Daily Devotions
September 16th, 2009 by Pastor Solley2 Sam 12:1-7
12:1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
3 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.
4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;Isn’t it amazing how we can look at others and so easily see their faults while at the same time never seeing our won? The account above follows David’s great sin of adultery and murder. David went so far as to kill one of his mighty men. After it was covered up David went about his business as usual. When given the parable about the rich man and the poor man’s lamb David was so angry he would have the rich man out to death. Only when the prophet announced to David “thou art the man” did David begin to look at himself. Only then did David see himself as God saw him. That drove David to his knees in repentance seeking the forgiveness of God. If you read the rest of the chapter you see that God did forgive David but sin still had a price tag on it.
We need to look at ourselves as God sees us. Not looking for the fault in others but searching our own hearts and lives so we never hear “thou art the man”. Turn the search light of Scripture on self today, ask God to reveal our faults, and then we need not worry so much about hearing those daunting words “thou art the man”.