."
[15] After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to
David, and he became ill.
(NIV)
2 Samuel 11:14-27 (Uriah murdered)
Adulteries often occasion murders, and one wickedness is sought to be covered by another. The beginnings of sin are much to be dreaded; for who knows where they will end? Can a real believer ever tread this path? Can such a person be indeed a child of God? Though grace be not lost in such an awful case, the assurance and consolation of it must be suspended. All David’s life, spirituality, and comfort in religion, we may be sure were lost. No man in such a case can have evidence to be satisfied that he is a believer. The higher a man’s confidence is, who has sunk in wickedness, the greater his presumption and hypocrisy. Let not any one who resembles David in nothing but his transgressions, bolster up his confidence with this example. Let him follow David in his humiliation, repentance, and his other eminent graces, before he thinks himself only a backslider, and not a hypocrite. Let no opposer of the truth say, These are the fruits of faith! No; they are the effects of corrupt nature. Let us all watch against the beginnings of self-indulgence, and keep at the utmost distance from all evil. But with the Lord there is mercy and plenteous redemption. He will cast out no humble, penitent believer; nor will he suffer Satan to pluck his sheep out of his hand. Yet the Lord will recover his people, in such a way as will mark his abhorrence of their crimes, to hinder all who regard his word from abusing the encouragements of his mercy.
2 Samuel 12:1-14 (Nathan’s parable-David confesses his sin)
God will not suffer his people to lie still in sin. By this parable Nathan drew from David a sentence against himself. Great need there is of prudence in giving reproofs. In his application, he was faithful. He says in plain terms, Thou art the man. God shows how much he hates sin, even in his own people; and wherever he finds it, he will not let it go unpunished. David says not a word to excuse himself or make light of his sin, but freely owns it. When David said, I have sinned, and Nathan perceived that he was a true penitent, he assured him his sin was forgiven. Thou shalt not die: that is, not die eternally, nor be for ever put away from God, as thou wouldest have been, if thou hadst not put away the sin. Though thou shalt all thy days be chastened of the Lord, yet thou shalt not be condemned with the world. There is this great evil in the sins of those who profess religion and relation to God, that they furnish the enemies of God and religion with matter for reproach and blasphemy. And it appears from David’s case, that even where pardon is obtained, the Lord will visit the transgression of his people with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. For one momentary gratification of a vile lust, David had to endure many days and years of extreme distress.
2 Samuel 12:15-25 (The birth of Solomon)
David now penned the 51st Psalm, in which, though he had been assured that his sin was pardoned, he prays earnestly for pardon, and greatly laments his sin. He was willing to bear the shame of it, to have it ever before him, to be continually upbraided with it. God gives us leave to be earnest with him in prayer for particular blessings, from trust in his power and general mercy, though we have no particular promise to build upon. David patiently submitted to the will of God in the death of one child, and God made up the loss to his advantage, in the birth of another. The way to have creature comforts continued or restored, or the loss made up some other way, is cheerfully to resign them to God. God, by his grace, particularly owned and favoured that son, and ordered him to be called Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord. Our prayers for our children are graciously and as fully answered when some of them die in their infancy, for they are well taken care of, and when others live, "beloved of the Lord."
(Matthew Henry Concise Commentary)