Big Idea: The Lord disciplines his sinful servants but also extends forgiveness and mercy.

Understanding the Text

Thanks to the help of Joab and the silence of Bathsheba, David appeared to get away with the murder of Uriah and even ended up adding Uriah’s beautiful wife to his harem. But the last words of chapter 11 suggest that the story will take a turn for the worse for David. Chapter 12 tells how the Lord confronts David with his sin. The Lord announces that he will severely punish David, and the rest of the story focuses on the tragic consequences of David’s sin and records how David pays his own self-imposed fourfold penalty in full (12:6). Yet there is also a silver lining: the Lord tempers his punishment of David with mercy, and the rest of the story shows how the Lord preserves …