He asked David what should be done to the rich man. The rich man had taken the poor man's pet lamb to feed to a visitor. Nathan went to David, bringing him a tale of two men, one rich and one poor. David's wedding of the widow Bathsheba had been to hide an adulterous affair. The next message he heard from Lord revealed a dark secret that few had suspected: David's friend Uriah had died as a result of orders from the king himself. Battles against neighboring kingdoms continued, enlarging the borders of Israel and bringing relative peace through strength. That house, He continued, would not be made of cedar, or even of stone, but rather it would consist of an everlasting kingdom with a descendant of David on a throne that would last forever.Īfter this time, David would seek to build the kingdom that was promised to come through his son. The tabernacle, the Lord pointed out, was to be in the midst of the people, where He wished to reside.
In this visitation, Nathan was asked why anyone would want to build a house for God since the Law had been written specifically to provide a place of worship ideally designed to house the ark. It was only later after he had gone to bed, that he had a vision from the Lord. The king suggested that the LORD deserved a house at least as grand as the palace he had made in Jerusalem.Īt first, Nathan immediately gave his blessings without giving it a second thought. Whatever the case, he was not heard from in the Biblical record until David approaches him with the idea that the ark of the covenant, the "footstool" of God, rested in a tent. With a name like "Given" he may have even been born to be a prophet. As he grew up, he may have met the prophet himself.
When David needed guidance as a fugitive, he had to look for a new prophet.īorn in the days of Samuel, Nathan had been a boy in peaceful times. But then, Samuel had died after a long and fruitful ministry. The news traveled throughout the region, and David soon made a name for himself. Samuel the prophet had come to town to announce that David, Jesse's youngest son, would be the next king of Israel. Such was the case after Saul had been king for about thirty years. Sometimes, though, a prophet would come to town. Landowners such as Jesse of the house of Obed often would seek guidance from the priests at nearby Kirjath-Jearim, where the ark of the covenant had been since the days of Eli the high priest. Between the two towns was the Jebusite stronghold of Jerusalem. Border towns like Bethlehem, only about twenty miles from Saul's capitol Gibeah. The tribe of Judah, with Benjamin to the north and Philistia to the west, was often a battleground upon which many of Israel's finest soldiers bled and died in attempts to keep back the Philistine invasion. Landowners were always called on to give of there crops and livestock to keep the war machine running. Because of this, most able-bodied men were members of the military for the best years of their lives. The worst part of building the young nation had been the continuous wars with the Canaanites that remained in the land west of the Jordan. In some ways Saul was not as bad as Samuel had warned. The nation of Israel had finally gotten a king. Judging from this, Nathan was born in the days of Samuel's long tenure as traveling judge of Israel. This would have made Nathan at least 20 years older than David. Zabad is said to have been a friend of David's, indicating that the two had grown up together. Nathan fathered two sons, Azariah and Zabad (also spelled Zabud) who became officers in the court of King David. Sheshan had given him his freedom and his daughter Ahlai. As such Jarha was a proper member of the tribe. As the custom was, however, slaves were required to be circumcised as were all members of one's household. Jarha had been a slave of Sheshan, a man of some means, who had no son as an heir. Nathan, son of Attai of Judah, was the grandson of Jarha the Egyptian.
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