How would you like Nathan's job? Called to be a prophet of the Lord, his assignment is to go to King David and confront him about his sins of adultery and murder. There is no one more powerful than David, who has already killed men to keep his sins secret and cover his tracks. Yet Nathan went in obedience to the Lord (vs. 1).
When Nathan appears before David, he uses the "truth bomb" of a parable to sneak the facts under David's radar. Supposedly coming before the king with a matter of injustice between two men in his kingdom, the story is really a veiled account of what happened between David and Uriah. David falls into the snare when he agrees with Nathan about the evil of the rich man who took a poor man's only lamb away from him. He doesn't see himself in this story. The trap is sprung when Nathan outright accuses David of wrongdoing: "You are the man!" (vs. 7) Then all the facts of David's sin are laid bare before him.
To his credit, David knows when he is caught. Rather than deny, excuse himself, blame others, or attack Nathan, he simply admits the truth: "I have sinned against the Lord" (vs. 13).
Even though the Lord has "taken away his sin" (vs. 13), there will still be heavy consequences for David to bear. His initial reaction was that the rich man in the parable who acted wrongfully should pay "4 times over" for his misdeeds. We will see how that verdict plays itself out in David's life. Also, the Lord reveals that David has forfeited some blessings that were coming his way (vs. 8) and will never have the sword depart from his house (vs. 10). In fact, some horrendous sins will happen to David because of this matter (vs. 11).
The first consequence to befall David is that his newborn child with Bathsheba is struck ill. Even though David prays to the Lord for seven days, fasting and pleading and lying prostrate, the child dies. After the death of his child, his servants are surprised to find David worshiping and eating, figuring that his grief would only worsen. But David reveals a kind of stoic attitude that "what's done is done," and that he had prayed while he had opportunity in the hope that the Lord might spare his child. Now that the child had died, David's only way to see his child again will be to go to him after his own death (vs. 23).
As evidence that the Lord is not yet done with the king and has not rejected him forever, David and Bathsheba are blessed with another child, one who will loom large in the history of their nation: Solomon. In fact, Nathan is given a better mission upon the birth of this child when he comes to deliver the news that the boy should also have the name Jedidiah, which means, "loved by the Lord." The lesson is that God's grace goes on, even after we have messed up in epic proportions.
The chapter concludes with Joab rousing the king out of Jerusalem and having him come to the battlefield for the final defeat of Rabbah of the Ammonites.
To read more about David's frame of mind and emotions after Nathan came to confront him about his sin, check out Psalm 51.
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