2 Samuel 12:7

THOU ART THE MAN!

"Nathan said to David, `You are the man.' Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, `I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul; and 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 this were too little, I would add as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.'"

This is only part of God's Word to David; the remainder will be discussed in the next paragraph.

"I anointed you king ... and delivered you out of the hand of Saul" (2 Samuel 12:7). The order of these two statements, "Indicates that the reference to David's anointing is to that of his private anointing in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:13), rather than to either of the two subsequent anointings (2 Samuel 2:4; 5:3)."[3] Note also that God here says, "I anointed," whereas it was actually Samuel who did the anointing. "Thus Samuel functioned as God's representative; he anointed David for the Lord."[4]

"And your master's wives into your bosom" (2 Samuel 12:8). Some respected scholars suppose that, "This may mean no more than that David was given absolute power over all that Saul possessed."[5] However, to this writer, the words "into thy bosom" deny any such explanation. Some have alleged that Saul had only one wife; but certainly Ishbosheth had more than one; and the loose usage of possessive personal pronouns involving family relationships would include also the wives of Saul's son. Additionally, there is no certain information available on how many wives Saul had. Jamieson went so far as to say that, "History furnishes conclusive evidence that David never actually married any of the wives of Saul."[6] He did not document that statement; and such an opinion remains questionable. Willis suggests that, "Ahinoam was a wife of Saul when David married her."[7]

"And if this were too little I would add as much again" (2 Samuel 12:8). "The reference here is evidently to (the multiplicity of) David's wives, first from the form of the pronoun, and secondly because it was the abundance in wives which formed the contrast in David's wealth and Uriah's poverty." Also, we must add that the contrast between the many flocks of the rich man and the one little lamb of the poor man in the parable is best applied to the many wives of David and the one wife of Uriah.

"The sword of the Ammonites" (2 Samuel 12:9). "Nathan's words (rather the Word of God) are here contemptuous. David had sunk so low as to get his enemies to do his murderous work for him."[8]

This blunt, overwhelming indictment of David's conduct by an honored prophet of God must have come as a profound shock to the king. It is a miracle of David's faith in God that he did not order his bodyguard to slay Nathan in the midst of this interview. We have fully discussed that possibility in our commentary on Psalms 51. It is not because of his sins that David deserves honor and respect; but it is because of his repentance, his humiliation in acknowledging and confessing his sins, and his unwavering trust in the Lord that he received and deserves the exalted place which God gave him in the O.T.