Thou art the man

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.”
So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
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 12.1-7

David may have thought it had pulled it off. His dirty little secret was known only by himself, Bathsheba, and General Joab. As awful as it was it looked like it worked.

Yet one day the prophet Nathan came to him with a tale looking for the king’s ruling in a civil case.

There were two men in a certain region. One guy had vast flocks of sheep. He was very wealthy. The other guy had nothing but one lamb and he treated that lamb like a pet.

Instead of killing one of his sheep, the rich guy came in, took the poor man’s lamb, and had a feast for a visitor.

David was furious!

‘The rich man will be killed and four of his sheep given to the poor man because he did this horrible thing and had no pity.’

The Nathan said something that must have frozen David’s heart – ‘you are that man!’

David must have felt like everything was crashing down around him. It was over. His sin was exposed.

And thus it goes with sin. You can’t hide it. Eventually indeed, your sin will find you out.

David was ‘that man’ before Nathan told him. The sin he was so quick to judge in another he was willing to ignore in himself.

What would David do now that his sin was exposed?