Consequences
2 Samuel Chapter 12 – 13:22
Sin has many consequences. While it can be forgiven and no longer held against the offender (12:13), it also has consequences in this world which are not erased (12:14).
Nathan shows David the wrongness of his actions by telling a story. It’s interesting that the focus of the story is not the two most obvious sins (adultery and murder), but on the wrongdoing of the wealthy taking advantage of the poor.
Not that Nathan minimizes either the adultery or the death of Uriah. He makes it clear that David’s responsibility for the death is as great as if he had wielded the weapon himself (“You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword….You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.”).
He says that now the sword will never depart from David’s house. While we don’t yet see a murder in the family, the latter part of today’s text is a sordid story of deception and violence among David’s sons and one of his daughters.
The one part of today’s reading that helps to redeem David in the eyes of the reader is the story of his prayer and fasting while the child of Bathsheba is ill. “David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground.”
Then, when the child dies, he gets back up and resumes his life, showing characteristic confidence in God. “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Sunday meditation

Proverbs 20:16-17
Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger; hold it in pledge if it is done for an outsider.
Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel.

Prayer focus
God, forgive us of both our sin and for the harm it causes others.

-Rev. Mark Fleming