Yesterday I posted that one of the benefit’s of having a truth teller in you life is that a truth teller can help you find clarity about who you really are and what you’re really about. The second benefit is that truth tellers like Nathan will confront wrong in your life. Nathan’s second conversation with David concerned that very thing, as the Lord sent Nathan to David in order to confront him about his sin with Bathsheba.
So the LORD sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.” David was furious. “As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The LORD, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. Why, then, have you despised the word of the LORD and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own. “This is what the LORD says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel.”
Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Samuel 12:1-14, NLT)
Nathan’s expose error in our lives and point to sin. Nathan began with a story because stories and images are the most infectious transmitters of truth. It’s important to understand that when Nathan came to David he came as one David trusted. He did not come with a judgmental spirit of condemnation, rather, as one motivated by love who was seeking to redeem and restore. In short, he wanted David to be the best David he could be. Judgmental people want to “tell the truth.” Nathan’s want to help you “do the truth.”
Eudora Welty wrote that “Nathan’s are less about finger pointing as they are about parting curtains.”
Who’s the person in your life who is not afraid to haul you before the tribunals of truth? Some people want to “catch you” in your sin. Nathan wanted David to catch himself in his sin. He wanted to help David see the very thing he was running away from.
We need radical honesty in life. We need it in the little things, like “you have food in your teeth.” We also need it in the big things, too. It takes courage to allow a Nathan into your life. Doing so is like having a surgical procedure done with local anesthesia: you have to stay still.