2 Samuel 12:7–14 (ESV) – 7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ” 13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.”

Yesterday, we saw David become angry when Nathan shared the story of how a rich man had sinned against a poor man. Today, we read how Nathan revealed that the story was about David. “You are the man!” Nathan also recounted to David all the ways the Lord had blessed him and how this great sin was unnecessary. God was ready to bless David in even greater ways! Now the Lord was displeased and there would be consequences for all that David had done.

We do not usually think of the ongoing consequences of our sinfulness. We often think more in a transactional way. “If I do this, the result will be that,” we reason to ourselves. We fail to see how relationships could be forever changed afterwards or how others could be affected, even though they were not part of the decision. Sin has consequences. Many of them are unseen beforehand. Many will be lasting.

David did repent of his sin. We see it here in the text and we also see his words as recorded in Psalm 51, which we will look more closely at beginning tomorrow. However, the consequences remained and they were very costly to David. Our sin is no different. There are consequences to everything we do or fail to do, so let us always seek to do what is right and pleasing to the Lord.

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