URC Daily Devotion 12 June 2026
Church and State 5
2 Samuel 11.27b-12.10
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, ‘There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meagre fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveller to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.’ Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’ Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
Reflection
King David had taken sexual advantage of Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite’s wife, and then used his power to cover up the crime by sending Uriah into battle to be killed. Here is the hubris of power, to which Jesus referred yesterday, red in tooth and claw. The belief that secular power should give one sexual privilege recurs in every generation, including our own, and has floored many leaders – although today as in David’s time, they tend to be found out in due course.
They are often undone by not just the original misdemeanour, but by the additional crimes involved in the ‘cover-up’. For my generation, this phrase is associated with US President Nixon’s attempted cover-up of the burglary at the Democratic Party’s offices in the Watergate building. It was painstaking investigative journalism by Woodward and Bernstein of the Washington Post that brought this to light, and led to Nixon’s downfall.
In King David’s time there was no free media. But, as in all ages, there was rumour and hearsay. And there were prophets who were willing to confront power with truth. Nathan comes into the king’s presence, and by using an imaginary case of injustice he exposes the king’s hypocrisy. His judgement – “You are the man!” echoes down the ages to all dishonest and corrupt holders of power.
One of the most sinister recent developments in democratic countries, including the UK, has been political parties excluding media outlets with which they disagree from their press conferences and events in an attempt to avoid incisive questioning. Many churches are reluctant to intervene in the messy business of party politics, and this is understandable. But when it comes to matters of truth rather than cover-up, and of basic morality, should we not have the courage of Nathan to speak truth to power?
Prayer
All-knowing God,
we often think that we can hide our sins from you
by not mentioning them out loud.
But we are caught out –
sometimes by others,
sometimes by our own conscience.
Forgive us for misusing any power
we might have over others for our own gratification.
Give us the courage to confront those
who have misused power in Your name,
that, like King David,
they may think again and seek a better way.
Amen.