Wednesday after Reminiscere
Posted on March 3, 2021 by under
Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:1-14 (NKJV)
12:1 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. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 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. 4 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.”
5 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! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
7 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. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! 9 Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’”
13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
Devotion
David’s sin was profoundly wicked. He acted treacherously and violated multiple Commandments. But the Lord had pity on him when he repented. David did not shift the blame or claim that he had good reason for his misdeeds. He repented and said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” In Psalm 51:3 David says, “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”
This is very different from what the false teachers encourage people to think. We often think that we can make the sins of others an excuse for our own. Or we use double standards where we downplay our own sins even as we show spite toward others who have committed similar trespasses. Even reading this, our sinful hearts tempt us to think, “Yeah! I know other people who do that!” But faith teaches us to acknowledge our own transgressions and repent of our own sins in sincere humility.
Our Lord Jesus taught us to pray “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Here we confess that we have sinned against the Lord, sometimes even as greatly as David did. But we also remember that He will forgive us as we show the same repentance that David did. In this petition we ask that He make us truly humble, able to love others as He loves us.
Prayer: O God, who seest that of ourselves we have no strength, keep us both outwardly and inwardly that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
