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. – 2 Samuel 12:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 1, 2019): 2 Samuel 12

I remember when I first started to date the woman who would become my future wife; as I write this, we have been married thirty-seven years. Trust me that says more about her than about me. But the reaction that I received when I first started to tell people that we were dating was a little comical. Usually, I was greeted with a blank look, and then maybe a confused look, and then often the words “I don’t get it.” Nelda and I were, and are, very different people. But then again, maybe there is truth to the idea that opposites attract.

Many have tried to explain the phenomenon. Some argue that it is the differences between us that provides for the spark that our relationships need to last. But I wonder if it is something else. I wonder if we have the innate ability to recognize our faults in others better than we can see them in ourselves. I mean, I have never met anyone who understands that they are a “know it all?” But place two of them in a room, and you had better get ready for some fireworks. The reality is that fireworks are not likely to exist because of differing opinions, but rather because neither of them can tolerate people who think they “know it all.” We seem to see our own faults clearer when they are revealed in someone else. Therefore, it is not just in our romantic relationships that opposites attract, but in our other relationships as well. (It might also mean that the relationships we need are the fiery ones with people just like us.)

David had sinned dramatically against God and his friends. But he had also excused his failing. He had rejected the conviction of the Holy Spirit, not just after the murder of Uriah, but at the height of his lust for Bathsheba. God had been speaking to David throughout the story, and David constantly pushed those feelings of conviction aside. He had also rejected his conscience and his own understanding of right and wrong. And in the place of the conviction of God and David’s knowledge of right and wrong, David had placed expediency. He had to do it. Especially the murder of Uriah, in the wake of his affair with Bathsheba, had to happen if he was going to remain in power.  

Nathan could have come and confronted David with the facts of what he had done, and it most likely would have resulted in nothing. David had already convinced himself that this was merely the way it had to be. David had come to believe his own excuses. But instead, Nathan clothes David’s crime in the relationship between a couple of ordinary farmers who lived in the same city. It wasn’t David, Bathsheba, and Uriah the Hittite, a but a rich man and a poor man and their sheep. And Nathan hoped that the sin that David had been blind to in his own life, would be revealed in a story about two men who were just like David and Uriah, but not David and Uriah.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 51