Wednesday 30th October
Read 2 Samuel 12:7-12
“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 all 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 shall never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.”
11 ‘This is what the Lord says: “Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.”’ (NIVUK)
The most dramatic judgment the other side of the cross in human history. The king through whom the world will be blessed is found guilty of murder (first) and adultery (second) and the law-prescribed penalty is just as David himself has declared – death.
The punishment, as always in Scripture, matches the crime perfectly. If death by sword was the fate for Uriah, then the sword will never depart from David’s house. Even the most righteous of his descendants (Josiah) would die by the sword. Second, stealing another man’s wife will result in David’s wives being stolen before his very eyes. A judgment fulfilled by David’s own children.
But the underlying sin is a failure to recognise the gifts graciously and freely bestowed upon him – the desire for more (v7-8). Like the original sin in the garden, it is a failure to trust that God desires to give good gifts to His people that results in desire triumphing over trust. This is ultimately what David acknowledges briefly (v13) and then more fully in Psalm 51. Whilst it may seem that Uriah and Bathsheba are those that are sinned against most grievously, ultimately it is failure to respect and honour God that sits beneath it all. Read Psalm 51 and meditate upon it today.
