Who was Nathan in the Bible?

The prophet, who held an influential position during the reigns of David and Solomon. He is first mentioned when David had in his heart to build a house to Jehovah. Nathan at first encouraged the proposition, but afterwards had a special message from God to direct David otherwise. It was Nathan who had to condemn David's conduct with respect to Bathsheba and her husband; he delicately brought the sin home to his conscience by means of a suited parable. He also took a prominent part in securing the throne for Solomon, 2 Sam. 7:2-17; 2 Sam. 12:1-25; 1 Kings 1:8-45; 1 Chr. 17:1-15; 2 Chr. 29:25; Ps. 51: title. He wrote a 'book' containing the Acts of David the king and of Solomon, which does not form a part of scripture. 1 Chr. 29:29; 2 Chr. 9:29.

However, he did not invite Nathan the prophet, a faithful man of God, nor Benaiah, a fully devoted servant of David, nor other mighty men similar to Benaiah, nor Solomon his brother (v.10). Why did he not invite these? Because he knew he could not count on their support. In fact, it was common knowledge that David had purposed that Solomon was to be king, but Adonijah seemed to think that David was now too old to enforce this choice, and that popular opinion would favor him. Sad blunder!

When Adonijah made the bold move of proclaiming himself as king, Nathan the prophet took a wise course. He advised Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, to immediately inform David that Adonijah had proclaimed himself king, in spite of the fact that David had sworn to Bathsheba that Solomon would be king (vs.11-13). Then, to confirm this to David, Nathan would come in with the same message (v.14), so that the urgency of the situation would be apparent to David.

This is sorrowfully experienced by David. Nathan, the prophet, had in earlier days been sent to David with words of approval and encouragement and all was in honour between them. But when David had sinned, the same Nathan is sent to him with words of terrible rebuke and conviction. (2 Sam. 7; 12.)

Joab, then, confers with Adonijah. The priest, too, is found necessary as well as the commander-in-chief, and they follow Adonijah and help him. "But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada," who was the true servant of the king's purposes, not Joab — Joab, had the name, the title, but Benaiah was the man that did the real work — "Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and Nathan the prophet," the man that was the interpreter of the mind of God — these, as well as "Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah." Adonijah might have his feast and invite all his brethren the king's sons! For this is another thing too that we have to observe. A departure from the mind of God is always apt to be successful at first. Every step of unfaithfulness has a great result in the world where there is ability, where there is the marshalling of all that would act upon the mind, for no doubt this was well calculated. Joab would influence a certain set. Abiathar the priest would have his religious name and reputation. And above all there were the king's sons — all of them save Solomon, and "all the men of Judah," as it is said, "the king's servants." It was a widespread, and it seemed, a prudently concocted rebellion. "But Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not." And there is just where faith can rest — on God's word. That was what gave the weight to Solomon; for there was nothing very particular known as to Solomon at this time, if indeed we leave God out. Yet that is really the root of all his blessing; for there is no vital blessing except where the call of God is. It matters not where his choice lies, the blessing of God is found, and the power of God too, with His election, and only there. And this was the very thing that was left out. No, it was this that irritated Adonijah; for naturally he had superior claims if the flesh was the rule and not God. The flesh may govern for a while in the world, but God must rule among God's people.

This then becomes known. The mother of Solomon goes to the aged king after conferring with the prophet; and there she showed that whatever might be her weakness her heart was right. She went to the one who, above all, could give the mind of God — to Nathan — the one that had himself reproved the king in the midst of his power, the one that had courage to speak for God whatever the consequence. She goes to Nathan. And allow me to say, beloved friends, as a matter of practical profit, we always show where our heart is by our confidence. Supposing a man is going wrong in his will. He is sure to take advice just in the very quarter where he ought not. He looks for advice where there will be weakness if he cannot count upon positive sanction — where at any rate there will be the feeblest protest, if not a measure of encouragement; for weakness is apt to lean on weakness. Whereas, where there is a single eye we are indeed conscious of our weakness, and ought to be; but if there is a single eye we want the will of God. "He that does the will of God abides for ever." Whatever is not the will of God perishes, and ought to perish, for what are we sanctified for if it be not to do the will of God? It was the very character of Christ; it was what all His life consisted of. You might sum it up in this one word, He came to do God's will. "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." There is no one thing that more unvaryingly describes Christ than that very thing. Not miracles; He did not always do miracles. He did miracles in a comparatively small compass of His life. He was not always working atonement. No greater mistake, and no more injury done to the atonement itself, than to confound it with what is not atoning. He was not always suffering either, still less was He suffering in the same way, even when He did suffer. But He was always doing the will of God.

In 2 Samuel 7 David is dwelling in his house: God's power had given him rest from all his enemies; his kingdom had been proclaimed; the ark was with him. Now in his affection for the Lord he desires to build Him a permanent place of rest. Could the ark still dwell “under curtains” in a temporary dwelling place, when David was living in a house of cedar, solid and well founded in its beauty? He tells Nathan the prophet of his desire. It is the desire of a godly heart, for he wanted to see the glory established in Israel. Nathan approves: “Go, do all that is in thine heart; for Jehovah is with thee” (v. 3).

Though David was piously occupied with God's rest in Israel, neither he nor the prophet knew the time that God had decreed for this. David ought not do what was in his heart; he must depend upon God and wait upon Him. Nathan could not trust in his gift as prophet to direct David. The king, despite his godliness, is mistaken; the prophet with all his light makes an error.

To an instance of this, furnished us in 2 Sam. 12, let us now turn. David had sinned in the matter of Uriah's wife, and was guilty before God of adultery and murder. It was the great blot on his life (1 Kings 15:5), and God could not pass it over. It must all come out to the light. So Nathan visited the king. How God's righteousness and God's mercy shine out. Righteousness necessitated the dealing with David on account of it; mercy moved God to send the prophet to the king respecting it. "The Lord sent Nathan to David." This was not the first time Nathan had been commissioned to visit David (2 Sam. 7), nor was it the last, as we shall see. But the service on which the prophet was now sent called, humanly speaking, for great tact. It was by no means an enviable one. David had evinced no sign of repentance. No expression of contrition, it is clear, had passed his lips. Months had elapsed, yet confession to God had not been made. One learns how a saint can fall, and how dull the conscience can become. Shall we point the finger at David? Could any do it, who had learnt about themselves? Should we do it with the apostolic admonition in remembrance, "Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12)? What are we? What should we do if we rushed into temptation? Let it be remarked too, ere we pass on, that it was God sent to David; it was not David seeking after God.

The prophet approached the king. The one who had the mind of God visited him, in whose hand God had placed the sword of judgment. Now face to face, the prophet of God confronting the minister of God (Rom. 13:4), with marvellous tact he leads on the king to pass judgment really on himself, unconscious, it would seem, as he did so, of the heinousness of his guilt. David's anger was kindled against the supposed perpetrator of such cruel injustice. He could be indignant at the conduct of another, oblivious of his own; but he must judge himself, ere grace could be accorded him. The sentence went forth from David, only for him to learn that the judge was the criminal. He was the guilty man; Uriah's wife was the one little ewe lamb; and now the secret history of Uriah's death stood out exposed to all the world. "The man that has done this thing shall surely die," said David. "Thou art the man," was Nathan's quick rejoinder. Uriah fell in battle; that all Israel knew; but the reason for it, a secret probably between Joab and David till then, now comes out. "Thou hast smitten Urijah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon" (ver. 9). The history of this iniquity stood disclosed. God had seen it; God remembered it; God would have David convicted of it. Convicted? Yes. Not to drive him to despair, but to lead him to repentance.

David was about 70 years old and extremely feeble. The strenuous life he had led, the exposures and hardships of his youth, the cares and anxieties of his reign, and the chastenings through which he passed on account of his great sin, and much else were responsible for this enfeebled condition. It is but another illustration of that rigid law, What a man soweth that shall he reap. It was a premature decay with the complete loss of natural heat. While the king was in this helpless condition Adonijah (My Lord is Jehovah) exalted himself to be king and like his unhappy brother Absalom he prepared chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. Like Absalom he also was of great physical beauty. There is a significant sentence which reveals the weakness of David towards his favorite children, a weakness which has borne its sad fruits in many families. "And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?" There had been no discipline in David's family; he had spared the rod. By right of primogeniture he thought of claiming the throne. However, he must have known that his younger brother Solomon had been selected by David to fill the throne after him. But Adonijah knew not the Lord nor was he subject to His will. In his selfish ambition he was upheld by Joab and Abiathar, the priest. No doubt but both of these men sought their own interests; Joab to continue in his position he held with David; Abiathar to get supremacy over Zadok his rival in the priesthood. But Zadok the priest, who ministered at Gibeon (1 Chron. 16:39), Benaiah, who had charge of the Cherethites and Pelethites (2 Sam. 8:18), Nathan, the faithful prophet, Shimei (not the one who cursed David), Rei and David's mighty men kept aloof from the revolt. They remained true to Jehovah and to His anointed. Then Adonijah made a sacrificial feast to give his self-exaltation a religious air. He invited all the king's sons, his brethren, and the men of Judah; but Nathan, Benaiah, David's mighty men and his brother Solomon were not called. It was meant to be his coronation. In this revolt, preceding the enthronement of God's king, Solomon, the king of peace, we have another foreshadowing of what will precede the reign of the Prince of Peace, our Lord. It seemed as if Adonijah might succeed. But Nathan, the prophet, begins to act. In agreement with the mother of Solomon the plan is made to discover what Adonijah had done to the aged King. Bath-sheba goes in first and after a while Nathan appeared to tell the King the same story he had heard from the lips of his wife. She reminded David of his oath, that Solomon her son was to be the successor to the throne, and after telling him of Adonijah's act, she appealed to him to proclaim now who was to sit upon the throne. She speaks to him repeatedly as "My lord the King." And when Nathan appeared before David he also said, "My lord O King." Some have gathered from this that aged David had become filled with the pride of life. However, the honour done to him may have been true reverence for the Lord's anointed King.

The Lord having given grace to David to subdue the nations surrounding Israel, it is understandable that David's thoughts turned to a serious consideration of what is due the God of Israel. Why should David enjoy a house of cedar while the ark of God was housed in a tent (v.2)? This is a case similar to the previous chapter, where David's godliness deceived him. Of course his godliness was commendable, but it is not to be depended on for guidance. A godly man, out of genuine desire for the glory of God, may do the wrong thing, just because he has not first sought God's direction. We must be constantly reminded that God's Word alone can be trusted. David had forgotten this in the way in which he first sought to bring up the ark to Jerusalem: now he forgets it in reference to having a permanent building prepared for the ark.

Nathan was no more careful than David in this matter, however. He told David to do all that was in his heart because the Lord was with him (v.3). Nathan too was depending too much on David's reputation for godliness. In general it was true that the Lord was with David. But Nathan ought to have advised him to seek God's special guidance for a matter so special as the building of a temple. Indeed, we needed this not only for large matters, but for those smaller too!

That night God spoke decisively to Nathan to tell him to completely change his message to David. He must tell David, "Would you built a house for Me to dwell in?" (v.5) Then He reminds him that ever since God brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt a tabernacle had been His dwelling (v.6). God had been virtually a Sojourner on earth. Did He not also expect His people to realize that earth is no lasting place of rest? Had He ever suggested to any one of all the leaders of Israel that they should build Him a permanent house (v.7)? If God had expressed Himself in this way, then certainly David would have been right to do it. But he had no word from God on which to act.

Nathan knew that David's confession was real. He immediately assured David that the Lord had put away his sin, and he would not die, as justice would demand. Yet, while forgiveness is full and free, this did not absolve David from suffering the governmental results of his sin. As well as the ensuing trouble in his own house, he was told by Nathan that because his sin gave occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child that had been born to Bathsheba would die. Nathan, as a true prophet, has delivered only the message from God, then he leaves David alone with God.

"And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man." Do not always trust people when they show indignation with vehemence. David even then could feel hotly enough about evil. Alas! there was no self-judgment, nor is there a single feature more terrible in the sin of David than the long time he gave himself up to it, apparently without a right feeling as to man, or exercise of conscience as to God; so that, even when it was plainly enough set parabolically before him, his anger was kindled only against another man's wrong. When Nathan came, David might well have had his ears open to know whether there was any word from God about such a sin as he had been guilty of; but not so. Let us not deceive ourselves, my brethren, or be deceived by others. The only thing that enables us to judge aright anything in others is self-judgment. If we are to see clearly the mote in a brother, let us not forget to take the beam out of our own eyes. David here stands as a solemn instance that he who is so quick to see sin in another may be utterly blind to his own grave and unjudged iniquity. Hence too he says quickly, "As Jehovah lives, the man that has done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus says Jehovah God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given to thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of Jehovah, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus says 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 to thy neighbour."

Mark the solemn principle of retribution in this instance, so habitually found in fact as in scripture. Our sin always gives the form of our chastening. "I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them to thy neighbour." And further, "Thou didst it secretly." Here comes in contrast, as before there was analogy, the one or the other characterising God's ways, as each would mark most impressively the deceitfulness of sin for man, and God's eternal abhorrence of it. "Thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against Jehovah. And Nathan said to David, Jehovah also has put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." He had sentenced himself, but God in every sense is greater. "Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, the child also that is born to thee shall surely die." Nevertheless of that very mother — of her who had been the wife of Uriah the Hittite — did the grace of God raise up the heir to the throne of Israel, whom He made His firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth and type of Christ in peaceful glory, as David had been in suffering and warlike power — the latter yet to be fulfilled. Truly the ways of God are wonderful. Here again we see, whatever may have been the sin of gaining her as the king did, the sovereign grace of God did not blot out the tie that was formed, but deigned out of that connection, when the sin was thoroughly detected and judged, to raise up the chosen son of David, who sets aside the others that might have pleaded a prior claim after the flesh.