Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” 2 Samuel 12:7
When Nathan spoke the Word of God, it was as if David were standing in the presence of God and hearing the voice of God himself.
What we have here is an anticipation of the Day of Judgment. David’s palace becomes God’s courtroom when Nathan arrives and the charges against David are read:
- “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?” (12:9).
- “You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword…and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites” (12:9).
- “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house” (12:10).
God’s discipline is a direct reflection of David’s sin. David sinned with the sword, and now he lives with the sword. This principle of reaping what you sow should bring us restraint (Gal. 6:7).
Why does God exercise discipline in the lives of his children? Because he is not done with us yet. The Bible tells us that the Lord disciplines the one he loves (Heb. 12:6). God’s discipline in David’s life is the sure sign that God still has work for him to do!
Restoring is more than forgiving. It is purging out what led to these great sins from David’s life, so that he really comes to the place where he hates what he used to love. This is God changing David to make him into a different and a better man. “All discipline seems painful… but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).
Thank God for his discipline in your life, however painful, knowing that it means he loves you and that he still has work for you to do.
