"Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, 'There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; rather he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.' Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, 'As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.'" 2 Samuel 12:1-5
I really want to encourage you to read this passage a few times from different perspectives before continuing. Imagine yourself as the rich man, the poor man, David, and Nathan.
I bet it's most difficult to sympathize with the rich man – as people of Christ we just can't imagine doing such a thing. Taking something from someone else that they care so much about; we would probably be doing just the opposite. Trying to locate a gift that someone really wanted in order to give it to them.
On the other hand, the poor man is probably the most easy to sympathize with – I know that you have all felt like the "unlucky" victim of some sort of "unfair" treatment at some point in your lives. Maybe you even feel this way because, like the poor man, something that you cherished was stolen from you.
Sympathizing too much with David also proves to be difficult because most of us have read this story more than once so we know that Nathan is actually talking about David. In other words, we can't authentically put ourselves in David's shoes because he is hearing the parable for the first time and we already know the outcome.
So that leaves us with Nathan, and sympathizing with Nathan is recognizing that he communicated the Gospel to David through accountability. Well…technically God used accountability to communicate the Gospel to David, but it was through the prophet Nathan. You see, one of the ways God shows us His love is through discipline which occurs because of accountability. We need someone to hold us accountable – to tell us when we are not living as Christ lived, to be an instrument of the Holy Spirit in working repentance in our hearts that we might return to right living. God held David accountable via Nathan and God holds us accountable through one another.
Now, there is more to this, but I want to let this simmer. Think of this DoP as one side of a two-sided coin. Think about how Nathan used a parable to hold David accountable. Think about the tone of voice he had to use before The King of Israel – I can't get into all the details here, but The KING of Israel was "da' man" back in those days. I mean – "DA' MAN." Nathan has no idea how David will respond, he may even lose his life when he tells David that he is the rich man. Imagine how much anxiety Nathan must have felt knowing that possible outcome. How much time in prayer do you need before you do that sort of thing? I spend days sometimes in prayer just for the anxiety of seeing certain people at the ball park.
My point in all of this is that the Gospel is communicated through appropriate accountability, which requires love and understanding and some serious time in faithful, trusting prayer asking for preparation and protection.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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