2 Samuel 12:1-6: a reflection

1The LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city: the one rich, and the other poor. 2The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. 4A traveler came to the rich man, and he didn’t want to take of his own flock and of his own herd to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5David’s anger burned hot against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die! 6He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity!”

God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David after his great sin, but Nathan does not begin with accusation. He tells a story: a rich man with vast flocks who, when a traveler came, spared his own animals and instead took the one beloved lamb of a poor man, a lamb that had been like a daughter to him. It is a tale of cold, needless cruelty by someone who had everything against someone who had almost nothing.

David, hearing it, is furious. His anger burns hot, and he declares that the man who did this deserves to die and must repay fourfold for his pitilessness. He sees the injustice with perfect clarity, and passes swift, severe judgment on it, never suspecting that he is condemning himself. The sin he could not see in his own life he sees instantly in the parable, and his own verdict becomes the mirror that will show him his face.

This scene reveals something true about all of us: we often see clearly in others, or in a story, the very sins we are blind to in ourselves. We grow indignant at wrongs that, examined honestly, are not so different from our own. Nathan's method is a gift, letting David pronounce judgment before he realizes it falls on his own head. Ask God to give you that kind of honest sight, to recognize your own reflection in the faults you are quick to condemn, and to receive the conviction that leads to repentance.

Lord, David saw the injustice in Nathan's story with perfect clarity, never suspecting he was condemning himself. Give me honest sight into my own life. Where I am quick to condemn others' faults, help me to recognize my own reflection, and let the conviction lead me to repentance rather than to self-righteousness. Show me myself as you see me, and draw me back to you. Amen.