Thursday, August 30, 2012

"You are the man"-- the Word of God is addressed to you



The Word for today:
2 Samuel 12:1 -- 13:37


mark this: 2 Samuel 12:1-13


The prophet Nathan brings the Word of the LORD to David. He teaches David through a parable--about a rich man, and a poor man with but one little ewe lamb. The parable is reminiscent of the teaching method of the great Prophet and Teacher to come--Himself a solitary Lamb who will, like the lamb in Nathan's parable, die because of the sins of others.

The parable is devastatingly effective. The Bible student should read it carefully and take it to heart; the Word of the LORD isn't addressed to the other guy. It is addressed to you. It exposes David's sin and his hypocrisy, just as the parables of Jesus will expose my sin and hypocrisy. Just as they will expose yours.

Nathan's story, the parables of Jesus, and the entire Word of God reveal David, and you and me, as though we were looking in a mirror. It is a mirror that reveals us as we really are:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like (1).

Life is not complicated for the follower of Jesus Christ. Just look in "the mirror" every day. Do what it says.

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(1) James 1:22-24

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