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.