Gospel Reflections #1085: Seeing God's Rebuke

2 Samuel 12:7 “Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man.’”

Before the prophet Nathan was sent to King David, David had become intoxicated by his absolute power and had committed a series of grievous sins.

After committing adultery and murder, David took Bathsheba as his wife and carried on with his daily life as if nothing had happened.

David believed he had managed to conceal everything and had completely lost sight of the fact that God sees all.

The prophet Nathan, sent by God, did not confront David directly but instead told him a parable.

Upon hearing this, David flew into a rage, exclaiming, ‘That man deserves to die!’ and, driven by a fierce sense of justice, harshly condemned the heartless wealthy man.

David was completely unaware that this was a reflection of himself.

Immediately after David had passed judgement, Nathan cut to the heart of the matter.

These words contain the following profound lesson and meaning:

Whilst human beings can be astonishingly sensitive and harsh towards the sins of others, they become unbelievably blind to their own grave sins.

Nathan’s words shattered in an instant the false façade David had built up of being ‘a righteous king’.

In the Eastern world of that time, even an absolute monarch—who was subject to God’s law—was regarded as ‘above the law’, permitted to do whatever he pleased.

However, it was made abundantly clear that the true King of Israel is the Lord (God), and that even an earthly king is to be judged before God as a mere sinner.

From the second half of verse 7 onwards, God speaks to David, saying, ‘I made you king and gave you everything. If that were not enough, I would have given you more; why then did you despise my word?’ The essence of David’s sin lay not only in adultery and murder, but in ‘despising the immeasurable grace he had received from God up to that point’.

We, too, do things similar to what David did.

Even if we do not commit adultery or murder, we set God aside in our hearts, prioritise our own emotions and thoughts, and resort to every means to protect ourselves.

God does not judge David for breaking the Law, but rather makes him aware of his wrongdoing and calls him to return to God.

There are those of us who cannot accept rebuke delivered through other people.

Yet God uses others to make us realise our shortcomings.

Are we truly trying to see God behind the person speaking to us?

God never gives up on us; He continues to knock on the door of our hearts.

AUTHOR'S BIO: This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, who resides in Hiroshima, Japan. Masae is a dedicated student of the Bible with a deep passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on Gospel perspectives to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through a Christ-centered approach. We are sharing her insights here so that you, too, can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel and the love of God through Jesus Christ.