How to Handle Confrontation: 2 Samuel 12:1-25

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. Here we are. We are right here in the podcast studio where we always are. And we're so glad you came back. If you're a returning listener. Yes, and if you're a brand new listener, good luck. Buckle up. All right, we're gonna start off with a segment that Desiree has for us called the World Record draft List, which is very okay, fun. We've never done this before. Well, I think it's actually a little unusual. I don't know how to answer it. This is how it reads. It says, for today's draft list, let's talk about world records. Let's shall we? Okay, if you could hold a work I just don't know how to answer this. If you could hold a world record for anything in the world, what would it be? I have no idea. Do rock paper scissors to determine who gets the first pick and then go intol. You have three top world records each, So one shoot okay? Ready? One two three? Shoot oh? We both went scissors one two three shot oh? I went rock my scissors. It's rare I beat you. Yeah, but you've but you've said that enough to word. Now I'm starting to wonder. Yeah, yeah, no, it's rare that I beat you. Okay, So I get to get the first world record draft list. So if I could have any world record, what would it be? Well, I don't know, I've never thought about this too much. Yeah, I would think that not at all. So I'm gonna say, make the most money the fastest. Yeah, there you go, which is what I'm pretty sure you said before we started this segment. Yes, yes, So I'm taking that your top draft pick. I just pulled it right off the table. Okay, I'm gonna see Yeah, although I don't I don't know that I would want that kind of money, to be honest with you. But yeah, yeah, and uh, and I'm going to say, uh to eat the most Handles ice cream from Youngstown, Ohio butter Brican Sundays without gaining any weight. The world record for the most butterbecan ice cream from Handles, Yes, in Youngstown, in Youngstown, with getting fat. With a quarter in my left front pocket. Okay, okay, it's a very specific, very specific world record yeah, just booked the World Records, is in the process of printing that out, going with the quarter in his left pocket. Okay, world record, let's do a serious one. I think the fastest person to travel to all un recognized countries and territories in the world. Oh, that'd be kind of cool. They'd be kind of neat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was tracking with a guy that was on pace before COVID that he was going to be the youngest person to have ever made it to all the countries. Then COVID hit and he got blocked out of four of the countries or five of the countries that he needed to get into he couldn't get into, and a girl beating because the countries she had left were countries that were still open she could get into. Yeah, that's kind of neat. So the fastest person to all hundred and ninety six recognized countries. I'm gonna say it'd be cool to have the world's largest world record, largest baptism event. Ooh, that'd be pretty good. I wonder what that would be. I don't want if that'd be either, but that'd be awesome. Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah, because obviously baptism is a sign of people. I was part of a baptism event where we baptized thirty one hundred people at one time. You just had a trump peer Yeah yeah, yeah, just by one hundred, one hundred. Yeah, that's funny. Nothing right, kind of costs two, right right, let me see. So so what was that that was number two for you? Okay, so this is my third one. I think a world record that would be really cool to have is the land speed record. Oh really, wow, that's yeah, that's it? Be crazy? Are you seriously thinking? I think that'd be terrible, terrifying, terrifyingly scary. Because when people wreck from that, they don't come back. Yeah. Yeah, that's all right, that's all right, yeah yeah, yeah, heaven. I don't know if you wrecking the thing like that, you don't want to come back from it, do you? That's probably true? Yeah. Okay, well then I'm going to say something similar. I'm going to say I want to change it. Oh really? Oh yeah, go ahead, I know, I totally give you a promessionally change please do it. I was going to say, uh, the uh, the longest ever traveled with a jet pack, The longest distance ever. Traveled with a jet pack, yep, yep. Again you don't come back from those recks either. Yeah, I do think really, but with a jet pack, Oh wouldn't it jet pack be awesome? Yeah, it would be. It'd be like flying pretty much a part I thought by now as a kid, Yeah, watching you know, all the movies and stuff. I thought by twenty twenty five we would have jet packs. I thought cars would be floating, right. I didn't think we'd be on roads anymore. Roads. I know we're going. We don't need roads, that's right now. I was gonna say, go the furthest into space. Oh yeah, I would you go into space if they give you? So we got citizens out there doing doing a space walk this week. I want to say yes, but I in the end, I just don't think it's important enough to me, Like I would be so cool. But that to me is as silly as going down to see the Titanic. I can see it on the films, you know what I mean. Yeah, it's like it's like, Wow, would it be so cool to go down there. I'm like, yeah, it really would be. Would I do it? You know? Because because one has to outweigh the other, right, So, like the jetpack thing, that might outweigh the danger for that. For me, I'd have to be convinced of it, right, But but it's like, wow, the payoff. Well, there's a lot of things you can see in a video or a picture that you still want to go see. I know, but like the payoff of like being the furthest in space or actually your question was would I go into space and the payoff of being in space versus what you're facing. I just don't know the payoff would be big enough for me because space is absolutely terrifying. Wow. Well, speaking of payoffs, yeah, David is now about to regret his bad decision yesterday, right right, Yep, the payoff isn't worth it. It was a pretty weak transition, but. You'll permit it. Okay. So yesterday we talked about David sin with Beesheba and him ultimately committing murder and just so many horrible things. And he's the king, so to some extent, he's expecting his power to protect him, and he's expecting that he is going to be immune to any consequences. And so in Sewo Samuel chapter twelve, verse one, it says, so the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story. There were two men in a certain town. One was rich and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb that he bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man's own plate, and drank from his company, cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man, but instead of killing an animal from his own flocker herd, he took the poor man's lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guests. David was furious. As surely as the Lord lives, he vowed any man who would do such a thing deserves to die. He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one that he stole, and for having no pity. Then Nathan said that David, you are that man. The Lord, the God of Israel, says, I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you your master's house and his wives, and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much much more. Why then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you've murdered Youriah the Hittite, with the sword of the Ami Nights, and stolen his wife. From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you've despised me by taking your eyes wife to be your own. This is what the Lord says. Because of what you've done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly, in the sight of all Israel. Oh, I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public wow view. You did this secretly, but I'll make this happen openly. Oh. It's terrible, isn't it. Oh? Yeah, you know. And doesn't David make a reference. We might even read it next podcast. But doesn't he say my sins are Now? What does he say ever before me? Ever before me? Yeah? We're meaning like now the whole nation knows them. He knows everybody knows my deep and dark secrets. And you know, this idea that that David has been cursed is pretty radical considering that David up to this point has you know, been shown nothing but favor blessings, and David has had God's hand upon him. David has acted righteously, godly up to this point. David has really just lived the life right. And so can you imagine the moment where you know, Nathan sticks his bony little finger out and looks in the public court and says, you're the man. It's how courageous is Nathan, because Nathan also knows David kills people who bring bad messages, right, and he goes he had the courage that God said, hey, go confront him, and he had the courage to confront immorality. You know, he was a spiritual leader and prophet and he had the guts to go say it regardless of the consequences, because God didn't tell him go and I'll protect you. I just say go do it. And he obeyed and he went and did it. And yeah, and and by the way, what a brilliant I'm yawning because of the low light. Everybody sorry about that. But so he says yeah, so I say, uh, well again, sleep last night I had dreams. I was an r E M. Good. I'm not like extra tire good for you. So it has to be a little lighting, must be. No, But tell me how brilliant the little lamb story is. Oh, well, David, he spent his whole life as a shepherd as a young man. Yes, it has levels of brilliance. Well, the sheep would have been his only friends, right, Yeah, he's this lonely little kid watching a few sheep. His brothers even said, where are you with your few sheep? Yes, it wasn't like they had massive flocks. And imagine how much you love your pet, your animals? Right? Imagine know you you love your dogs Gucci and Coco whatever their names. Are, Chanel, And they're not my dogs, they're my wife and daughter. Yeah, I love my cats. Yah, right, so and so can you imagine you know, David would have loved Dave would have known exactly what this was like. He would have loved this sheep. Right and then and then he appeals to the idea of a rich man abusing a poor man. Yes, right, And David thought of himself as a man of the people. Yes, right, he remember, just a little while ago, he's bringing the Ark of the Covenant back into the city and he passes out bread and cakes of raisins and cakes of dates. He thinks of himself as a man of the people. Right, And when Michael says, you're undignified like a commoner, right, right, He's like, that's fine, Yeah, I'll become more undignified. Because she thought he should be behaving like a king, right, And he's like, nope, I'm going to celebrate like everybody else is celebrating, right, the goodness of God. Right, So he thinks of himself as a champion of the people. That's what he was. They're saying, Oh, Saul's killed his thousands. David's killed his ten thousands. He's always been a champion of the people. He's just one of the good guys. He's just one of the people. And so he hears about this rich man who goes and steals one little sheep, and this rich man has all the sheep he needs. David had how many wives? Right? He has what like six wives? Isn't that what he had? Two? Three, four or five? Yeah? Five wives? So he's fine, he's got more than he needs. More than was legal according to God's law. And he goes and steals bast Sheba and he just gets furious when he hears this story that guy should die. Now she die, she'd pay back four times what he told. I mean, think about how disgusting that act was. If that story were true, which I mean technically it was because it wasn't sheep, but it was wives. But if that story were true about the lambs, what an absolute horrid thing to do. Yeah, what a jerk? Oh big, big time, right, I mean, like you have no soul, right right. So heartless? Yes, yeah, and yet and he says, you're the selfish And I can imagine that David, with this big public image, you know, always being good, he probably already suspected that people were murmuring. He probably already suspected that, you know, the emperor has no clothes right right, and that nobody's willing to tell him, and he probably understood all of that. He's living a lie. He probably feels terrible about it because we know he's a good man, so he knows he's done wrong and he's living with this. And so maybe perhaps one of the reasons why he didn't, you know, respond to Nathan the way that he's responded to other messengers is because he knows this judgment is righteous, This judgment is just you know, and and how could I, you know, possibly thwart God's message and and and come against it because by the way, and he's seems to all do that. Yeah, and by the way, this is I think a brilliant just just for people who are in a situation where you have to deal with difficult confrontations or bad news. The tactic that Nathan uses here is brilliant. He comes in and puts a straw man third party story right, and gets the guy, gets David to come to a conclusion about the third man straw man story right, and David that way, He didn't come in attacking David, you evil, wicked person, which is what we want to do, right. Instead, he takes a third party story elevates it. Now this one winds up being a straw man. It's not a true story, it's just an illustration. But sometimes you can just bring in a third party, say hey, I heard about this time or I saw this time before, and he brings up this third party and then both of both of them, David and Nathan came to the same conclusion. That's a horrible thing, right, And so sometimes where I can't get you to come all the way to me, I can't get you to come to this third party story, and two of us can meet there. And that's what did. It was brilliant and it diffused the situation. You know, Solomon wrote a soft answer, turns away wrath, right, and so he comes in with a softer version of what he's doing here. He's still confrontational, he's still going to say you're the man, but he's going to set David up with this third man's story, third third party story, get him to get there first. And then once we agree on that one, then let me just say, isn't that what you did, David? Didn't you kill you Rayah and take his wife? Aren't you the rich man? And wasn't you right of the poor man? Right? And David admits it, right, He takes that part of it. But one of the things that Nathan tells David is he says, God says to you, I gave you your master's house and his wives, and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much much more. What There's always more with God, no matter how far you've gone with him up to this point, there's more, no matter how far he's taken you, there's more. And David threw it all away, and God says, we're done. From this point on, it's going to be the sword in your house. It's going to be disloyalty in your house. It's going to be a struggling house. You understand. If you had just kept walking with me, there was so much more, much much more for you. I've already given you all your wildest dreams, but you were just getting started. And now you threw it all away. And so from here on out it's going to be a struggle in your family. And buddy, let me tell you the struggles in this man. We'll talk about in the future. Hey, so there's more to this passage. We didn't finish reading by the way, we were supposed to read all the way through verse twenty five. Oh really, Oh, because he got interrupted with some fifty one. That's right. So then the Bible says David confessed to Nathan and verse thirteen, I have sinned against the Lord. And they replied, yes, But the Lord has forgiven you, and you won't die for this sin. Nevertheless, because you've shown utter contempt for the Lord by doing this, your child will die. After Nathan returned to his home, the Lord sent a godly illness, a deadly illness, to the child of David and your Eye's wife. David begged God to spare the child, and he went without food and lay all night on the bare ground, and the elders of his household pleaded with him to get up and to eat with them, but he refused. Then, on the seventh day, the child died. David's visors were afraid to tell him. He wouldn't listen to reason while the child was ill. They said, what drastic thing will he do when we tell him the child is dead. When David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened. Is the child dead? He asked, yes. Dave replied, he is dead. Then David got up from the ground and washed himself and put on lotions and changed his clothes. He went to the tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. After that he returned to the palace with served food and ate. His advisors were amazed. We don't understand you, They told him. While the child was still living, he wept and refused to eat. But now that the child is dead, you stopped your morning and are eating again. David replied, I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live. But why should I fast when he's dead. Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me. Then David comforted bath Sheba, his wife, and slept with her, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and David named him Solomon. The Lord loved the child and sent word through Nathan the prophet they should name him Jedediah, which means beloved the Lord, as the Lord had commanded. You know, it's so evident that the servants had no clue about God's sovereignty, right like, they were so confused. They had it backwards, like, hey, if your child is sick, at least he's living, right like like heads, you know he's living, come on, let's go. There's there's hope here. Completely, you know, just oblivious to the fact that you know, they don't recognize God's God's word. Here, Nathan is still doing this publicly. At least we assume right that you know, Nathan gave it. It's in the court of David. At least, right, it's in the court of David. And so Nathan says, your child will die, and so here it is like, this is God's word. And so the servants should have recognized that what David was doing was he was going before God and communing with God. But they're like, no, no, no, no, there's a chance he could live. There's a chance. And then when the child dies, they're like, oh, this is really bad news. But David didn't see it that way. He didn't see like, oh, at least he's living, and oh no, now he's dead. This is a tragedy. He thought the whole thing is a tragedy. But let me plead to God, you know, in these seven days, so that God would show his grace and mercy. And in once God executes his judgment, he's like, Okay, God has made up his mind. And so it's just so different how those two mentalities are. And the biggest difference is is that David understood and believed in the promises of God and then believed that prayer makes a difference, believed that God could if God chose to change his mind and spare his wrath. And so David did all the right things. And it's just so amazing to me how they were so confused. In his very first response, I have sinned against the Lord, right right, I did it. He didn't say, you know, if Beeshieva hadn't been out there, if she had, if he didn't say, oh my knee was hurting, and that's why I didn't go to war. He didn't blame anything. He just took it right on the nose and said I did this. And he recognized who he did it against first and foremost. He did it against God, right, And so that is I think the essence of repentance is when you finally you confess it to God and you say, I did this God. I'm not blaming anybody else. I'm not giving you any excuses. I did it. And yeah, he admitted that. Let me deal with one more thing I had. I've had multiple people be kind of mad at God in this story because a baby dies, because because David did a bad thing. Yeah, it kind of impugning God's reputation. A little bit kind of blaming God or saying that God's morality is you know in question here that you know humans would never do a thing like that to a baby, innocent victim, victim. Yeah, yeah, so there are innocent victims to our sin always. So there's that. That's the lesson David is learning. But in God's goodness, God has been to this planet and he's been in heaven. Which one's better, Yeah, Heaven, Heaven by infinity. That that baby, David is acknowledging that baby is alive, just not here because David says that baby won't come back to me, but I'll go to him, right, And he's not talking just about death and the grave, right, So he understands. David understands, and God knows this baby's going to live forever. And so what this baby will never have in the grace of God is this baby will never suffer chicken pox. This baby will never even suffer a skinned knee. This baby will never witness death beyond his own ending of his life. He'll never witness the loss of a loved one. He'll never live witness fear or racism or violence. Only he will only ever have perfection for all the rest of his existence. And in the blink of an eye, he'll be with David. Right right, because there's no time in heaven. So so in a very almost instantaneous moment, he's going to be with his dad, right. And so God's in God's graciousness here. God is not just ending a life. God is sparing this child from all of the horrible things that are about ready to happen in David's family, quite honestly, And so on one side, it's sad what could have been here, but what did happen in eternity is far greater than what you know would have happened here on this earth. And so God is good even in this in death. God is a good God. It's sad for David, But I'm telling you, if you were able to talk to that baby today, that baby would not have chosen any other path, right, right, because that baby's an eternity God. Yeah. And you know, and I think that David, you know, he never once exploded and you know, went into an outrage. He never had the same reaction as some people do to this story. David acknowledged basically the same things. He got up and he showered, he ate, and he had a conclusion and he says, well, I will go hit to him one day, but he cannot return to me. He accepted all of that just again, it just it just proves David's belief still that God is a good God. David believes that God is a just and good God. David completely knows and understands that all these bad things are a consequence for his actions, and he's believes that God is a good God even in the midst of everything. Tomorrow we're going to read I think one of the most beautiful things David ever wrote. Oh yeah, for sure, right for sure. And so our listeners don't want to miss that for sure, because it's just it's a stunning response to this event. It is and it's ps. I'm fifty one. There you go, So that just in case you're wondering, So hopefully you'll tune in and we'll see you there next time. I'm the bibble guys,