12:1 God sends Nathan (a prophet) to David with a message. God will admonish David through parable. David has been unwilling to confront his transgressions, hiding his actions from nearly everyone around him, but he cannot hide anything from God. As a father, God's love is persistent, even in times of discipline. David has built walls around himself to protect him from his shame and guilt but through this parable, God is going to tear them down. Exposed, David will have to deal with the mess he has made. He will be forced to finally see his situation for what it actually is, rather than a successful cover-up.
12:2-4 Nathan's Parable:
“1 There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 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.”
In the metaphor, David is the rich man and Uriah is the poor man. Uriah did not have much compared to the king of Israel, but he did have a wife who was precious to him. David took all that Uriah had: his honor, his wife and his life.
Through alternate perspectives, God gives us a clearer picture of ourselves.
12:5-6 David does not yet understand that the parable relates to him. Hearing his own horrible actions portrayed in a parable, David is incensed by the injustice; he thinks that the man who stole should be put to death. Inadvertently, David accuses himself of having no pity. Moreover he believes that "the rich man" owes fourfold what he took.
12:7 Nathan reveals that David is the man in the parable. The veil is dropped. David is face to face with his actions and with God now. The ruse is over, God has seen everything and will not allow David to continue living a lie.
12:8 Nathan continues and tells David the message God has delivered. Essentially God has a heart to heart with David: God reminds David that they have been on a journey together his entire life. God has provided David will all that his heart has wanted. If David had only asked, God says, He would have given him even more. Instead, David neglected righteousness and his faith. Instead, David followed temptation and used deception and manipulation to claim what did not belong to him.
12:9 God states each wrong that David committed: murder, adultery, deception. David might lie to himself, we might lie to ourselves and to others, but we cannot lie to God. David might have thought he was acting cleverly but each detail was known by God. And God's question is: Why?
At some point, David began to have a crisis of spirit. He began to succumb to temptation. The straying from his faith culminated in actions that were totally against his own values and principles. He did not bring his troubles to God. He started pacing at night, trying to figure out ways to satisfy his desires. Once, he would have reached out to God. Once, he would have been focused, purposeful, tirelessly working the will of God rather than remaining at home while his army fought.
12:10 David welcomed God's discipline into his life as a young child. For most of his life, he did not need it. But he does now, and God is ready and willing to deal it out. The purpose being that God needs to allow the repercussions of his actions. There is always love and a safety net underneath God's discipline, but David will soon experience the consequences of hurting others.
David has a family, his actions greatly influence the manner in which they live their lives. He has an entire body of people who look up to him and rely on his sense of justice.
12:11-12 The way we choose to life sends a message to the people around us, to humanity and to God. By behaving in such a corrupt way, David basically proclaims that he is in support of such corruption. God therefore tells David that what he has done to Uriah will be done to him. David will have to personally experience the betrayal and injustice he committed against Uriah.
David hid his actions but God tells David that the betrayal against him will happen in broad daylight. It will be public knowledge. For some time, David wanted to pretend that what he did was acceptable. Well, if it's acceptable, why cloak it? This is a tough-love lesson and God implements it sharply.
We are told in scripture that our actions are an echo. We reap what we sow, Galatians 6:7. Life delivers back to us what we gave to it. This life is a hands-on classroom: we harvest what we plant and produce.
12:13-14 David finally confesses. All of the walls he put up shatter and he realizes the weight of what he has done. Nathan tells David that God has chosen to spare his life (our merciful God), but the discipline will not die either. David is to begin a journey of learning and redemption.
12:15-16 David and Bathsheba's child becomes ill. The lesson is that the product of deception and injustice is ailment. David himself spoke in 1 Samuel 24:13 that out of wicked comes wicked. We cannot live corruptly and expect it to yield goodness. God understands better than we do that life is the soul, not the body. Though it might seem cruel to us that the child is sick merely to teach David a lesson, God understands that the child's soul is unharmed.
12:17-18 On the ground and fasting, David pleads for his son's life but the child dies.
12:19 David did not properly mourn Uriah. He never confronted what it meant to have taken an innocent life. The death of David and Bathsheba's son forced David to realize the value of an innocent life. The unfairness of having taken one.
12:20 David reaches a point where he is ready to return to his faith. He washes himself, puts on clothes for prayer and worships in the house of the Lord. He is ready to spiritually cleanse himself.
This the most important moment we have in life. The moment when we confront the worst of ourselves and place it at the feet of God. The moment when we trust him with our truest, rawest, ugliest self. The moment when we have known the downward path of unrighteousness and choose to turn away from it. The journey away from corruption is an uphill effort; it can only be done with sincerity and persistence.
12:21-23 So exposed, God is able to enter and heal those wounds. David begins to eat again and the people around him are confused. David fasted while the child was alive because he was sacrificing himself to God on behalf of the child. Now that the child is gone, it is time for David to start ingesting the word of God again.
12:24-25 David and Bathsheba conceive another child. This child lives and is loved by God (this gives us an indication that this child has a naturally righteous heart). David and Bathsheba name their second son Solomon. But God names the baby boy Jedidiah, meaning: beloved of the Lord.
12:26-31 Finally, David returns to his God-given life purpose: he returns to the battlefield. He fights alongside his armies, the people of Israel. God placed David as a king to demolish the evil surrounding them, not to sit at home and acquire wives. God gives us life-work, rewarding and meaningful purpose while we are here. When we work hard for righteousness, righteousness works had for us. David begins rebuilding himself and his life and he did so by returning to the will and work of God.
