NATHAN CONDEMNS DAVID
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: 2 SAMUEL 12:1-7, 13-15
KEY VERSE
“Nathan then said to David, “You yourself are the man!”.
2 Samuel 12:7
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
Nehemiah The Lesson is about the most famous and highly regarded King of Israel. He united the tribes of Israel into one nation and successfully fought and conquered all their enemies. He was specially called by God to be the King of Israel and was anointed to that role by the prophet Samuel. He had a hard life but God protected him from death by his enemies and exalted him to the highest position in the country.God also has done great things for usG
He had grown up as a shepherd protecting his father’s sheep from wild animals and later he fought the giant Goliath who had been threatening his country. He knew a lot about the Lord God and while he was tending the sheep had a lot of time to think about God and what God wanted from him. He knew the laws of God and had vowed to follow them. Davis was very talented and was known as the sweet singer of songs in Israel. He wrote most of the beautiful Psalms in the Bible and these Psalms have been a great blessing to everybody. Remember he wrote Psalm 23, the Lord is my Shepherd. He definitely was not ignorant about God and what God wanted His people to do.
But despite him knowing about God and what God had done for him, he made some very bad decisions, doing terrible things that were unspeakable. He took away Bathsheba the wife of one of his loyal soldiers, got her pregnant, and when he realized the problem he had gotten into, he tried to set up things so that people would think the baby being born was the child of his soldier named Uriah instead of his child. Then he deliberately had Uriah killed in battle when his army fought the Ammonites.
God was extremely upset at the terrible things David did and God was very, very angry.
David had a lot of power and no one wanted to challenge him for what he had done. But God was not afraid of David’s power for his power had been given him by God. God could take away David’s power and David’s blessing any time He so chose.
David had forgotten the many great things God had done for him including making him King. He thought that because he was powerful he could do anything because he could.
Sometimes we do things that God said we definitely should not do because we can. But remember if you have the ability to do terrible things that does not make it right.
After David did this horrible thing with Uriah and Bathsheba he was troubled and could not rest. He did his job as King but he had no peace. His conscience kept hitting at him. But still with all that pain he did not repent. He did not ask God for forgiveness. He tried to cover up his sins.
God let him suffer for a while in his pain since he did not repent. Then God acted. He sent the prophet Nathan, a prophet who was a friend of David to tell David a story or parable to see how David would react.
Would he accept he had done a terrible set of sins right away without making excuses, repent, and ask God for forgiveness?
Nathan bravely told this emotional, guilty of adultery and murder, misbehaving King who was his close friend a story. He told David that in this town there was a very rich man who owned a lot of cattle and other things. Living in the town was a poor man who had a one and only one pet lamb that he did not ever intendto kill and eat. One day a traveler came to visit the rich man and the rich man wanted to give him dinner. He went and took away the poor man’s pet lamb, killed it and cooked it and gave it to his friend who had travelled to visit him. This rich man did not want to use one of his many lambs but because he was powerful and the poor man could not stop him, he seized the poor man’s pet lamb and cooked it.This rich powerful man had no mercy or compassion for others. He therefore broke the Commandments given by God which said people had to love their neighbours just as they loved themselves. They would not harm themselves and so they should not do anything to harm their neighbours. On top of that God told the people not to steal what belonged to others. They also should not covet what belonged to their neighbours. They should not illtreat the poor, the weak and helpless.
When the prophet Nathan told this story to David, David became very upset at what this powerful rich man had done to the poor man, and he strongly suggested this rich man deserved to die for what he had done. Then David remembered and realized the law of God had said in these cases if one took away or stole one thing they had to replace it with four of the same things.
Nathan then told David to his face that he was the rich man that had done that awful sin. God was very displeased with his behaviour. David felt relieved that finally his sin was now in the open. His pain at his sin had really bothered him. David immediately confessed his awful sin.
But that was not the end. The prophet Nathan told David that God had forgiven him since he repented. But there would be consequencesWhen they were captured and taken into exile away from their countryW. God would forgive him but would not allow David to get away free. He would have to suffer. Because he had secretly disgraced Uriah bytaking away Uriah’s wife other people would disgrace David by doing the same thing publicly to his wives. David had killed Uriah at the hands of the nation’s pagan enemiesand had made God look bad. God did not want the idolatrous bad behaving nations around Israel to think that He would allow His people who worshipped Him to get away with terrible behaviour.
As punishment to David God said just as David had killed and damaged another person’s family, his family would have a whole lot of terrible things happen to them. This happened exactly as God said. David’s children had a terrible life and most of them died in a terrible way.Sometimes people who should know better
The Lessons taught by David’s actions and what happened to him are clear.
Do not do even little bad things or even terrible things to others because you can.
You have power and ability but you should use them the way God instructed us.
Love you neighbour and others as you love yourself.
God is just and fair and He will always do right. God loves justice and will not allow anyone to get away withdoing injustice for that is not right.
God forgave David but that did nor clean up everything David had done and make God forget his actions.
So when you do bad things, little or big, remember to quickly ask God for forgiveness. Do not repeat the bad things. God wants to bless you and have your conscience not trouble you.
Your parents are responsible to teach you the ways of God. Sometimes they might tell you not to do the things you like to do, but you should listen and not reject their advice. Your parents are there to help you make good choices. They are there to make you remember there are consequences you should avoid. Also you should read your Bibles for it tells you there how to behave.
So remember to pray and ask God to help you to be careful to do the things that please Him. He is very willing to help and strengthen you. God is a loving and forgiving God.