David does not see his own sin

March 14

Read 2 Samuel 12:1-10 and reflect on the passage.

It is tough when the average Joe Makes a Big Mistake; but when a leader falls the ramifications are felt all the more. That was the case with Israel’s “Golden Boy,” the man after God’s own heart—King David. We know from the text that things were turning down a dark path when David does not go with the army to fight in the spring. The idle time did him no good and he finds himself making huge compromises and breaking multiple commandments. David even has one of his dearest friends murdered to cover up his sin. This was not David’s best day.

But by God’s grace, he is confronted by one of the Lord’s prophets. Nathan tells David a story of a rich man who robs a poor man of a prized possession. Even in David’s sinful state he knows the gravity of the offense and pronounces capital punishment for the rich man. That is when Nathan turns the tables on the king—David is the rich man in the story, and he is the one who ought to “pay.”

If not for God’s forgiveness, this “man after God’s own heart” would have had to pay a debt he could not afford.

Questions

1. Have you done something that you know is wrong that needs to be confessed?

2. Will you ask God to search your heart and remove every unclean thing?

Prayer

Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.

—Brodie Taphorn