Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Urijah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Nathan has just exposed David's adultery and his arranged killing of Uriah. Now the prophet moves from the charge to the sentence: a lasting mark on the king's family. Two questions follow. Why does God call this despising Him? And why does the sword stay in a house God is ready to pardon?
God weighs the sin against what He had already given David. Nathan first lists the throne, the rescue from Saul, the kingdom — and only then names the sin.
The Lord reminds David of all that He had done for him: "I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have given you much more" (vv. 7-8). The treasures of My grace were yours and you sinned in the presence of My love! "Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?" How had David despised it? God had heaped blessings on him and David had preferred to satisfy his lust!
The charge also sharpens: from despising God's word to despising God Himself. David worked hard to keep the affair out of human sight. That effort showed whose eyes he feared.
Notice, "You have despised Me." David had tried to hide his sin from public view by putting Uriah out of the way. He forgot the all-seeing eye of the Lord. He forgot too the honour of His holy name. Had he remembered the Lord at the moment when his own nature was speaking inside him, he would not have fallen into the trap. The sense of God's presence is the great safeguard against evil. But how often we are more influenced by the presence of other people than by the presence of God!
God shapes the sentence to match the crime, item for item.
He had killed Uriah with the sword of the children of Ammon — the sword should now never depart from his house. He had taken Uriah's wife — others should take his wives. He had done it secretly — but, said the Lord, I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. We shall find the sentence carried out in chapters 13:28-39; 16:21-22; 18:14.
David confesses, and God pardons him. The sword still stays. Darby sets the two side by side: God forgives the person, and God still governs His world.
David is pardoned, because he confesses his sin. But as to His government, God shows Himself inflexible. He spares the king — for he deserved death — yet He tells him that the sword will never depart out of his house. David's punishment also matches his sins.
The sentence ran on to the end of David's life, and the verse still calls Bathsheba the wife of Uriah. Yet this dealing has a limit.
Full and everlasting forgiveness does not free those who receive it from God's dealings with them in government. David had to experience that, right to the end of his life. The child born to him by Uriah's wife must die. (Bathsheba was still regarded in that light.) And the sword should never depart from his house. Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah were examples of that. Governmental dealing, however, ends with this life. God's favour to us, based on the sacrifice of Christ, lasts for ever.
The verse is not only about a king. Rossier turns the same word on the desires we quietly let into our own hearts.
Every natural heart has lusts that attract it. By "lusts" we do not mean only the defiling things of the world. We also mean "the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life" — pleasures, vanity, and ambition. These things find easy access into a Christian's heart. How many days and years often pass without our shutting the door to them! Every time we open the door to this visitor we are despising the Lord Himself.
- Despising — God weighs the sin against all He had already given David. To sin in the face of that love is to despise Him.
- Secrecy — David feared people's eyes more than God's. So God makes the judgment public.
- Sword — the punishment takes the shape of the sin: he killed by the sword, and the sword lodges in his house.
- Pardon — God forgives David and spares his life. In government He stays inflexible. Forgiveness and consequences are not the same thing.
- Limit — Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah fulfilled the word. But this kind of dealing ends with this life. God's favour, based on the sacrifice of Christ, lasts for ever.
Thus saith Jehovah Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
Nathan has just exposed David's sin, and God now names what will follow. Trouble will rise inside David's own family, and a neighbour will take his wives in the open. Two questions follow: how can a man God forgives still face a sentence, and why does the punishment match the crime so closely?
Pardon and sentence stand side by side. One writer sets two sounds together: mercy speaking, and something else moving behind it.
There, in that deep pit, the arrow of conviction reached his conscience. It drew out from his broken heart those penitent words: "I have sinned against the Lord." How were those words met? By the clear and ready response of that free grace in which our God always delights: "The Lord has put away your sin." This was absolute grace. God forgave David's sin completely. There can be no question about this. But the soothing words of grace fell on David's ears when he confessed his guilt. At the same time, the solemn wheels of government began to move in the distance. Mercy's tender hand had only just removed the guilt when "the sword" came out of its sheath to carry out the necessary judgment.
Notice how the trouble answers what David did. He took another man's wife in private; a neighbour would take his own wives in the open.
Note the solemn principle of retribution in this case, one found again and again in fact as in Scripture. Our sin always gives the form of our chastening... "You did it secretly." Here comes the contrast, as before there was the parallel. One or the other marks God's ways. Each shows in the strongest way how deceitful sin is for man, and how God hates it for ever.
The trouble did not come from outside. It grew inside David's own family, and it wore his own features.
Chastening arises for David from his own house. The uncontrolled evil in his own character reflects itself in the passions of his sons, in whom the power of heredity plainly shows itself... There is evil in our natures, but we are responsible to govern our natures, and grace and the power of God are stronger than these. Without the grace of God, or His restraining hand, nature will show itself. Here was the hound on the leash, ready to chase David.
David had hidden everything. God brought it all into daylight — "in the sight of this sun," as the verse says. The reason reached beyond David. His throne existed to show what God's rule looks like.
This was a very great sin: David committed it in secret; God punishes it in the sight of all Israel. If David did not know how to glorify God, nor how to keep a true testimony to the nature of God's kingdom while reigning in His name; if instead he falsified its character; then God Himself knows what to do. In the sight of all men He will trace those features again. He will do it through the chastisement He sends on the man who has so dishonoured Him.
When Nathan spoke, David did not yet know who the neighbour would be. One commentator weighs what David was not told.
What a shock it must have been when David heard that a neighbour of his would commit adultery with his wives! Not secretly, but with open contempt for David, and with the full knowledge of the people. How much more shocking it would have been if at this time the Lord had told him that the neighbour would be his own son (ch.16:21-22)! David had sinned in secret. He wanted to keep what he did from the people. But God would repay him in public, before them all.
Absalom later did this on Ahithophel's advice, a man set on ruining David. His plotting only carried out what God had said.
Ahithophel thought this would strengthen Absalom's hand. In fact he only worked out the fulfilment of God's word, advanced the goal of His ways, and hurried on the restoration of the man he meant to destroy. This wicked man will soon be caught in his own trap.
The consequences ran on for years, but they had a boundary that the forgiveness did not.
Full and everlasting forgiveness does not free those who receive it from God's dealings with them in government. David had to experience that, even to the end of his life... Governmental dealing, however, ends with this life. God's favour to us, based on the sacrifice of Christ, lasts for ever.
- Pardoned — God put away David's guilt as soon as he confessed, and that forgiveness was full and for ever.
- Patterned — the chastening takes the shape of the sin: a wife taken for a wife taken, a secret act answered in public.
- Personal — God raises the evil up "out of his own house": David's own uncontrolled nature comes back in his sons.
- Public — David's throne existed to show God's rule, so God restores that testimony in the sight of all Israel.
- Passing — the schemers only fulfilled God's word. This kind of government ends with this life; God's favour lasts for ever.
For thou didst [it] secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.
David committed his sin in secret. Nathan's closing words tell him the cover-up has failed where it counts. God saw it, and He will answer a hidden crime in the open.
The word "secretly" describes what David managed with people, not with God. One writer links this verse to Psalm 139 and God's all-seeing eye:
David's flagrant sin in the matter of Uriah the Hittite was committed in secret. But God knew the whole sordid story, and exposed his guilt to all Israel. (2 Sam. 12:12) The king said within himself, "Surely the darkness shall cover me," but he had to learn that the darkness could not hide from Jehovah, and he found, to his shame, that his secret sin was revealed in the light of the sun (Ps. 139:11-12).
A quiet rebuke would have spared the king's reputation. But God's name was tied to the crime, so the answer had to be public:
the whole matter must be exposed. Satan had caught his victim in a dreadful tangle of evil, and it must all be undone. The holiness of God's house must be kept at all cost. His name and truth must be fully vindicated. His servant must be beaten in view of the whole congregation — yes, "in the sight of the sun." To man's judgement it might seem wiser to hide the chastening of one who stood so high. But that is not God's way. By the judgement He carries out among His people, He will prove to every onlooker that He has no fellowship with evil.
More than one man's character was at stake. David reigned in God's name, so his correction itself puts God's kingdom on display:
Suppose David did not know how to glorify God. Suppose that, while reigning in His name, he did not keep a true testimony to the nature of God's kingdom, but falsified its character instead. Then God Himself knows how to retrace its features in the sight of all men, through the chastening He sends on the man who has so dishonoured Him.
The punishment is not random trouble. It takes its shape from the sin itself: where David chose the dark, God chooses daylight.
Notice the solemn principle of retribution in this case, so often found in fact as in Scripture. Our sin always gives the form of our chastening… And further, "You did it secretly." Here comes contrast, where before there was likeness. One or the other marks God's ways. Each shows in the strongest way how sin deceives man, and how God hates it forever.
The threat was not a figure of speech. It came true in David's own household, in the open, through his own son:
What a shock it must have been to David to hear that a neighbour of his would commit adultery with David's wives. It would not be secret. It would be done with open contempt for David, and the people would know all about it. How much more shocking if at this time the Lord had told him that the neighbour would be his own son (ch.16:21-22)! David had sinned secretly, wanting to keep his actions from the people. But God would repay him in public, before all the people (v.12). The Lord Jesus warned His disciples against hypocrisy. He told them, "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known" (Luke 12:1).
Verse 13 gives David immediate forgiveness. Verse 12 still stands. Both are true at once:
There, in that deep pit, the arrow of conviction reached his conscience. It drew from his broken heart those repentant words, "I have sinned against the Lord." How were those words met? By the clear and ready response of that free grace in which our God always delights: "The Lord has put away your sin." This was absolute grace. God forgave David's sin completely… Yet while the soothing words of grace fell on David's ears at his confession, the wheels of government were already turning, and their solemn sound came from the distance.
This verse is regularly read as a warning that God's reckoning need not wait for a future day:
It is not necessarily only in the day of judgment that this takes place: the Lord may deal with it now. "You did it secretly," says God through Nathan to David; "but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun."
- Secret — David hid the matter from people. God knew the whole story and exposed it to all Israel.
- Shape — the chastening is cut to fit the crime: what he took, another takes; what he did in the dark, God does in daylight.
- Sight — the open dealing guards God's name. Every onlooker sees that He has no fellowship with evil among His own people.
- Sword — the words came true inside David's own family, in the open. Jesus taught the same rule: nothing hidden stays hidden.
- Sequel — God forgave at once and in full. Yet His government still ran its course. Pardon and consequences are not the same thing.
And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against Jehovah. And Nathan said to David, Jehovah has also put away thy sin thou shalt not die.
David had hidden his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah until God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. This verse is the turning point: David confesses, and the answer comes at once — a pardon that does not cancel the consequences.
David's confession names the Lord. One writer marks the gap between being ashamed that people know and seeing that the act is evil before God.
Nathan speaks only one phrase, "You are the man," to convict David. David too says only one thing in God's presence: "I have sinned against the Lord." When a soul has seen this it has taken a tremendous step forward... Those we have offended may forgive our sins against them. We may make amends in some measure for the sins we commit against ourselves. But what can we say when we have sinned against the Lord? One person says, "I have sinned," because he is ashamed that men can see it. It is quite another thing when a person is convicted that what he has done is evil in the sight of the Lord.
Others in Scripture said the same words with no change of heart.
Pharaoh could say, "I have sinned this time," when the thunder and hail frightened him and he wanted them stopped. Yet he had not repented. He sinned still more and hardened his heart once the thunder stopped... Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned." But he revealed the state of his heart when he added, "Yet honor me now before the elders of my people." ... In none of these cases was there real repentance. David's case is quite different. He was not thinking about his reputation with men and how to save it. He saw and confessed what his guilt was before God.
The pardon is startling. Under the law, David's case had only one outcome.
"I have sinned against the Lord." A short, real, but solemn confession. It admits that he was in God's hands and deserved only death for his offences... God's mercy could reach a man guilty of blood. The law could not meet the case. It demanded David's death on two counts, adultery and murder. He could offer no sacrifice, for he had sinned deliberately and defiantly. There was nothing for him but the sovereign mercy of God. Could that mercy reach him? God did not leave him in doubt for a moment. The prophet did not have to go away and wait before he could assure him of pardon.
Nathan speaks in the past tense, not the future.
Having produced this thorough conviction of sin, God does not keep His poor guilty servant waiting. Again He speaks only one sentence to him: "The Lord also has put away your sin." He does not say the Lord will put it away. He says the Lord has put it away. He had dealt with His servant's sin beforehand. He had made provision, so that the sin was gone from David and no longer came up before God. This is what we find at the cross of Christ.
He received no sign, no sacrifice, and no second announcement — and he did not ask for one.
On what could the convicted man rest? On the word of God. He had nothing else. That word was spoken once and, as far as we read, never repeated. Does God have to speak twice? David did not ask that. He heard, and he rejoiced in the mercy of his God... He did not cross-examine the prophet to make sure there was no mistake... Many of us have acted very differently. Many still do — slow to receive the gospel message, slow to bow to the free proclamation of forgiveness.
The same visit brings pardon and announces the child's death. One writer names two principles at work.
Grace meets this confession, as he hears, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die." But grace and government are two different principles. The first says, "The Lord has put away your sin"; the second can only say, "The child who is born to you shall surely die" — for the wheels of God's governmental chariot never stop, and "whatever one sows, that will he also reap."
The pardon rests on what God has done, not on David.
"The Lord has put away your sin," the prophet declared. God, who alone could do it, had done it. David could not put it away; Nathan could not either. God could, and did. Then it could never be charged to David.
- Convicted — one phrase from Nathan, "You are the man," reached David's conscience.
- Confessed — David owned the sin as against the Lord; Pharaoh and Saul said the same words with unchanged hearts.
- Cleared — the law demanded his death twice over, and no sacrifice covered his case. Only sovereign mercy was left, and it came at once.
- Completed — Nathan says God has already put the sin away; the provision was made beforehand, and one writer points to the cross.
- Chastened — the pardon stood, but the child still died; grace and government run on different tracks.