2 Samuel 12:4
And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
The verse tells of a wealthy owner of many flocks and herds who refused to use his own animals to feed a visiting traveler, but seized a poor man's single cherished little lamb raised like a daughter in his house and slaughtered it for his guest. It is Nathan's mirror held before David to expose his theft of Uriah's wife after he had stained his honorable standing and used God-given power against God's law. Concealing the charge in a story of wrong and oppression demanding redress, Nathan engaged the king's sympathy as guardian of his people's rights until David condemned himself from his own lips. The taking of the lamb lays bare selfishness, injustice and oppression in living colors, showing a sinner blinded and excusing his course until God's rebuke awakened him as from a dream. Truthfully told without glossing over sin, the reproof brought David to humble, contrite acknowledgment and reliance on pardon through Christ, so God forgave and spared his life yet punished him to show that past righteousness will not save the guilty who turn to evil.
Nathan's Parable to David
The verse tells of a rich man with exceeding many flocks and herds who spared taking from his own flock and his own herd to dress for a wayfaring traveler come to him as visitor and guest, but took the poor man's one little beloved ewe lamb and killed and prepared it for him. That lamb was cherished and nourished in the poor man's house as a daughter. The taking instead of using an animal from his own flock portrays the wrong Nathan used to expose David's sin.
The verse belongs to the account of David's sin in the matter of Uriah and Bath-sheba. After remaining steadfast David departed from God, stained his previously honorable reputation, and for the time became an agent of Satan. He still held the position and authority God had given him, but used God-given power contrary to divine law.
It belongs to God's reckoning with David after David had Uriah killed. Joab sent a carefully worded account of the battle that implicated neither Joab nor the king, and instructed the messenger to quiet the king's wrath by adding that Uriah the Hittite was dead also. David received the news with indifference, telling Joab not to be displeased because the sword devours one as well as another and to make the battle stronger and overthrow the city.
The verse is part of a reproof sent by a just and impartial God who did not sanction or excuse David's heinous crime. It was given to Nathan as God's messenger and servant and spoken with heaven-born wisdom and words given by God. The message laid before David all the favors God had bestowed upon him and upbraided him for abusing and misapplying God's mercies.
Nathan set David's own case before him in this illustration as a mirror and concealed his charge under a parable. It set forth a wrong and oppression demanding redress, addressed to David as the divinely appointed guardian of his people's rights. It was framed to engage the king's sympathies, arouse his conscience, and draw the sentence of death from his own lips, leading him to pass sentence on himself and condemn the wrongdoing before Nathan revealed that David himself was the man in the illustration.
Sin Exposed by Parable
The taking of the poor man's lamb portrays selfishness, injustice, wrong and oppression, exposing David's sinful course and grievous offense against Uriah and Bath-sheba. The rich man with exceeding many flocks and herds spares his own animals and takes the poor man's one little beloved ewe lamb, cherished and nourished in his house as a daughter, and kills and prepares it to feed a traveler come to him as visitor and guest. Nathan set that picture before David in living and abominable colors as a mirror of hidden guilt, a case the king as guardian of his people's rights could judge clearly while failing at first to recognize his own sin. The verse means David stole Uriah's wife from her husband to please himself. Such taking of another's spouse and taking liberties with another's person is inexcusable sin and only sin, registering both parties in the books of heaven as adulterers.
The verse shows David had been blinded to his departure from God and had excused his sinful course until his ways seemed passable. One wrong step prepared the way for another, until Jehovah's rebuke awakened him as from a dream to feel his sin. The verse presents the same picture of taking what belongs to someone weaker while ignoring the harm caused, with the lamb representing the Southern field's funds diverted from the work for which they had been raised even though those who diverted them had ample resources of their own, an action driven by covetousness. Concealed adultery gives Satan ground to exult and point to filthy garments, and brings deepest affliction and misery. It will be revealed from the books of heaven in covetous thoughts as well as words and deeds, and must not be kept cloaked lest the offense rest upon the church.
Repentance and Faithful Reproof
Nathan's truthful account did not gloss over sin at all but laid the charge heavily, and by faithfully portraying David's true state it made him aware of his sins, stirred flashes of guilt on his conscience, and helped him put them away. Yet the parable alone did not work heart repentance until God applied it directly with Thou art the man, and only then did David condemn the wrongdoing and pass sentence upon himself. The reproof was keenest, sharpest, and most resolute, spoken to David as ruling king with words given by God, laying before him all the favors bestowed upon him and upbraiding him for abusing and misapplying those mercies.
David bore that rebuke rather than resisting it or hating the prophet who delivered it, and with remorse and sincere grief, deep humility, and contrition he bowed before God's prophet, meekly accepted the counsel, humbled himself before God, and humbly acknowledged all with which he was charged and acknowledged his guilt. He did not excuse or palliate his sin as Saul did. His bearing the picture of his crime in its truly abominable colors is evidence that he still feared and trembled at the word of the Lord and did not manifest the spirit of an unconverted man, for if he had possessed the spirit of the rulers of the nations around him he would have taken the life of the faithful reprover instead of bearing it.
David repented before God whose law he had transgressed and relied for pardon on the efficacy of the blood of Christ. Because of his repentance and humble confession God forgave his sin, averted part of the threatened calamity, and spared his life, yet his sin remained before him after Nathan reproved him. God in no degree justified David in his sins or in having a plurality of wives, but punished him because he had given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, an occasion used from David's day to the present by skeptics to assail Christianity and ridicule the Bible. He visited David with judgments and permitted evils to rise against him from his own house, which proves to after generations that God surely punishes the guilty in transgressing His commandments however righteous and favored they once were while following the Lord in purity of heart, that violating God's will brings retribution, and that when the righteous turn from righteousness to do evil their past righteousness will not save them from the wrath of a just and holy God.
True conviction comes by clearly defining sin as transgression of the Father's law, without sensational songs or humorous anecdotes, so that the sinner repents understandingly with heart work and thorough conversion rather than mere excitement of feeling that vanishes like early dew. Faithful watchmen must therefore speak such plain, keen, sharp, and resolute reproof and not connive at sin, and true friends are those who tell faults. Those who sympathize with the sinner and encourage bold resistance to reproof do the devil's work.