The Lord has taken away your sin

The Lord has taken away your sin

2 Sam 11-12
Key verse 12:13b
Introduction: ch 11-12 cover the story of David’s sin and God’s handling of his sin. Before we get into the details of the passages, we have to know few theological principles that understanding of these passages. 1. So far, God was with David and David did not falter in his trust in the Lord. In this trust, God established him as king of His people. So for God it was very important that what kind of king would sit on the throne of the kingdom for His people. Through the kind of king that God wanted, God planed to take care of His people. David was that king. This means that the kingdom that David governs is the kingdom that God wanted. 2. In this regard, the failure of David in whatever form would surely lead to the failure of the kingship [ as evidenced in the rest of the chapters of 2 Sam]. So in this perspective, sin of David must be understood. If one handles David’s sin as a personal failure, then it will certainly reduce God’s teaching to a mere individual ethics. 3. Since David was the recipient of God’s promise, his sin as well as God’s dealing with his sin must be understood in view of God’s promise. 4. Sin, repentance of sin, and forgiveness of sin appear in a most detailed manner for the first time in history. He survives from the sin that warrants death because of God’s mercy in His promise, because of God’s plan of salvation and because of his repentance. Like this he became the type of those who were to be saved from the wrath of God over sins of men.

1. David can enjoy the success [11:1-5]
David waited at Hebron for 7 years and then God established him the king of Israel. He built his palace in Jerusalem, a fortified city. He brought the ark of God. God gave him a promise to make his house lasting to eternity. With all these blessings, he could not ask for any more. In such spirit of jubilance, he went out to defeat many surrounding nations. Philistine that bothered Israel so long since she came to the Promised Land was defeated and subdued. Moabites , Hadadezer, his associates Arameans were defeated thoroughly. Tod, king of Hamath was happy to serve David as his lord. All most all of the surrounding nations were conquered except one, Ammonites. But David defeated even Ammonites and they were besieged by Israel army. Practically it was as good as the war was won and literally all enemies were under King David. God is with Israel and the nation Israel was about to be on the top of the every nations around her. The glory of the kingdom that David dreamed to achieve is right there, and long tensions and hardship is passing. All the more Joab the commander of his army is very shrewd and powerful. Since the last city of Ammonite is under siege, he can handle this final victory. Now I, David, can have a break. I can enjoy a little rest and a little pleasure as my mind strolls. In such mind set David left behind while all generals along with the whole army were at war against Ammonites.
In his palace, he idled himself long afternoon in his bed and got up in the evening. He went out and looked down on the beautiful city of Jerusalem. But there one woman was bathing half naked. Suddenly a traveler came and knocked on his door. It was a desire for woman. So he sent a man to find out who it was. It was a wife of Uriah, the Hittitie. Her name was Bathsheba, a daughter of Eliam. He knew Eliam and he knew of Uriah. He thought that he could afford her one night since he has power to take care of Uriah, the Hittite, a gentile, a powerless meek and humble man, according to his will and all men follow his commands. So David called her in and slept one night. This might have been just one night event that nobody knew except those who were directly involved. Since he is king, who would dare to point out his sin? This was what David wanted.

Here we can think two things. David was at the peak of his success. In this acme of his success, he felt that there is nothing wrong with taking a break and rest. Actually he needed such rest away from so many wars of past years or so.
Success is a poison pill for spiritual leaders. So much labor and so many hard ships finally bore the fruit. But this is the time when temptations come and becomes an easy prey for sinful desires.
Second David made a conscious decision to bring her after he found out the details of who she was and who her husband was. If she was the wife of Joab, would he do that? Highly unlikely! Uriah was just a humble Hittite! I can take advantage of his mean condition! Lust brings up reason to justify and to quench the thirst.

2. David covers up his sins [11:6-26]
A few months later, a message was delivered to David. I am pregnant! The besieged town of the Ammmonite town was still besieged. It was stale mate. Even Joab could not conquer this small fort. As soon as David heard that Bathsheba was with child, he brought Uriah in from the front line so as to cover up his illicit affair. But Unriah said to David,
v11 "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"
In his eyes it is very unconscionable thing to go home and sleep with his wife while the war was going on with the Ark of God. But this is what David did! David thought that he could ignore or even deceive or take advantage of this man just once. But from his mouth comes out truth. He did what ordinary soldier would not do.
His mind was hardened and he was determined to cover up his sin. He made Uriah drunken the next day. But Uriah still did not go to his home.
Next he hired Joab for murder. Joab have him killed in the front line of the war. In order to carry out David’s order to kill Uriah, several men of Israel were killed by the hands of Ammonites. But when heard the news, David comforted and even encouraged Joab. In this way David used deception, ruse, murder, and adultery. But on the surface, no one knew this except very few. To most of his staff and his generals, Uriah died in the war and David took legitimately took his wife Bathsheba. Even Bathsheba did not know this murder. Joab might have not known David’s adultery. Nobody knew the whole story except David! This could be true. I can commit sin that no one knows except the only one to whom I committed. But what does the word say! God was displeased! The living God knew all these. David could hide his sins from all men. But he could not hide this from God.
Here we can see few things. Just one night in the red light street ended up in deception, betrayal, rebellion and murder. Sin brings sin. It grows and grows. It eventually swallow up life itself. No one can hide his or her sin. Everywhere sin goes, it leaves its trace. All sin leads to death. No matter how small and how trivial it might be!
3. God was displeased… parable of Nathan[12:1-6]
David was hiding in himself. But God sent Nathan. Despite of his despicable sin and wickedness, God did not nail down his sentence of judgment. Nathan gave him a parable. There was a rich man who had many sheep and a poor man who had only one sheep. A traveler visited the rich man. In order to save his own lamb, he took the lamb from the poor man and killed it to serve the traveler. Simply speaking the rich man extorted the poor man for his own benefit. Exploitation! Extortion of the weak and the poor and the helpless! This is vile sin for a godly man!
As soon as David heard this, David showed his passion for justice for the poor. The rich man must die. He must pay for the poor four times! David was right.

Here it is very interesting because in this story, there was no adultery, no murder, no deception that David committed. For God, there was something more important than all these. It is something more than murder, more than adultery, more than deception. It is compromise of the trust relationship between David and God. God entrusted his people David’s hand. To do so God trained him under Saul. God blessed him in every way. God was so happy that he even gave his promise to make his house to inherit everlasting dynasty. God entrusted his people in David’s hand. 5:12 says; David knew that God blessed for the sake of his people Israel. David is the shepherd. This was the character that God was so happy about him. But David, seeing the weakness of Hitttite, exploited and took advantage of him to quench his lust. It was abuse of his power. It was betrayal of God’s trust on David. King must take of his people. His people were his sheep. Shepherding was his real job as king. How can a shepherd exploit his sheep? This was the essence of this parable. It is betrayal of God who set him up as king-shepherd and it is betrayal of his people who uphold him to be shepherd-king. The motive and the drive of this wickedness came by lust selfishness to quench his lust.
Also that the lust was the secondary importance is found in the fact that the traveler came and he had to serve. It is very benign designation on lust. Sexual desire comes any time when one sees a woman in beauty. It is like a traveler. But this must be controlled by godliness of mind and shepherd heart. We must know that shepherd heart and desire to exploit someone cannot coexist together! Lust, whether it is of money or of sexual desire, or it is of power always demand a scapegoat, which is invariably the weak and the helpless. The power God gave was not for exploitation but for shepherding.
When you see a weak and helpless, what you think about them? Do you think them as prey for my power, or source of money or an object of exploitation for my lust? No one of us should dare to make money by exploiting the weak and poor! No one of us should think that he can build power out of the weak and helpless! The politicians do and the king of this world do! When we see a weak and helpless woman, no one of us should think to exploit them for lust! Lust is like traveler. It comes anytime and anywhere. There is no advance notice. It comes esp. when one is not actively engage in war, what I mean spiritual warfare!
David has been a good shepherd until now. But to suit his lust, he just killed one of his sheep and ate it up. It is very heart breaking for God. It is an utter failure of shepherd king, David! This is what God is speaking through Nathan.

4. You are the man [7-12]
When Nathan saw David was well tuned for godly righteousness, Nathan turned that righteousness to David himself. You are the man! You are the man that deserves to die! You are the man must pay back four time over!

It is very heart breaking that one’s mind is so calloused by sin and self righteousness that he cannot hear the truth! David needed a man like Nathan so as to repent. He was desperately in need of a man who could rebuke with godly truth. If not, he could not come out of mire of his sin. How does he describe his mind after sinning and before his confession of sin. It is described in Ps 32:3-4. 3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Sin and guilty eats away our mind, our spirit and our body! It takes away our sanity and droves man crazy.
It is better to repent and it is better to do it sooner. The more you delay the more your life will be wasted and unproductive. Your life is consumed for nothing! No matter how much you justify, God’s sharp law cannot be dulled. Sin is sin no matter how you look at.
Actually this nation is under siege by sin. It is mourning, jostling and turning. Sin of lust is rampant through the way of porns. Sin of greedy for money is rampant. It is rampant even among the poor as a way of lottery. It is in the rich by the way of all kinds of financial scheme like Bernie Madoff. Lust for power and human glory is rampant. But among us, only God must be honored and glorified. This nation needs Nathans. Not just few but we needs so many because so many are infected by lust and they are everywhere! Students are no exceptions. As the nation suffers from this pandemic, so are the students. To enjoy the first found freedom, they experiments such lust and were taught that these were norm and just. But inwardly, like David, they are jostling sleepless nights in pain of meaninglessness and hopelessness.

There is one thing that we should not miss. When God pointed out his sin, he delivered his judgment at the same time. His judgments are delivered in two ways: the sword will never depart from your house because you despised me! Against the Hittite, whom he thought he could take advantage of, is against God. Since you took someone else’s wife, someone else will take your wife. This is God’s justice.

5. I have sinned against the Lord [13]
God was gracious and sent Nathan. When David heard this, what did he do?
‘I have sinned against the Lord!’
We have to know how difficult it is to admit and to confess sin. When David admitted his sin, he admitted that he deserved death and he was ready to give his life by death. Why? God judgment is real! Saul died! He was mutilated by Philistines! The sin he committed was so egregious that God’s anger over him is more than justified to kill him. Knowing fully God’s righteous judgment, he confessed his sin. This is repentance. Repentance is one’s decision to take all the penalties as it is due to him. Ps 32 David mentioned three things: I acknowledge my sin, did not cover up my iniquities and confess my transgressions.[32:5] I like to look at each of these in depth.
1st I sinned and I sinned against God. Sin is against God. To him we sin. If there is no God, there is no sin. Though David sinned against Uriah, and against many others around him, this does not constitute sin if God does not exist. Because of his holiness, because he created us, and because we stand before him and to him, we are sinners. We know that the world vehemently deny God and his authority because they hate to stand condemned before God of Holiness. By admitting sin, we honor God as the one to whom we owe our lives.
2nd. I sinned because of my iniquities. This means that I have great deficiency or wrongs within me. My being is wrong and unacceptable to God. Let my weakness known as it is. It is not just a minor mistake by chance. It is deeply rooted in my being. When David pleaded with God for forgiveness, he said in 51:5-6. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. The totality of depravity of man expressed itself in this way. Also this body of sin cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It must be renewed. In Rom 3, all men have sinned against God. Not even one is right.
3rd, sin is expressed against the law of God. David started with a simple lust. In Nathan’s parable it is called ‘traveler’—a benign and /or neutral in respect to sin and evil. But this desire progressed to flagrant violation of the law of God: adultery, murder, deception and stealing. Sin has always both—inner being as well as outward expression of that inner being. In inner being, man is corrupted and this corrupted nature is put into action—murder. So the law deals always with outward behavior of men. But this outward behavior can never be made right unless what man has inside of man is changed. So by and through the law, God deals the totality of human being. The Law says what a man is!

When David said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’, what went one in his mind? In Ps 51:4 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. God is holy and his judgment is right and I am ready to take judgment. Repentance is a mind that is ready to accept God’s judgment, even death and submitting himself to God’s authority and his justice. God is just! This is what David accepted. Repentance is expressed in various ways. But genuine repentance always leads one to accept God’s righteousness and his holiness.
When David repented from the bottom of his heart, what did God do?
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6. The Lord has taken away your sin [14-31]
Murderer’s due is death. So was to David. But God said that he has taken away David’s sin. He was not going to die. This is unique and different from the past. In the past, sin must be redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Sacrifice must follow for sins to be forgiven. But here immediately after confession of sin, i.e. repentance, God delivers forgiveness of sin. In Psalm 51, he pleads with God, saying that God is not delight in sacrifice or burnt offering. If that was God wanted these things, then he would bring it. If this was the plead that he made this confession of sin, or while he was praying on behalf of his son, the baby Bathsheba bore, then it is quite clear that what God wants is a contrite heart. This is a revolutionary event because God had said clearly that there is no blood and then no forgiveness. Sacrifice was a must for all to come to the Lord, no matter who they were. But here for the first time since the Law of Moses was given God declares his forgiveness. In the life of David, God showed his willing to forgive those who confess sins with true contrite heart. I mentioned that true repentance is a mind ready to accept the judgment of God. Likewise, the core of contrite heart is the will to honor God by taking God’s judgment whatever it may be. Here God’s grace is at work. What about God’s law? Does he nullifying the Law of Moses in this way?

Immediately after this God declares that the son born to you will die because David made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt.
Sin of the king that God raised brings utter contempt to the name of God, His justice, righteousness and His holiness. This becomes the prime target of enemies of God. Is God just? Is your God holy or is God still living? Does your God enjoy innocent blood? God detests such remarks of defamation. God must be honored as the God of justice and God of holiness that would not stand sin. So God demanded the life of David’s son.
As we see the events in the forth coming chapters of 2 Sam, David showed his love for Bathsheba to the end. This means that David loved her from the beginning and his love lasted to the end. The son born through her is also object of that love. In other word the son is the fruit of David’s love for Bathsheba. But God said that the son will die. Clearly it was God’s judgment. David’s sinned. But God forgives his sin and David would not die. But the son born will dies to honor God and His justice. For a week David pleaded with God for the sake of the baby. He did not eat and he cried out for the son. How could he bear the fact that he lives while the innocent son dies because of his sin. In his sorrow he wished he could go with his son. Nevertheless, the son died. God took away the life of the son!
Here God showed profound mercy for David and God’s justice in his true holiness. As you already have guessed, God provide a son to redeem David’s sin. This shows a glimpse of what God would do through His own son so as to forgive sins of human race.

Here two things are clear: contrite heart and God’s forgiveness of David while letting his own son dies in place of him. These two are the essentials in which God would provide life for all sinners. David was the king of God’s chosen. In his life God began this grace and made David’s life as a token of coming God’s grace in His only Son Jesus.

As soon as the son dies, David got up from his sorrow and grief and restored his normalcy of life. This is his belief in the Lord’s grace and his forgiveness. God showed his happiness on David by giving a son to Bathsheba again and gave even the name—Why was God so happy with David that he even gave a name for a son born through Bathsheba?
Once I saw a soap opera in which a husband was involved in the death of his wife’s brother. This was discovered, they could not live together. The reason? Whenever she saw her husband, the feelings of love and comfort was replaced by fear and doubt. She was constantly reminded of his ill intension against her brother. Sin is the barrier between persons. Unless sin is resolved, the relationship remains fragile.
How can David love Bathsheba even after all these? It is possible only when he admit that all these were his fault and his sin, not his wife Bathsheba, and that sin has been paid off completely and wholly. This was the reason God was happy with David and even gave the son born to Bathsheba a name Jedidiah [loved by the Lord]. In other word, God knew David’s thorough repentance and complete trust in the Lord for His forgiveness. Like this, David again honored God fully and the relationship between God and David was restored fully. This was the theme of God’s happiness—Jedidiah is the proof of such mind of David. If we take this in David’s perspective, Jedidiah is lasting emblem of God’s grace for David and Bathsheba.

As we noted, there was an egregious sin that could not be forgiven; adultery, murder, started by lack of shepherd heart and driven by lust. But there was also a thorough repentance with contrite heart. This is coupled by God’s grace that saved murderer’s life by forgiveness. Last but not the least important thing is the faith that believed in God’s forgiveness. Because of this David could continue as the king of the kingdom of God’s people. David is the king for all sinners because he was the first one who come into the grace of God and God’s will to accept such sinners and God attests his will to carry this kingdom through the life of, Jedidiah, Solomon, the most richly blessed king in history.

May God richly bless us sinners like David in His kingdom! Amen.