v 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.
So there you have it – the stark reality of lust, adultery, lies, murder and perhaps worst of all ‘you despised the word of the Lord’ announces Nathan. It makes grim reading doesn’t it!
Spare a thought today for Nathan and his part in this sorry tale. I wonder if he was shaking in his sandals when he went to confront David. One quick order from David and Nathan could have been silenced too and the whole episode swept under the carpet. But there is a gentle and beguiling parable from Nathan that touches David’s conscience before the direct confrontation. This was not a hard-nosed accusation by Nathan; he moved David along the pathway from guilty conscience to acknowledgment of his sin. Later in this chapter (v 25) Nathan is described as a Prophet; not necessarily one who foretells events, but rather declares what God has said. Back in 2 Samuel 7:17 we again find Nathan reporting to David on what God had revealed to him. Nathan went back to David and told him everything the Lord had said in this vision. David respected this role of Prophet that Nathan fulfilled, but even so it could not have been easy to face the king and speak boldly about what God had revealed to him. Later on, one of David’s sons, Adonijah, started a rebellion against David (1 Kings 1) ’But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s personal bodyguard refused to support Adonijah’. Nathan’s loyalty to David was undivided, and it was Nathan and Zadok the priest who presided over the coronation of Solomon after David’s death.
This kind of loyalty to a friend, even being willing to rebuke that friend if necessary, is a precious quality. When you have friends like that you are blessed indeed, and should value them highly.