Burying Our Heads
Nathan Rebukes David
1 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 deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."
7 Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'
11 "This is what the LORD says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.' "
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. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."
If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.
—Galatians 6:1
Bee's Thoughts:Someone said the reason God called king David "the man after God's own heart" (1 Sam 13:13-14) was David was always willing to repent immediately when he realized his sins. He has a repenting spirit that always seek to please God. That's why David prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart" (Psalm 139:23).
With repentance comes immediate forgiveness, yet punishment or the consequences of sins might be inevitable for certain types of sins, such as murder.
We are very vulnerable to sins, especially when we are not vigilant, even though we may have a heart for God. The important thing is to constantly ask God to search our heart to keep it pure.
Dear Lord, keep my heart pure Lord. Let me not just bury my head in the sand but to face and repent from any known sins. Let me have the spirit of king David to always want to please You.
I am very tired today after work. Help me to catch up with sleep tonight. Thank You that tomorrow is a Public Holiday. Amen.
Tommy's Thoughts:
I had a chance to share with a non-believer friend today. I never thought God will arrange it so perfectly for me to do it at the right time and the right setting. I was prayerfully asking God to help me in words when I spoke because I know I can get really excited and worst being insensitive to how little they know about Christianity. Thank God it was ok.
It’s amazing so much we can learn from the Bible like in today’s devotion. Like what I explained to my friend; if we were to read it slowly even a short passage in the Bible, it can bring so much meaning and wisdom that we can apply into our daily life.
Some of the lesson I’ve learnt from today passages:
Do not rob from others
Like in the Nathan’s story to David, sometime we are too selfish and focus on our own gain and pleasure; we might directly or indirectly stole some thing or someone from others. Like the little ewe lamb in the story, it’s something the poor man hold dearly to and loves the most.
Think twice before criticizing others
There have been many incidences I observed personally that when a person criticizes or condemns another, they are often criticizing their own character flaws. It happened to my own self sometime, unconsciously. Sometime, we become so insensitive to our own flaws that we didn’t realize we are actually exposing them when we criticize others. Whenever we feel like criticizing or changing others because we find it hard to accept their qualities, ask God first to help us to understand their feelings and observe our own flaws more clearly instead.
The Irreversible
Today passage also touches on the consequences of sin. I’m always tempted to make it as an excuse to continue doing wrong knowing God will forgive and accept me back every time. But, like David who child would have to die because of the sin he’d committed; we can’t escape the consequences of our action. It is true God can forgive all our wrongs and restore our relationship with Him, but He doesn’t eliminate all the consequences of our wrongdoing. So we need to stop dabbling in sin because the consequences will not only affect us permanently but also to those close to us. They are irreversible.
Confront Sin with Wisdom, Tact and Gentleness
There were many times I failed miserably in this. My mistake was I didn’t pray for God’s leading in my words to others and ended up being frustrated and discouraged when I was misunderstood. Nevertheless, we need not to bury our heads and giving up doing anything; we need to ask for God’s guidance when we want to make our close one aware of their wrongs. We need to pray for courage, skill and tact; think through before we speak and present our message seasoned with wisdom and express with gentleness.
Dear Lord, thank You for all these lessons today. Help me Lord to always remember and apply them in my life whenever I’m dealing with others. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
.......the devotion of Bee & Tommy
