August 2 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

2 Samuel 12:1-14

¹And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
²The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
³But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
⁴And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
⁵And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
⁶And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
⁷And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
⁸And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
⁹Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
¹⁰Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
¹¹Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
¹²For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
¹³And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
¹⁴Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

Devotional:

Here is a picture of the holiness of God and His hatred of sin. Adultery, even the lustful look or feeling, is not just a blot on our record, it is a sin against God!

And knowing the sinful state of mankind since the fall, Christians should be on constant guard against the sins of sex. We should shun TV programs, movies, music, dress styles, light jesting that tend to bring forth lustful feelings in ourselves or in those in our company. This applies, too, to light treatment of the institution of marriage or humorous comments or stories about sex. Nathan was a brave man to address David, now King of Israel, in the words of this parable. But, also, King David was a humble man to receive this rebuke as from God. And what a punishment! God regarded this matter very seriously. In us, who have received the completed revelation and the fullness of the Spirit, He regards this sin of adultery, and even the adulterous look, as being certainly as heinous. This is the teaching of this passage.

But God had other reasons for including this incident in His Book. It is a promise to us when we sin. The attitude which David manifested toward his sin is an example and inspiration. All of us fall. God would have us recognize our failures and come to him humbly in confession. He would have us receive His forgiveness and seek His power to resist temptation in the future.