"And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon."
2 Samuel 12:5-9
Right before this, Nathan the prophet tells a story to David about a rich man stealing a lamb from a poor man, and that's what gets David angry... and then David finds out that the story was about him and the fact that he slept with another man's wife and then had him purposely placed in a situation where he would be killed.
It is possible I suppose that David didn't realize at first how seriously wrong what he was doing was, since he had killed many people in war, and was used to having multiple wives and concubines. I don't know what he was thinking. To us though, obviously adultery and murder (indirect or not) are wrong, so we probably don't need to go into that a lot, but what I find really interesting here is the way that the Lord shows David the import of what he did wrong... and I think that it is something instructive that we can all think about and likely apply in our lives.
That's actually one of the ways that fiction can really enhance our lives--by giving us that step away from our own perspective, to be able to see a situation that is personal to us in a symbolic way and apply those lessons to our lives. I think it is also a very merciful way to show us our own faults, by getting us to grasp the idea of being wrong before we are confronted with the fact that we're staring at our own lives. Direct confrontation often makes us angry and defensive, but storytelling has a good chance to lead us to see the truth for ourselves.
Today, let's take a step back and think about how we would look at our own lives if it were a story told to us about someone else. Would we agree with what we are doing, or would we be angry, as David was? To be clear... I am *not* asking what other people would think of our lives. I am asking what *we* would think if we thought the story was about someone else. If we would be appalled, and I'm guessing we all have a little bit of that in our lives, then let's work on those parts, and get them out of our stories.
And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon."
2 Samuel 12:5-9
Right before this, Nathan the prophet tells a story to David about a rich man stealing a lamb from a poor man, and that's what gets David angry... and then David finds out that the story was about him and the fact that he slept with another man's wife and then had him purposely placed in a situation where he would be killed.
It is possible I suppose that David didn't realize at first how seriously wrong what he was doing was, since he had killed many people in war, and was used to having multiple wives and concubines. I don't know what he was thinking. To us though, obviously adultery and murder (indirect or not) are wrong, so we probably don't need to go into that a lot, but what I find really interesting here is the way that the Lord shows David the import of what he did wrong... and I think that it is something instructive that we can all think about and likely apply in our lives.
That's actually one of the ways that fiction can really enhance our lives--by giving us that step away from our own perspective, to be able to see a situation that is personal to us in a symbolic way and apply those lessons to our lives. I think it is also a very merciful way to show us our own faults, by getting us to grasp the idea of being wrong before we are confronted with the fact that we're staring at our own lives. Direct confrontation often makes us angry and defensive, but storytelling has a good chance to lead us to see the truth for ourselves.
Today, let's take a step back and think about how we would look at our own lives if it were a story told to us about someone else. Would we agree with what we are doing, or would we be angry, as David was? To be clear... I am *not* asking what other people would think of our lives. I am asking what *we* would think if we thought the story was about someone else. If we would be appalled, and I'm guessing we all have a little bit of that in our lives, then let's work on those parts, and get them out of our stories.
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