The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."
Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!" ...
David couldn't believe it. Nathan had been referring to him the whole time. This was because of what David had done to Uriah the Hittite-- sent him to the front lines to be killed, then took his wife, Bathsheba, to be his own.
Times don't change much. We still become severely indignant over other people's wrongdoings, while remaining blind to our own.
Readings: 2 Samuel 12:1-31; John 16:1-33; Psalm 119:65-80; Proverbs 16:4-5
