Part VI : I Am the Man

Text: 2 Samuel 12:1-13

Upon hearing Nathan’s story of the rich man taking the poor man’s one little ewe lamb, David was enraged at the injustice of it all. “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!”

It’s so easy to see the mistakes and sins of others. They are just SO OBVIOUS! David, as King, would have passed judgment over these kinds of matters on a daily basis. But what about when he looks in the mirror? Keep in mind that it has probably been over a year since he saw Bathsheba from the rooftop. A year of looking in the mirror …

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” - James 1:23-24

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” - Matt 7:3-4

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!"

Just 4 short, 3-letter words. But with the power of a freight train. David is cut to the heart. Read excerpts from one of the Psalms he wrote:

Psalm 51:1-4

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

~ How quick am I to see sin in OTHERS? How slow am I to recognize it in myself? ~

--from Wednesday's class, Oct. 17