Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – 2 Samuel 12:1-12
Set – 2 Samuel 12; Psalms 51
Go! – 2 Samuel 11-12; Psalms 51; Matthew 23
2 Samuel 12:1-12
1The Eternal One sent the prophet Nathan to visit David. Nathan came to him and told him a story.Nathan: Two men lived in the same city. One was quite rich and the other quite poor; 2 the rich man’s wealth included livestock with many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man owned only one little ewe lamb. He bought it and raised it in his family, with his children, like a pet. It used to eat what little food he had, drink from his meager cup, and snuggle against him. It was like a daughter to him.
4 Now a traveler came to the city to visit the rich man. To offer a proper welcome, the rich man knew he needed to fix a meal, but he did not want to take one of the animals from his flocks and herds. So instead he stole the poor man’s ewe lamb and had it killed and cooked for his guest.
Nathan stood back, waiting for the king’s verdict. 5 David grew very angry at the rich man. It was his royal duty to protect the poor and establish justice.
David: As the Eternal One lives, the rich man who did this deserves to die. 6 At the least, he will restore that lamb four times over because he acted without pity.
Nathan: 7 You are that man!
This is the message of the Eternal God of Israel: “I was the One who anointed you to rule over Israel, and I was the One who rescued you from the hand of Saul. 8 It was I who gave you Saul’s house, Saul’s wives, and dominion over both Israel and Judah; and if that were not enough, I would have given you as much again.
9 “So why have you despised the word of the Eternal and chosen to do evil in His sight? It was you who killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and stole his wife, even though you used the Ammonites to do the dirty work. 10 Now because he was killed with the sword, the sword will be your constant companion. It will hang over your household, bringing death and violence to your family, since you have despised Me by showing no regard for My law, and you have taken Bathsheba, the lawful wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.”
11 This is the message of the Eternal: “I will bring trouble on you in your own household—right under your nose. I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will flaunt that he sleeps with them in the light of day. 12 You did your evil in secret, but I will do this out in the open, in front of all Israel.”
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
“You are that man!”
When you get your eyes off of Me and look to satisfy your base desires in ways that violate My laws it’s easy for you to overlook your sins. It’s easy for you to point fingers at others and try to cover your own guilt, but it never works.
David thought he could cover the guilt he felt after his adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife by getting this mighty warrior killed in battle and then making the public think he was doing an honorable thing by taking her into his house as one of his wives. The public thought David was a truly compassionate king for his kind actions toward this poor widow of a fallen soldier. But he and Bathsheba knew better. Both of them and I knew better. They knew and I knew the real secret of their affair and the child they conceived together. They knew of David’s murderous plot. They knew of the treachery in David’s heart to hide his guilt from the people he served.
Sin cannot be kept secret. It will always find its way into the light no matter how hard the perpetrators work to keep it hidden the darkness. And sin will always affect more than just the one who commits the atrocity. David’s sin affected his whole family and ultimately the entire kingdom of Israel as his son slept with David’s concubines in view of the people and then tried to overthrow his father from the throne. David’s family from the point of his sin became filled with incest, rape, hatred, plots to gain control of the throne, violence, and murder. David found forgiveness for his sin, but lived through the unrelenting consequences throughout the rest of his life.
Sin cannot be kept secret. Someone will find out. Just like the leaks you hear in the press about some sordid affair, some secret indiscretion, some unjust action, some shady deal, sin breaks out into the light and the consequences of those actions reap a harvest. I forgive when men and women come to Me in repentance and with a contrite heart. But the consequences of actions may still follow. The harvest comes.
Nathan reported to David the story that uncovered his sins and drove him back to Me repentantly. Listen to My voice early in life. Listen to Me often. Listen to Me every day to avoid the traps that Satan throws in front of you. Don’t let him trick you into thinking you can hide your actions or satisfy your desires without consequences. The harvest always follows the sowing. Don’t make Me send a prophet to you to declare, “You are the man!”
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