A story with a hidden edge

Nathan's Ewe Lamb

After David took Bathsheba and arranged the death of her husband Uriah, the prophet Nathan came to him with a story about a rich man and a poor man's lamb. It is the most famous parable in the Old Testament, and it ends with four words that unmasked a king.

“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.”2 Samuel 12:3

The story

The story. In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan comes to King David sent by the LORD, and instead of an accusation he tells a case, as if seeking the king's judgment. There were two men in one city, one rich and one poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. 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. When a traveller came to the rich man, he spared to take of his own flock to feed the wayfaring man, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.

What it meant

What it meant. The parable was a trap built out of David's own conscience. By telling a story about someone else, Nathan let David pass a true and righteous sentence before he knew he was sentencing himself. David, who had spared nothing to take another man's wife, condemned a rich man for taking another man's lamb. The lamb was Bathsheba, the poor man was Uriah, and the rich man with many flocks was the king who had wives and yet took the one thing his servant loved. When Nathan said, Thou art the man, the disguise fell away and David saw himself. His response was not excuse but confession, I have sinned against the LORD. The parable did what direct rebuke often cannot; it slipped past defenses and let a guilty man judge his own sin freely before he recognized it as his own. It shows that the deepest conviction often comes not by argument but by a story that we enter as spectators and leave as the accused. God sends the word, and the word finds the heart.