You are the man

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. – 2 Samuel 12v7

In David’s time, as through much of history, the king was the executive, legislative, and judicial branch of government. Here the prophet Nathan came to David as judge and presented what appeared to be a legal case to the king.

Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: "There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."

David was justifiably appalled. His judgement was swift and severe. The man would be executed and his estate would pay the wronged man back fourfold. David’s reason? The rich man had showed no pity.

It may sound like a harsh judgement, but that was the norm for that day and time.

Can you imagine the feeling in David’s stomach when Nathan said, ‘You are the man!’ Nathan did not need to explain himself, David knew what he meant, but Nathan went on anyway to describe how the rich man’s sin was just a picture of David. Unknowingly, David had passed judgement on himself.

Isn’t it easy to judge someone else’s sin while missing our own? Jesus addressed this with when he said that we need to get the beam out of our own eye before inspecting other’s eyes for a speck of dust.

We need to be careful. As the old saying goes, when we point our finger at someone else there are usually four fingers pointing back at us.

Let’s be careful that we are not so busy judging others that we forget that we may very well be the one.