(1) В¶ And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. (2) The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: (3) But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. (4) And there came a traveler 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.
I beg the Reader to remark, that a period of, at least, nine months (how much longer I will not determine) must have elapsed from the commission of David's adultery to this message of Nathan to David; because the child was born. During which time, it doth not appear that David had once expressed sorrow for his aggravated sins. Indeed, as the Holy Ghost is wholly silent upon the subject, it should seem that all communion with the Lord must have been remitted. Reader! do not forget to remark this, and to reflect on the very awful state to which a soul may be reduced by hardening the heart in sin! And do let me beg of you further to remark, how utterly incapable a man is to recover himself, if the Lord doth not recover him. Grace must first enter the heart before a sense of sin can take place in the mind. The Lord sent Nathan unto David; not David sent to call Nathan, or make supplication to the Lord. Thou restorest my soul, (saith David upon another occasion) Psalms 23:3. Without this awakening by grace, neither David, nor any other sinner, could ever awaken himself. If the Reader be not sensible of this, may it please the Lord to make him! The method Nathan took to awaken David to a sense of his sin, and to make him his own judge, was by means of a parable, most happily chosen, according to the general usage of instruction in the eastern world. It is probable that Nathan, as a prophet and teacher in the Lord's service, frequently adopted such a plan, therefore it lulled all suspicion in the breast of the king of anymore than an ordinary subject. The parable itself is so plain in its allusion to the case of David in his late atrocity, that I do not think it needful, to comment upon it in the explain nation. Uriah's one wife compared to David with his many wives, was but like the poor man with his ewe lamb to the many herds of his rich neighbor. So that to let his corrupt passions lead him to this act of oppression and cruelty was beautifully marked out in the case, as Nathan represented it.