-----Nathan Rebukes David (NIV 12:1-7)-----
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 must 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!
I had a friend I would trust with my life. He was of solid, compassionate character and was full of wisdom and discernment. His word was his bond, and I could rely upon him fully. Then one day I began to notice a change in him. He began to make promises he couldn’t reasonably keep. Where once his speech was full of kindness and wisdom, it became wild lacking all self-control. His actions were in many ways grandiose and self-conflicted. Where once I would readily have trusted him with the keys to my house or car, I found myself having profound misgivings about his reliability, stability, and grasp of reality. Soon I found us drifting apart as my confidence in him began to wane and my lack of trust in him began to grow. Exactly who am I; and who is this man? I represent the nations of the world. As for the man?—you are America.
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