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It’s unbelievable, but it’s not, really. David had become an adulterer. He had taken Bathsheba for his own, and to avoid being found he had Bathsheba’s husband killed. David thought he had gotten away from it. He even thought he had come out of it looking better and stronger than ever. It’s unbelievable, that he could do that. But it’s also not.
See, there’s something that we as human beings are really good at doing. We are really good at pointing out other people’s scandals. We are so perceptive to evil when it’s in someone else. But when it comes to ourselves, we can’t see it. We don’t see sin in ourselves, do we? When we sin, we generally don’t call it sin in ourselves. We’d prefer to call it a mistake, an error, a failure, or a lesson. We can see it everywhere in the world, except in ourselves.
That’s why God sent David his pastor- Nathan. And Nathan told David a story- a story about himself, so that David could see the evil that he had covered up in his own heart. You can read this in 2 Samuel 11.
If you have a chance, I urge you to read this text ahead of Sunday. See David’s reaction to his sin being revealed to him. And read Nathan’s response.
It’s unbelievable. Truly unbelievable, that we have forgiveness of sins. From the sins that bother us, to the sins that we’ve hidden away so thoroughly that we can’t even see them, we have forgiveness in Christ Jesus- through his death on the cross.
I want you to know this. You are forgiven.
1 Samuel 11:26-12:13
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. 12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” 5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
