It was necessary for God to step in. David’s sin with Bathsheba became known, and many people suspected that he had planned Uriah’s death. The Lord was dishonored—He had exalted David, and David’s sin brought disgrace on His name. It tended to lower the standard of godliness in Israel, and to lessen in many minds the perception that sin is hateful.
Nathan the prophet was given a message of reproof for David. Though it was terrible in its severity, Nathan delivered the divine message with such heaven-born wisdom that it caught the sympathies of the king, aroused his conscience, and called from his own lips the sentence of death upon himself. The prophet told a story of wrongdoing and injustice that simply had to be made right.
“There were two men in one city,” he said, “one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 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. 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 took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
The king became angry. “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
Nathan fixed his eyes on the king, then solemnly declared, “You are the man! ... Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?” The guilty may try, as David had, to hide their crime from others, to bury the evil act forever from human sight, but “all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13).
Nathan declared: “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 of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house. ... Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. ... For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.”
The prophet’s rebuke touched David’s heart; conscience was awakened, and he saw how great his guilt was. With trembling lips he said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” David had committed a terrible sin against both Uriah and Bathsheba, but infinitely greater was his sin against God.
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