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. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 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.
“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.”
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
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. 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. 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. 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.’
“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. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
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. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”
David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”
He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. (2 Samuel 12:1-25 NIV)
When I was a kid, I loved this story of Nathan confronting David for his sin. It had nothing to do with theology. It was as simple as this: My name is Nathan. This story is as good as it gets in the Bible for anyone named Nathan! But not just that: My younger brother is named David. What are the chances? Growing up, it was great to know it’s Nathan’s job to tell David he’s wrong. That played out many times in our lives as kids. If there was ever a doubt about who of us was right and who was wrong, the Bible proves it pretty conclusively, doesn’t it? Nathan’s right!
But the Nathan in the Bible did a much better job than I ever did at helping David. Remember what David did? If you were here last week, you heard all about King David’s shocking sins: He lusted after a married women, slept with her, had her husband killed, and covered it up. And God knew. Our lesson last week ended like this: “The thing David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Samuel 11:27). God knew. But God didn’t give up on David. God still loved David. It’s called grace! Here’s proof: “The LORD sent Nathan to David.” God wasn’t done with King David yet!
God gave Nathan a wisdom that I never had growing up. Nathan didn’t just tell David, “You’re wrong!” That wouldn’t have gone over very well with the king. Instead, Nathan told a story, just like Jesus loved to tell parables. “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 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 a like a daughter to him.” Nathan drew David into the story. Don’t you want to hold that little lamb in your arms?
“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.” This isn’t hard to imagine here in Oklahoma, is it? Picture a big, beautiful ranch. New fences. A big ranch house. Barns. Guest houses. Cattle and horses and workers galore. But when that rancher has company he goes across the street to the old trailer, rips the little lamb right out of the arms of his poor neighbor, and butchers it for his guests. It makes you mad, doesn’t it? Talk about injustice!
“David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’” He’s right, isn’t he? That jerk he should pay for this! “Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” Wow. Have bolder words ever been said? Remember, he was talking to the king of Israel! Nathan didn’t hold back: “You are the man!” God had graciously given David everything, and what had David done? He had taken someone else’s wife. David condemned himself without knowing it: “The man who did this must die!” “You are the man!”
Here’s the irony: David was so caught up in his sin, he was blind to it. When you know what David had done and you hear Nathan’s story, it’s pretty easy to figure out, isn’t it? You’re not sitting there thinking, “I wonder who Nathan’s talking about?” It’s obvious: “He’s describing David!” But do you know whom it wasn’t obvious to? David. This is a scary thing. When you live a sinful lifestyle, it can get to the point where you don’t even see it anymore. When you’re blind to your sin. If you put a frog in a pot of water and start heating it up, he’ll slowly get used to it. He won’t realize he’s boiling to death. It’s scary how blind David was to his own sin.
So what sins are you blind to in your life? “Oh don’t worry, Pastor, that’s not me!” Not true! What sins am I so used to committing that I don’t even notice them anymore? Are you greedy? Are you a complainer? Are you easily angered? Are you selfish? Do you know who isn’t able to answer those questions? You. Because if you struggle with those sins, you wouldn’t know it. You wouldn’t admit it! We’re blind. We see other people’s sins so well. But we’re blind to our own. This is why everybody needs a Nathan! I don’t just say that because my name is Nathan. Like David, we all need someone to open our eyes to our sin. Everybody needs a Nathan!
By God’s grace, what Nathan said actually worked! “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.” Do you know what you call that? Repentance. That’s the goal. The goal of pointing out sin is repentance. To repent means to recognize your sin, turn away from it, and humbly look to God for forgiveness. We all need to repent all the time! David repented. Notice this about repentance: Repentance means no excuses. David didn’t say, “But all the other kings are doing it.” He said, “I have sinned against the LORD.” True repentance means no excuses.
That reminds me of my college basketball coach. He had a saying that has always stuck in my head. He would tell us players over and over again: “Don’t make excuses. Make the play!” Oh, how I hated hearing that. I was always good at coming up with excuses. Who isn’t, right? “The other guy dropped the pass!” And Coach would say, “Don’t make excuses. Make the play!” “I got fouled right on the arm, and the ref didn’t call it!” “Don’t make excuses. Make the play!” “He ran the wrong play. It’s not my fault!” “Don’t make excuses. Make the play!”
When we sin, we always have excuses too, don’t we? We like to ‘kind of’ apologize. “I’m sorry, but he deserved it.” Is that repentance? No. How about, “I’m sorry, but everybody’s doing it.” Nope. Or, “I’m sorry, but my parents didn’t teach me the right things.” Is that repentance? No! Repentance means no excuses. It means taking personal responsibility for my words and actions. That’s missing in our world today. That’s often missing in me today and in you today. That’s why we get mad when Nathans point out our sins. That’s why we make up so many pathetic excuses. But repentance means no excuses. David repented: “I have sinned against the LORD.”
And Nathan said, “I’ll go back and see what God says.” No, he didn’t. He said, “Shape up your life, and maybe God will give you a second chance.” No! Nathan said the most beautiful words in the Bible for any sinner like David and like you and me: “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” David had lusted and committed adultery and killed multiple people and covered it all up for at least nine months. And when he repented, God’s response was: “The LORD has taken away your sin.” It’s that amazing? Repentance means no excuses. And God’s forgiveness means no conditions. What did David have to do to earn God’s forgiveness? “Do this. Prove that. Make up for this…” No. Nothing. God’s forgiveness means no conditions.
In fact, Nathan speaks in the past tense. Did you catch that? He didn’t say: “Maybe God will forgive you.” He said, “The LORD has taken away your sin.” With God, forgiveness is a done deal. By God’s grace, every sin is forgiven even before it’s committed. Does that make sense? No, not at all. God’s grace doesn’t make sense. But this is true for you and me too. When Jesus died on the cross, he died for the sins of the whole world: Past sins, present sins, future sins. Jesus already forgave every sin that you will ever commit in your life. So that when we repent, what do the Nathans in our lives get to tell us right away? “The LORD has taken away your sin.”
That poor man’s ewe lamb wasn’t the last lamb taken and killed for someone else. The Lamb of God was killed to take away the sin of the world. Who was that? Jesus. Instead of putting us to death for our sins—as David deserved and we deserve—God put Jesus to death for our sins. He died our death. He paid our penalty. So that we’re forgiven—without conditions. So that we get to hear: “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” This is why we don’t have to lie or hide or pretend anymore. This is why we can take personal responsibility for our actions. Because Jesus has forgiven us! Repentance means no excuses: “I have sinned against the LORD.” God’s forgiveness means no conditions: “The LORD has taken away your sin.”
But there’s one more thing we need to learn. Even though David repented without any excuses, and even though God forgave him without any conditions, there were still consequences for David’s sin. One big one stood out immediately: David’s infant son would die. Even more, God said, “The sword will never depart from your house.” The mess David made of his family was going to have lasting effects. Three of his sons eventually were brutally murdered. David’s life would be full of sin’s consequences. I think you understand that. Even though you know God’s forgiveness, there are decisions in your past that still bring consequences in your life today.
Just remember this: None of that changes God’s forgiveness. The gospel convinces us that even as the consequences of sin impact our lives each day, God’s grace and forgiveness never leave us. Even when his infant son died, David worshiped God. How? He trusted God’s grace. Even when he saw mess after mess in his family, do you know what David always knew? God was with him. God loved him. God’s grace and forgiveness would never change. Like a man in jail can know he’s forgiven, even as he serves the rest of his sentence. Repentance means no excuses. Forgiveness means no conditions. God’s grace prepares us to face sin’s consequences.
This is why everybody needs a Nathan. Like David, we each need Christians who point out our sin and share God’s forgiveness. The Bible is full of proverbs about accepting criticism. “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice” (Proverbs 12:15). “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1). Are you good at that? Do you love being corrected? Not me. I get defensive. I made excuses. I don’t want to hear about my faults. Can you see how God’s Word changes that? If you don’t want to hear about your faults, you don’t want to hear about Jesus. If you’re willing to confess who you really are, you’ll see who Jesus really is. Our Savior! That’s why everybody needs a Nathan.
A few weeks ago, some people here in Tulsa heard their neighbor banging on their door in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t you hate that? Over and over, she banged on their door. They tried to ignore it, but she wouldn’t stop. Finally, they opened the door, ready to call the police. And she said, “Your house is on fire. You have to get out, now!” And it was. That annoying lady banging on their door saved their lives! Everybody needs a Nathan. When someone cares enough about you to point out your sin, don’t get mad at them. Thank God for his grace! Then repent without excuses. And trust in God’s forgiveness without conditions. Everybody needs a Nathan!
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