David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. (2 Samuel 12:13 ESV) I want us to dwell a moment on the statement the Prophet, Nathan, makes to King David. He says, “The Lord also has put away your sin.” The translation for this statement: “That’s not the last word. God forgives your sin. You won’t die for it.” This has incredible ramifications for our lives today. Let me explain. So in this passage, what had happened was that King David slept with a woman (not his wife) and then had her husband killed in battle because he couldn’t cover it up. God sent the prophet Nathan to David to give him a verbal tongue lashing and it resulted in King David making judgement against himself, not realizing that he was the one being referred to as evil. So he judges himself and Nathan says, if that is your judgment, then God agrees– you just sentenced your bastard son to death. And so it is carried out. His illegitimate child with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah (a faithful warrior for David) dies. David killed the child through his judgment. In this story, if you read it, God doesn’t give David what he deserved for murdering a man. He turns around and doesn’t apply Hammurabi’s code. He allows David to live. Now, the question you have to ask is: why? Why does God allow David to live? Why doesn’t He execute justice as King Hammurabi described or even as King David suggests in verses 5 and 6? The answer: God wanted to execute a justice that is greater than paying back fourfold or with the life of a person. He wanted to see the fulfillment of justice through redemption. There is a reason our sins haven’t killed us yet, it’s because in the repentance of our sins, in our realization of our sins, in our renouncement of sins, that we can find ourselves being the catalysts for changed hearts and changed actions that impact more than just us or the people we sinned against. God doesn’t kill you because He knows that there is something that can be redeemed in you. We just need to stop killing ourselves, our neighbors and our transgressors over sin that we all commit and help each other find Jesus to redeem us into new life. That is the greatest justice we will ever experience. That is the last word.
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