Home | Articles | Poetry | About The Author | Contact Us |
There is an example in the Bible that never ceases to amaze me related to God's forgiveness of our sins. It is found in 2 Samuel 11:1-17 and 2 Samuel 12:1-13 which speaks about King David, Bathsheba, and the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Those of us who read the Bible from cover to cover each year in addition to further study are familiar with this account where Nathan, one of God's prophets confronts King David. For others who are not familiar with this Old Testament narrative, there is so much to consider. In order for David to "wake up" to what he had done, Nathan presents him with a powerful parable about a poor man, a wealthy man, and a visitor. The poor man owned nothing except one little ewe lamb which was tenderly nurtured with great love and care, thriving amongst his children, fed by his hands with his own food, carried about wherever he went holding the ewe close to his chest, even considered like a daughter to him. This solitary lamb was wrongfully taken and slaughtered for food when a traveller came to visit the wealthy man who abused his power because he actually owned many flocks as well as herds, so he had an abundance of stock at his hands to take from and one less would not have been noticeable. Despite his great wealth this rich man refused to provide from his own animals. He had no regard for the value of the poor man's lamb, nor for his feelings, displaying an ugly attitude of callousness, meaning his heart had become hardened. Imagine the loss, the pain, the incredulity of an incident that was so easily preventable.
This scenario is not at all what David expected to hear — immediately arousing great anger over the injustice David instantly recognised — he did not make the connection yet that Nathan was speaking about the very man standing before him so he was objective in his decision of judging himself guilty and worthy of the death penalty. Nathan bravely jolted David back into the reality of what he had done in sinning against God and others, as David was completely clueless to a series of actions he committed beginning with lust and coveting, then justification, deception and lying, which then snowballed to include adultery and murder. Sin upon sin upon sin. David was blind, oblivious to it all while buried in sin at this comfortable stage in his life during his reign as king — whatever he said was done while wielding ultimate authority on earth, and he could have had Nathan killed for confronting him on this as great leaders and rulers do not want to hear they are wrong. Subjects and subordinates tend to "turn a blind eye" just to have favour in their sight. Nathan however was righteous and obedient to God. What about us? How would we react to a loving confrontation like the above example revealing our sin that we cannot see for the life of us? May God be merciful to those who genuinely want to confront their secret or hidden sin by asking for God's help. What will any one of us be challenged on — negativity, condemnation of others, or self righteousness — perhaps even all three in a triple whammy! The delivery needs to be given in a very loving, planned, well considered manner like that of Nathan's confrontation of David rather than unleashing furious anger in an outburst of raised shouting. As they say, it's all in the delivery.
While we may think it incredulous that David had no perception of his sinful actions until Nathan was sent by God to alert him, we also realise that we have all been guilty of sin that has equally stared at us in the face yet we have denied it, even going so far as tolerating our own actions. My first realisation of this came one month after my baptism when attending my first Passover. As a Catholic I never even considered that I was guilty of Christ's brutal death, reasoning that I was not even physically present back in 31 A.D. — then came my "wake-up" call and it was a bitter pill to swallow. We are all guilty as it is written in Matthew 27:24-25. We see the sins of others more readily and are quick to judge and/or condemn them. We tend to be much easier on ourselves but must continue to work on rectifying this, hopefully by closely and accurately judging ourselves intensely with God's help at this time of year during the pre-Passover season. It is better to confront ourselves through the process of self examination than for others to do so well after the fact. Once David realised he was "that man" Nathan was talking about he was cut to the heart, remorseful, deeply repentant and ready to change. This was a huge "wake up" call for him and he suffered the consequences, surviving only because of God's great mercy. His subsequent prayer to God over his sinful actions is found in Psalm 51. This is the David that God declared was a man after His own heart in Acts 13:22. He was not perfect but did all that God asked from him. Likewise we are far from perfect yet we must do all that God asks from us too.
It is very easy to get in a comfort zone, stuck in a rut, go with the flow, take things and others for granted especially in a marriage for example, where we can become so comfortable and relax our ways with our spouse that we may say and do things that hurt the other one, not because we want to hurt them but we do it without thinking. Then, if you add chronic illness to the mix, and episodes of acute, on top of chronic pain, this adds even more to the burden and is particularly hard when one may have been relatively healthy all their life. Then there may be additional trials of financial difficulty, loss of employment, family issues out of our control while the devil presses our buttons non-stop, and any number of things to test our character. We need to be open and honest, for it is not right to hide anything from a beloved husband or wife so we should dutifully pray about these things, these trials, and sit down with one another and speak in love the words God gives to you in order to join again as one. The devil loves separation where people hardly talk, do everything separately, and just please themselves — this is exactly like a marriage of convenience. There needs to be intimacy as only a husband and wife share; this is the glue that binds one to another and is only reserved for marriage. 1 Corinthians 13 shows us the way back to our spouse. Forgive each other. We must not ever punish one another by keeping quiet and giving the other the "silent treatment". Forgiveness is powerful, beautiful and a gift we are able to give. God forgave David for sins so heinous it was a shock to read about it the first time for me (was this the same David?) as he went from a humble shepherd boy to a man who took whatever he wanted, covered his trail, and did not care about the consequences.
Perhaps this is your first Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread season since your baptism, or it may be many years or even decades since your baptism, yet for those of us who make this annual rededication and commitment in earnest, we all need to examine ourselves intently by searching for our sin, looking carefully like we do for the leaven in our homes and within our property including cars, caravans, bags, clothing, shoes, toasters, pantries, fridges, freezers, and possessions. As we may realise, yeast is closely correlated to sin which demonstrates the process of dough rising, puffing up just like sin does in our hearts. Yeast and leavening agents in the Bible are strongly linked to sin which is the transgression of the law, God's law (1 John 3:4). Leavening gets in everywhere, therefore we must dig deep into all the cracks and crevices of our possessions while we systematically and thoroughly go through the rigorous exercise of cleaning up our hearts and minds, and this takes time.
Repeated sins may be easy to find but we can be oblivious to sin hiding behind a thick barrier in our mind like a closed trunk stored in the attic full of junk and things we do not look at any more. It is out of the way but is it really? It needs to be dealt with now, not left there for next year or when we feel like it. Imagine if this is our last Passover! Here is what David wrote in Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting". This is a good template for us to use now while in humble sincerity and genuine desire for forgiveness as we place ourselves under God's microscope, as it were. God sees all our sin, our impurities, and has the perfect light to provide the accurate diagnosis — a damaged, hardened heart. What follows next is healing on repentance. 1 John 1:8-9 mindfully declares "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
Once we see and discover our secret and hidden sin during this process we need to despise, abhor and hate it. It must be so for all sin we commit. Get rid of sin immediately, bring it before God in prayer by owning up to it, don't try to get out of it like Adam did when replying to God in the Garden of Eden. His justification is recorded for us in Genesis 3:12 where we can read of Adam blaming his wife Eve for his actions, his choice, his sin. Accept that it is your sin then repent of it (Proverbs 8:32-36). Conquer those sins by addressing your ownership of them to God and do not put up with them or cover them up which David talks about by comparison in Psalm 32:3-5. Through the many trials he experienced David provides wisdom for us with the following inspired words in Psalm 19:12-13 "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults". Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression". There is just so much to learn from David. For me, his acknowledgement once confronted, and then his repentance was so profound and passionate that it really does inspire me to do better.