James Nisbet Commentary - 2 Samuel 12:7 - 12:7

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James Nisbet Commentary - 2 Samuel 12:7 - 12:7


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THE ARROW OF CONVICTION

‘And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.’

2Sa_12:7

David spoke to Nathan like a man whose conscience made no answer to the parable of the prophet; we see him so devout before his sin, and so penitent afterwards, yet apparently (for the moment) quite unconscious of his great offence; so that he needs to have his own righteous indignation turned backwards by the prophet’s word upon himself, to be plainly told—‘Thou art the man.’ We see here:—

I. An instance of one of the saddest effects of sin.—So long as it is willingly entertained by us, sin overpowers the conscience and destroys it—that, so long as sin is living and reigning there, the soul is dead, for the Holy Spirit is grieved and silent, or has departed from us; and, so long as this is the case, all hope of recovery or deliverance is at an end. Whatever our sin may be, we may yet be saved, if we find grace to repent of it. But the very first consequence of sin is a deadness and insensibility of soul; with every advance in sin our own chance of retreat is more and more cut off, and our hope taken away; it brings, as it were, its own judgment with it. This fact will explain why good men have spoken so strongly of their own sinful state in a way which may sometimes have seemed to us overdone and untrue; for it is a reward and consequence of holiness that, as men advance therein, the spiritual faculties become more enlightened; just as it is a consequence of sin persevered in that the conscience becomes darkened and dead.

II. Let us take this warning of the blinding power of sin to ourselves.—But who shall speak it? Who shall point to God’s Word, when they set before us our sins, or say to us, ‘Thou art the man of whom these things are spoken’? We must undertake to do this for ourselves. We are bound to read or hear the Word of God with this view, that we may apply it to our own state. When we hear our own sin denounced we are to say to ourselves, ‘Thou art the man’ of whom this is spoken; it is your own worldliness, or pride, or lust, or envy, or love of pleasure; it is your own carelessness or indifference, your own sloth or gluttony, or intemperance, your own impatience or uncharitableness, your own hard dealing or dishonesty, your own self-will or unbelief, which are rebuked by these words of the Holy Ghost: they are spoken for your sake, and to you alone, as though there were no other in the world to whom they applied.

Rev. J. Currie.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Although David was severely punished, he was yet freely forgiven. The forgiveness of an offender may be granted in two ways: it may be without any conditions, or it may be granted quite as truly, quite as freely, and yet not so unconditionally. In the present case God had annexed a chastisement to His pardon and declared that it should fall upon David, and from that day forward every worldly visitation which recalled the memory of his sin brought with it a twofold blessing: it kept his conscience tender that his fall might be his warning; and it renewed the pledge of the full and final forgiveness that had been promised to him.

(2) ‘Too little attention is commonly bestowed on the severity with which David was punished for his sins. He was punished as long as he lived, and as long as he lived he repented of those sins and humbled himself under the consciousness of them. When Nathan was sent to David, he spoke five distinct prophecies, not only “Thou shalt not die,” but four others also, and these of a very different tenor; and all of them were alike fulfilled. To point out the fulfilment of these prophecies is simply to give a summary of the after-life of David.’

(3) ‘Nathan’s advent on the scene must have been a positive relief. How little the royal sinner realised that this simple allegory, borrowed from a shepherd’s life, depicted himself! But, as a flash of lightning on a dark night suddenly reveals to the traveller the precipice on the edge of which he is standing, so did that brief, awful, stunning sentence, “Thou art the man!” reveal him to himself. “I have sinned against the Lord,” sobbed out the king, and his confession at once gave him relief. As soon as the prophet had gone, he beat out that brief confession into Psalms 51.’

(4) ‘David had to suffer till he died. When Dr. Hood Wilson once went to visit a woman who was suffering very excruciating agony, some one by the bedside said to her, “Surely that suffering must be as bad as hell.” But the poor woman, who was a true disciple, and who knew what it was to have her sins forgiven, answered, “No, no, there is no wrath in it.” There is a good deal of experience in that answer—there is no wrath in the cup of the forgiven.’