Context No. 2402 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 12:7-12: in context

7Nathan 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 out of the hand of Saul. 8I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. 9Why have you despised the LORD’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 10Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’ 11“This is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’”

The prophet Nathan has just told David a story about a rich man who stole a poor man's one beloved lamb, and David has flared with anger at the villain. Then Nathan turns the knife: you are the man. He recounts how God gave David the kingdom, his master's house, everything, and would have given more, and asks why David despised the LORD's word to take Uriah's wife and have Uriah killed.

Two things pierce here. The first is the naming: not sin in the abstract, but you are the man, the finger pointed straight. David had judged the parable's villain freely while blind to himself, until the story closed around him. The second is God's line, I would have added more. The sin was not just adultery and murder; it was distrust of a generous God, grasping in secret at what he was more than willing to give openly. Being named is the beginning of being healed.

Can I let the finger point at me by name, rather than condemning in others the very thing I excuse in myself?

Sources

2 Samuel 12:7: Nathan said to David, You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says.
2 Samuel 12:8: if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.
2 Samuel 12:9: Why have you despised the LORD's word, to do that which is evil in his sight?