Lil’ Lamb | 2 Samuel 12:1-25

Today we’re going to continue to explore what forgiveness looks like through the life of King David, a man who wrote such beautiful things in the Bible and was so connected to God. He was known as a man after God’s own heart. They were friends, and yet David committed a grievous sin on top of another grievous sin. We’re just like that. We make terrible mistakes. We shatter our lives sometimes, and God comes and picks up the pieces and creates a beautiful mosaic out of the broken pieces of our lives. Let’s watch those pieces come together in 2 Samuel chapter 12.

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Transcription:

King David wrote a bunch of the most beautiful Psalms in the Bible, and he had skeletons in his closet just like we all do. I’m so thankful for Jesus who comes in and cleans out the skeletons in our closets. Welcome to the Bible for Busy People. I’m Erica, and today we’re going to continue to explore what forgiveness looks like. Picture yourself walking down a beach and you see a shell or a piece of sea glass or a stone, and you pick it up and you turn it over. We’re looking at grace and mercy like that together. And yes, today we’re looking at the life of King David, a man who wrote such beautiful things in the Bible who was so connected to God. He was known as a man after God’s own heart. They were friends, and yet David committed a grievous sin on top of another grievous sin. We’re just like that. We make terrible mistakes. We shatter our lives sometimes, and God comes and picks up the pieces and creates a beautiful mosaic out of the broken pieces of our lives. So I want to give you some cliff notes on David’s story before the prophet Nathan walks into the room and confronts King David, and he repents. So here’s what happened. Alright, David was in love with a woman named Bathsheba, who was not one of his wives. Bathsheba was married to a man named Uriah, a faithful, loyal soldier who was fighting on behalf of Israel for the king, for King David and King David slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and then had Uriah sent to the front lines in the battle where he was killed. There’s so much more to the story, but this is the Bible for Busy People, but that’s what happened. We pick up the story now in second Samuel chapter 12 verse one.

So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. 2 The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. 3 The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. 4 One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.” 5 David was furious. “As surely as the Lord lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! 6 He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. 9 Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. 10 From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own. 11 “This is what the Lord says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. 12 You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel.”David Confesses His Guilt13 Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. 14 Nevertheless, because you have shown utter contempt for the word of the Lord by doing this, your child will die.”

Yes, Bathsheba was pregnant after the affair she had with King David. Verse 15 now.

After Nathan returned to his home, the Lord sent a deadly illness to the child of David and Uriah’s wife. 16 David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground. 17 The elders of his household pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused. 18 Then on the seventh day the child died. David’s advisers were afraid to tell him. “He wouldn’t listen to reason while the child was ill,” they said. “What drastic thing will he do when we tell him the child is dead?” 19 When David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened. “Is the child dead?” he asked.“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.” 20 Then David got up from the ground, washed himself, put on lotions, and changed his clothes. He went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. After that, he returned to the palace and was served food and ate. 21 His advisers were amazed. “We don’t understand you,” they told him. “While the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the child is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again.” 22 David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.” 24 Then David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and slept with her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and David named him Solomon.

By the way, who would want to be one of the wisest men who ever lived?

The Lord loved the child 25 and sent word through Nathan the prophet that they should name him Jedidiah (which means “beloved of the Lord”), as the Lord had commanded.

With the Lord, there is always mercy. There may be consequences for the sins that you commit. I’ve experienced that in my own life. But what I’ve also experienced is Jesus picking up the broken pieces, the pieces of my life that I broke, and I’ve seen him turn them into a mosaic that took my breath away. In the last battle, the last of the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis there’s a wonderful scene where Aslan, the Christ figure in the stories comes to puzzle the donkey who’s made mistakes, and we don’t hear the conversation between the lion and the donkey, but we know that Aslan is speaking to the donkey, and at first, Puzzle’s, ears go down, they hang low, and then Aslan says something again and the ears come back up. And it’s a picture of the mercy and the grace that Jesus is willing to give you and I when we mess up. When we shatter our lives, he puts us back together with the glue of his grace and his mercy. It’s why he came and died on the cross, and it’s not like there won’t be cracks in us, but that is how the light shines through us. I believe with all of my heart, through the cracks of our mistakes, we can share about how God redeemed the mistakes we made. I believe that’s how he works. Hey, until next time, you are loved.

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