II Samuel 12:1-15

We have here Nathan confronting the king about his damnable deeds. And notice the child was already born. You know what this means? We can do the math. At least nine months had passed from the time that he had done what he had done and he had still not repented of his evil attitude and his evil actions. How far had he fallen that he would just say, "eh" over adultery and murder and all those things that he had done?

What we have here is an indication of long-term problems. He was thick-headed, he was stubborn, he was rebellious. He was so spiritually thick that Nathan had to tell him bluntly that he was the abusive rich man in the parable. He did not even get that from when it was told right to his face. Oh, he was eager to judge others and to take offense of others and pronounce the death penalty on others, but he was unable even to see his most egregious sins that everybody knew about. At least the people in the palace, they knew. David was proud and self-righteous. He believed himself unassailable as the chosen of God and my guess is that he thought himself to be guiltless. Because he was David.

I mean, think about it. He was God's chosen. He was the greatest in the land. God Himself had said that He had made him like all the great men of the world. He was personally promised by God an eternal dynasty. He seems to have thought that he had it made, he could do whatever he wanted. Now, certainly, the power of being the king of Israel had gone to his head and he had become a debauched dictator. He was catered to and as far as any other person in the country, he was above reproach. No one dared question him or correct him—because he was David. "Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands." This really gives you a lot of respect for Nathan. He was a brave man. He could have come out there headless the way David was acting at the time. Or sent to the front lines to be killed like he had killed Uriah.

Note here that David judges the rich man deserving to die because he had committed the sins that he had committed and because he had no pity. It is very important. Pity, as you know, is sorrow and compassion caused by the suffering and distress of others. We have pity on people who have a hard time taking care of themselves who are going through severe trials and they are just about at their end.

The Hebrew word is hamal and it could be rendered as compassion, mercy, or an inclination to spare others. Think of that in terms of David. What was his inclination? He was not inclined to spare, he was more inclined to kill, at least in Uriah's case. But here, what it does is it shows that David did not have any softness in his heart anymore. His heart had hardened. We could go to Ezekiel 36:25-27 where it is talking about Israel and God says that He will give them His Spirit and it will change their heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

Well, at this point, David was going the opposite direction. His heart was hardening. And so he was one of those powerful people at this point who exploit and take liberties with those beneath them, seeing them as mere objects, as lesser than himself and expendable. What it shows is that he acted in contempt of people. And God's response implies that His blessings had gone to David's head. "I gave you all this and it's just basically made you a worse person?" He thought himself so great that he began to despise God's commandments. "These don't apply to me. I'm king. They're for lesser people. I am God's anointed. I can do what I want." That is the way it came out.

And then God says, "You've not only despised My commandments, you've also despised Me." Oh, now he is really in trouble. The Hebrew word underlying despise is bzh. It is one of those triplets there. It is pronounced bah-zah. It means to scorn or ridicule, or to show contempt for, to consider as despicable or worthless. What God said was, "David, you scorn Me, you ridicule Me, you show contempt … . . .