God Will Send Us Our Nathan
Like King David, we can get up in our sins. Often, this leads us to lose sight of the fact they are sins. And, we seem to forget that sin is displeasing to God. Thankfully, God is not willing for any to perish so He will send us our Nathan.
Remember though, that Nathan is a wake up call. He comes to show us what we are doing and why it is wrong. Then he makes possible our opportunity to repent. After we repent, we can have our relationship with God restored to full health.
Forgiveness May Not Include Healing
We must keep in mind is that our sins will bear consequences. And God is not obligated to remove those consequences because we asked for forgiveness. Forgiveness makes us right with God.
For example, the Bible is against “drunkenness.” Drunkenness means someone who drinks alcohol to excess. As a result of this excess, they may have damaged their liver. God sends this person their Nathan – and they repent. Their repentance means that they will quit drinking to excess. Why? Because they no longer want to part-take in something that displeases God. They desire to be the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. They know they are forgiven, however, the damaged liver may remain. The damaged liver is not a punishment, it is a consequence of neglect to ones health. God has forgiven the person but He is not obligated to heal because He forgave.
YES, God CAN BOTH FORGIVE AND HEAL. However, forgiveness doesn’t mean a healing will occur.
And one of the things that stuck out to me in my study is how some people would see this lingering of the consequences as God punishing them – that’s not so – its just how laws work. For example: The law of gravity – no matter how many times we jump off of a table we will land on the floor below – why? Because gravity makes things fall. What about the law of thermodynamics which lets us know that things will wear out — no matter how many times we clean that favorite pair of jeans they will never be the same as they were the first day we bought them and eventually they won’t be any good for wearing either.
Back to 2 Samuel 12
Where Is Your Focus for What Is Right
- Is it on God and His Word?
- Is it on what is acceptable in our current society?
- Or are we comparing ourselves to what others are doing – and think “Well, I am not that bad.”
- Is it on a slogan – “Everyone is doing it so why can’t I?”
The Right To Choose
I think that is one of the coolest things about God – He lets you and me make choices – He lets us decide what we want to do with our lives – BUT – He has also let us know that there will be consequences to our choices.
Consequences Are built Into Our Choices
Galatians 6:7-8 – gives us this very important law to not forget: “7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
Put another way: Deuteronomy 28:1-2 – “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: and Deuteronomy 28:15 – 15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
As we can see from both the New Testament with sowing and reaping and with the Old Testament the Laws of blessing and cursing — they work the same as gravity mentioned above. If we do this ____ then this is the natural result ___.
The actual outcome of our life is determined by a choice
Choose Jesus, He is Our Life and Our Salvation
Acts 4:12 – There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
John 3:16 – For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Back to King David and What We Can Learn
Now we are ready to go back and take a look at King David – last week we ended with the statement that “David had displeased God“. This week will see God’s faithfulness towards one of His servants by sending him his Nathan. And as a result of this event we can count on God sending us our Nathan.
God Sends David His Nathan
With The Parable of Choice
David Is Deeply Moved By the Injustice of This Situation
Wake Up David
Hasn’t God Been Good To You
Wouldn’t God Give You Anything You Would Ask For?
God Tells David How He Views The Situation
David is Told Exactly What Will Happen As A Result of His Choice
David Repents
God Forgives
Forgiven – Still Has Consequences
Conclusion
Thank you, for taking this side journey into David’s life with me, where we got to see first hand the cooperation of the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness.
What did we learn – that we need to have our lives firmly grounded in God’s truth (remember Jesus is the Word) and then we need to wear the righteousness of Jesus as our lifestyle.
Next week we will finish this three part example, from David’s life by looking at the Psalm he wrote as his declaration of repentance.
Prayer
Abba Father, please help us to always seek Your truth – to have our belt tied on tightly so we can see lies and deceit for what they are and so we can put on Your breastplate of righteousness and live our lives as Jesus lived His totally dependent on You and letting You fight our battles for us. In Jesus’ name Amen.
Has God sent a Nathan’s your way? I am so thankful for the Nathan’s God has sent me – I do want to follow God with my whole heart. I am sure I will see a few more Nathan’s before my life is through.
