Saturday of Week 3 of Ordinary Time – First Reading


Commentary on 2 Samuel 12:1-7,10-17

Today’s First Reading speaks to the consequences of the terrible crimes of infidelity, deceit and murder that David committed when he had Uriah killed in order to have Bathsheba as his own. If he thought he would escape notice or punishment, he was deeply mistaken.

Hardly had Bathsheba given birth to the boy when David is confronted by the prophet Nathan:

…and the Lord sent Nathan to David.

Prophets are primarily people who bring a message from God. We met Nathan before when David complained to him about his discomfort of living in a house of cedar while the Ark of the Covenant was still in a tent (2 Sam 7:2). Here the prophet comes to proclaim God’s judgement against the king he had set over his own people.

The message is uttered through one of the most striking parables to be found in the Old Testament. Nathan tells David about a rich man, the owner of large herds, who takes for his own table, not one of his own many sheep, but the single ewe lamb of a poor peasant in order to entertain a visitor. Not only was this the only sheep the farmer owned, but “it was like a daughter to him” and shared the little food that he had.

On hearing the story, David was filled with indignation and declared that the rich man deserved to be executed:

As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

Repaying four times was a requirement of the Law (see Exod 22:1). It reminds us of what the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus, said to Jesus after their encounter:

Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much. (Luke 19:8)

Nathan then quietly says to David:

You are the man!

Nothing more had to be said. What David had done was, in fact, many times worse than taking a lamb from a poor man. He had stolen a man’s wife and then cold-bloodedly had him killed.

Nathan then goes on (not part of our reading) to list some of the things that David had received from the Lord, including the wives and harem of his predecessor, Saul:

I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. (2 Sam 7:8)

Yet, in spite of being surrounded by so many women and so much power, he goes and steals another man’s wife and then has Uriah killed by the Ammonites, the enemy they were fighting. Of course, it was really David who had killed Uriah; he was no tragic victim of battle.

Speaking in God’s name, Nathan spells out David’s punishment: violence and death will come to his own family: three of his sons, Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah will all die violent deaths:

I will raise up trouble against you from within 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 broad daylight.

All this took place during the rebellion of David’s son Absalom, when David was forced to flee his palace, but left behind ten concubines. David’s wives would be taken just as he had taken the wife of Uriah. Finally, what David thought he had done in secret becomes public knowledge.

In a spirit of deep remorse and repentance, David totally acknowledges his sin. His feelings are beautifully expressed in Psalm 51, part of which forms today’s Responsorial Psalm:

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight…
(Ps 51:3-4)

But Nathan tells David that his sin is forgiven. He will not die for it (as the law demanded), but he will lose the child of his adultery. The boy fell sick and David was devastated, refusing to eat and sleeping on the ground wearing sackcloth – the sign of repentance. And despite the urging of his courtiers, he refused to get up from the ground, nor would he eat. He was heartbroken not just because of the death of his son, but because of the circumstances in which the child had been born in the first place. This was the price of his sin.

It is not our sins which condemn us in God’s eyes, but our refusal to repent and change our ways. Once we genuinely express our sorrow and show it by a ‘conversion’, God’s mercy is there and waiting. Jesus spelt this out so clearly in the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son. God does not desire the death of a sinner, but that he should have life:

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world…[He] came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 3:17; 10:10)

Let us look at our own lives. First, let us openly acknowledge our sinful acts, especially those where we have hurt others, and take full responsibility for them. Then let us turn to our God and ask for his healing, that we may be made whole again.

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