Confronting Sin

 "David grew very angry with that man and said to him: 'As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity.' Then Nathan said to David: 'You are the man!'" 2 Sam 12:1

What must it have been like for Nathan to confront David about his lust and greed? Unable to control his desire for another man's wife, David sleeps with Bethsheba and then to cover his sin puts Bathsheba's husband and his friend, Uriah, in harms way. The vulgarity of David's action is overwhelming and Nathan, as God's prophet, must address it.

Cleverly concocting a story about a rich man, with lots of cattle and sheep, who takes the only sheep of a poor peasant to feed a visitor, Nathan asks David's opinion about the rich man. Enraged, David says the rich man should be killed. Only then does Nathan tell David that he is the rich man. Trapped by his own words, David acknowledges his sin.

What to do and how to respond to evil is a struggle everyone faces from time to time. A column in in the Wall Street Journal several years ago (Pope Francis and Jane Fonda) compared the generosity and challenge of Pope Francis to the awful record of Jane Fonda's Foundation which had not made any gifts for five years. While not suggesting that Jane Fonda was evil, the column confronts all of us, and especially the wealthy, who fail to open their eyes to the needs of the world and respond generously. Sins like David's and our own need a Nathan to challenge us to do justice with compassion.

Today, share something you have without counting the cost.

How difficult is it for you to confront social sin in yourself and others?