2 Samuel 12-13: The Falling Action

2 Samuel 12 features a heartfelt confession on David's part: "And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord.  And Nathan said to David: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die" (2 Samuel 12:13).  After David's great sin in chapter 11, it is good to see his repentance right away.  Nathan, conveying the words of God, chastises David.  David could have easily reacted with rage born of pride, he could have had a kingly obstinacy, but instead he acknowledges his sin and the offence it has done to God.  This is the one bright spot in this chapter.  It is clear that, though David did the right thing by confessing his sin (for which God clearly forgives him), there is much temporal punishment that David will still need to endure; just as Samuel Taylor Coleridge says of his titular character in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner": "...'The man hath penance done, / And penance more will do.'"

And so we've reached a sort of zenith for David, where it now appears his arc will begin to descend.  David's story up till now has been one of ascendancy.  His rise is one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible.  But when he reaches his peak, and sins with Bathsheba, there is nowhere to go but down (this is not to imply that David descended into eternal punishment, just that his earthly journey would now be filled with suffering).  God declares that David's reign would now be filled with war and death, and suffering would be inflicted not just on him but also on his wives and children.  And right on cue, we see in chapter 13 that calamity has arrived for his family -- his son Amnon rapes his daughter Tamar, which causes his other son Absalom to murder Amnon.  Chapter 13 is grisly.  It is clear that discord and evil has entered the royal family, and it is no coincidence that this happens after David's great sin.  Things seem to be coming apart at the seams.  One reason David's sin is so great is because of the public nature of the scandal.  It is said of David in 2 Samuel 12:14, "thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme."  When figures of high rank sin so grievously, it very often causes many to discredit the whole institution.  And no doubt that is part of the evil one's plan.  If the King of all Israel is breaking God's Commandments, why should the rest of us follow them?  This reasoning is of course unsound, but those who lack a strong faith could easily be persuaded by it, and those of much influence ought to thus take much caution with this.