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The text for this lesson is 2 Samuel 12:1–23

Key Point

  • Just as God accepted and forgave King David and other great saints who committed grave sins, so He accepts and forgives us, all for the sake of Christ.
  • Law: Weighed down by my sins, I make excuses and put the blame on God and others.
  • Gospel: God is faithful and just to forgive my sins because Jesus, God’s Son, has taken the blame for me, heaping upon Himself the sins of the world.

Discussion Points

  1. What do the experiences of David, and Adam and Eve before him, teach us about the consequences of sins that we willfully commit? How does sin affect our relationship with others? According to Hebrews 10:26–27, what is the potential outcome of intentional sin?
  2. David said the rich man in the parable deserved to die and should pay fourfold what he had taken (2 Samuel 12:5–6). What justly should have happened to David and Bathsheba (see Deuteronomy 22:22)? What is the big difference between the parable and David’s situation?
  3. After Nathan used the parable to get David to condemn his own actions, Nathan explicitly lays out the Lord’s case against David. Compare 2 Samuel 12:7–9 with Exodus 20:1–3, 13–14. What is similar about these two sections of God’s Word? What does this teach us about God’s Commandments?
  4. David rightly confessed that his sin was “against the Lord” and not merely an offense against another person. According to Psalm 32:1–5, what happens while sin is not confessed? What happens after forgiveness is pronounced? How has Jesus arranged for this forgiveness to be delivered to us? See John 20:19–23.
  5. The Lord absolved David of his guilt and did not allow him to die under the condemnation of Deuteronomy 22:22. However, the Lord did send some severe punishments to David. Why would He do this? Compare Hebrews 12:3–11; Luke 13:1–5; and Romans 8:28.
  6. After David’s child was struck with an illness, in what ways did his actions express his faith in the words of Psalm 124:8 and 50:14–15 and provide a godly example for Christians?
  7. In what particularly difficult situation can the story of David’s son dying before his circumcision be used to comfort Christians? Though David acknowledged that his child had died, what note of hopefulness sounds forth in 2 Samuel 12:23?
  8. God delivers the forgiveness of sins to His people in various ways. What are these? Which of these channels of forgiveness is exemplified in the story of Nathan and David?

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