If you are blessed to have people in your life whom you call friends, this Bible story will be both soothing and startling to you. Sometimes friendship comes at the price of honesty, and it can be hard to be frank with a friend who has taken a wrong turn. The pull between saving that person from themself versus protecting the friendship is a tough one. Have you ever had to confront a friend with a truth they did not want to hear? It is hard.

Our Scripture today examines the friendship between Nathan and David. David had his lover’s husband killed on the front lines of battle because he had impregnated her with a son during their adulterous affair. Murder and adultery were the sins that Nathan had to address with his friend, and hopefully none of us have had to confront a friend about evils so deep. We are lucky if the worst thing we’ve had to discuss with a friend was a poor choice in relationships or an ill-fitting outfit. Nathan’s friendship was challenged here, but he knew he was acting as God’s spokesperson, and that changed everything.

2 Samuel 11:26-12:15 (Common English Bible)

²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband. ²⁷ After the time of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her back to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son.

But what David had done was evil in the Lord’s eyes.

The writer shows his disdain for Bathsheba, refusing to use her name and only referring to her as “Uriah’s wife.” He also pulled no punches in calling David’s actions “evil in the Lord’s eye.” Nathan, in contrast, uses a parable to teach David about the sins he had committed. It was clever to pull David into the story of a poor man whose little ewe lamb was killed to feed a rich man’s friend. Our hearts break with David’s to learn that this poor lamb had been like a daughter to the poor man. Oh, the injustice! The evil of this rich man! What a horrible person. Then Nathan delivered the punchline that the “rich man” was David himself, having stolen Bathsheba from an unsuspecting Uriah while he was away fighting David’s battles.

12 So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When Nathan arrived he said, “There were two men in the same city, one rich, one poor.² The rich man had a lot of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing—just one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised that lamb, and it grew up with him and his children. It would eat from his food and drink from his cup—even sleep in his arms! It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Now a traveler came to visit the rich man, but he wasn’t willing to take anything from his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had arrived. Instead, he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the visitor.”

⁵ David got very angry at the man, and he said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the one who did this is demonic!  ⁶ He must restore the ewe lamb seven times over because he did this and because he had no compassion.”

⁷ “You are that man!” Nathan told David. “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I anointed you king over Israel and delivered you from Saul’s power. ⁸ I gave your master’s house to you, and gave his wives into your embrace. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. If that was too little, I would have given even more. ⁹ Why have you despised the Lord’s word by doing what is evil in his eyes? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and taken his wife as your own. You used the Ammonites to kill him.¹⁰ Because of that, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own, the sword will never leave your own house.

¹¹ “This is what the Lord says: I am making trouble come against you from inside your own family. Before your very eyes I will take your wives away and give them to your friend, and he will have sex with your wives in broad daylight. ¹² You did what you did secretly, but I will do what I am doing before all Israel in the light of day.”

God’s anger against David is absolutely frightening, but we must remember back to the moment that David had been selected from among the sons of Jesse to lead the nation of Israel. God had such high hopes and exceptions of his anointed leader that these transgressions were truly repugnant to God. David had been raised up high and his fall from that mighty perch was a long, long way down. Sin has consequences and for David, the consequences were devastating.

¹³ “I’ve sinned against the Lord!” David said to Nathan.

“The Lord has removed your sin,” Nathan replied to David. “You won’t die. ¹⁴ However, because you have utterly disrespected the Lord by doing this, the son born to you will definitely die.”¹⁵ Then Nathan went home.

The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne for David, and he became very sick.

It is hard for us to realize that God indeed took the life of the child. But we must remember that sometimes the innocent die from the actions of the guilty. Think of the drunk driver who mows down a group of kids walking to school, or the person diagnosed with a fatal cancer due to asbestos exposure. But surely that baby found his way into the arms of the Lord in eternal glory, while his parents were left to suffer from their actions for the remainder of their lives. Nathan’s bold actions ultimately saved his friend, as David confessed his sins and received forgiveness. We never read of David committing adultery again and his early predisposition to give into temptation is forever curbed, thanks to his friend’s intervention.

Is God calling you to say the uncomfortable thing to your friend? Do you see them moving headfirst into peril with their actions and behaviors? Nathan teaches us the valuable lesson of bold friendship that is fueled by honesty and a sincere desire to save someone. May we be as bold in our relationships as well.

Be Bold by Kathy Schumacher