Article: YOU ARE THE MAN! | Jacob Varghese

Have you ever realized that you were wrong about yourselves? Have you ever been disappointed at your own behavior and been truly regretful? We all have blind spots in our life, where we do not see ourselves as we really are. How can that affect our spiritual life and our relationship with God? I want to take your attention to 2 Samuel 12:1-14. In 2 Samuel 12:13 we see then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin”.

Nathan told David a story about a rich man who robbed a poor man of his only lamb. Though the rich man owned herds of animals, he slaughtered the poor man’s lone sheep and made it into a meal. When David heard this story he burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” When Nathan revealed that the story illustrated David’s actions, David saw how he had harmed Uriah. Nathan explained the consequences, but more importantly he assured David, “the Lord has taken away his sin”.
I remember the story of a man who installed a security camera outside his house for the first time. He checked the video feature often to ensure that the system was working properly. Once as he was going through the video, he was alarmed to see a broad-shouldered figure in dark clothing wandering around his yard. He watched carefully to see what the man would do. However, the intruder seemed familiar. Finally, for his surprise; he realized he was not watching a stranger roam his property, but a recording of himself in his own backyard!
What might we see if we could step out of our skin and observe ourselves in certain situations? When David’s heart was hardened and he needed an outside perspective- a godly perspective- on his involvement with Bathsheba, God sent Nathan to the rescue. David had done brutal and terrible crime of adultery and shrewdly planned the murder of Uriah. Many out there are living their life like this, as though in forgetfulness, unmindful of God and what they have done; nonetheless, the bubble would burst soon. Never think God is unaware of what we are doing. He is watching us as our eyes wander lustfully and our thoughts ruin like thunder with evil thoughts. In the story we see, David did not go to Nathan the prophet, but God sent the prophet to David, to wake him up from ‘coma’ and therefore Nathan told a story of a rich man and poor man who owned a little ewe lamb. When David’s anger flared at the rich man in the story, Nathan sprung the trap by pointing his finger in David’s face and saying boldly, “You are the man!” David had condemned himself.
It is interesting how horrible our sins look to us if someone else is committing them. The very thing that we are condemning others for, if you will just change the scene and circumstances slightly you discover that you are the man. The Bible says that the person is inexcusable, who judges others but does the same thing himself. If God reveals sin in our lives, His ultimate purpose is not to condemn us but to restore us and to help us reconcile with those we have hurt. Repentance clears the way for renewed closeness with God through the power of His forgiveness and grace. What sins, do you need to bring to God in repentance in your life? How disgusting is the act of the wickedness and the greediness! Friends, when you look at your neighbor’s car, salary, wife, husband, clothes and house with wickedness and evil eyes, then you are not different from the rich man of the story.

The Bible talks a lot about being content and satisfied. Greed and lust leads us to destruction. In this story the rich man kept his flock safe but killed the little ewe lamb and prepared feast for his friend. What I saw in this story was not only the wickedness and greed, but dirty, arrogant, overbearing and pompous attitude of David; this is totally from the enemy. Any kind of highhanded behavior, pride and arrogance is from the devil. Actually, if we see deeply, this ‘sin of adultery’ happens in life when people are full of blessings, talents, skills, and bank balance then their heart becomes puffed up and their heart now wanders.

We ought to be very thankful that Scripture never conceals the faults of its noblest men. What a divine simplicity there is in the words of our text: “David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.” Not an easy thing to say; and as the story shows us, a thing that David took a long time to mount up to. It is more than an acknowledgment of imperfection and breach of morality. It is something different altogether from the acknowledgment that I have committed a fault against my fellow. Do not go away from God because you feel that you have sinned against Him. Look, my friends, at your own character and conduct; measure the deficiencies and imperfections, the transgressions and faults. Can there be anything more striking David said unto Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said unto David, “The Lord has taken away your sin”. Immediate forgiveness, that is the lesson that we would learn from this story. It needs but the confession in order that the forgiveness should come. And that one confession may be the turning-point of a man’s life, and may eliminate all the sinful past, and may bring you into loving, reconciled, harmonious relation with the Almighty God.

JACOB VARGHESE

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