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2 Samuel 12:1-13a. Nathan’s parable of the ewe lamb
- When a blinkered lawyer asked Jesus, Who is my neighbour? (Luke 10:27)
Jesus helped him to see that his neighbour was anyone whose need he could
meet—even a hated Samaritan was neighbour to a badly injured Jewish
man. Jesus got his point across by means of a parable.
- When the prophet Nathan wanted the blinkered King David to see what
wrong he had done and what harm he had caused in sleeping with Bathsheba,
he used a parable. The parable of the ewe lamb, in today’s passage,
is surely the clearest and best-known parable in the Old Testament.
- Previously Nathan had told David that he was not the right person to
build a temple (chapter 7), and David had accepted that as God’s
message. Nathan now had to be sure that David would accept this new
message—that this powerful king had acted in a grossly immoral way in
sleeping with Bathsheba and arranging for her husband, Uriah, to die in
battle.
- David was guilty of breaking two of the Ten Commandments, and what he
had done was almost certainly public knowledge—at least the adultery.
Would he try to deny he had done wrong? Perhaps he had been doing this for
a while, until Nathan confronted him with the truth. In Psalm 32 we hear of
someone who found no peace until he confessed his sin to God. David may
well have written this psalm after his meeting with Nathan.
- David personally experienced God’s forgiveness; but there were
other consequences that would affect him and his family for years to come.
A drunk driver who causes someone’s death may experience God’s
forgiveness, but they also have to come to terms with the fact that they
have caused terrible harm to another family.
- Task
- Spend a time in silence to see if there is any sin in your life that
you have been trying to hide from God. If there is, then admit it to him,
think if there is anything you need to do to put things right, and then
accept his forgiveness.
- Prayer
- Read Psalm 32 and make it your prayer for today.
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