The big lesson from our passage (2 Samuel 12) is that, there is someone upstairs watching what we do. We have not been left to do as we please. Our God is the perfect example of a father who keeps watch over His own, keeps them in check and in line.
I marvelled at some Christian people I knew who after making so much noise about being loved and cared for by the Father in Heaven, go all over the place doing as they please without any godly restraint. If it is true that you have a Father in Heaven, then He cares about you, and as much about how you run your life and your relationships. He is insistent about what is right and wrong. You won’t determine those by your own self. An orphan, on the other hand, is free to do as he or she pleases.
Moreover, confidence comes out of placing one’s self under the control of Heaven. A carefree Christian is necessarily prone to the shadows of fear. This is because the claim of connection to God is often superficial, without any real basis in reality.
David slips into error here, not only because he snatched someone else’s wife and killed the husband to cover up but also by telling himself that what he did was fine. David assured himself that Uriah was a soldier, and soldiers fall in battle all the time. To rationalise one’s misdeed is what the Bible calls to cover one’s sin. To that extent, he who rationalises his sins shall not prosper. The way back to God is to acknowledge one’s error and be contrite about doing so. The real church of Christ is a place where God convicts sins and self-righteousness. Nathan the Prophet, even though a close friend of King David, goes to confront him about his misconduct. David had a spiritual watch over his life who had the audacity to tell him the whole mind of God.
It may not always take this form in today’s church. I mean, God may not always send you a minister to confront you about what has been done in secret. What happens in most cases is that, the word given from the pulpit will locate you! But how many ministers of the New Covenant still yield themselves as God’s vessels to convey the whole counsel of God to His people? This is not a popular road path considering the current obsession with numerical growth and other trappings of success in today’s ministries. Rather, the trend is to tune down the truth so as not to ruffle feathers. Many times, what we have is a conscious looking the other way rather than risk losing membership!
What this calls to question therefore is, whose church are we putting at risk in the first place? Who called for the work and whose purpose is the church there to serve? If to have people walk away is considered sacrilegious, then what do you call an assembly that has lost touch with the Lord?
An assembly in which the head man or woman is afraid or lacks the freedom to minister as an Oracle of God can hardly be called a church. Until a more appropriate term is found, it suffices to call such a dead church. Once upon a time, men took delight in deceiving others. Nowadays, they have taken to deceiving themselves. I have never quite understood why anyone would lie to himself or herself that they are Christians when in fact, they have absolutely no desire to please or serve the Lord! To serve the Lord on your own terms is self-delusive. I think, first of all, when the habit of attending church has been formed, that habit tends to stay long after the original motivation has been lost. Secondly, some simply love to wear the Christian toga regardless of the fact that they do not wish to relate with the Lord seriously.
The self- willed and the self-righteousness have no place in any living church. Some start well but join themselves to companies that gradually or rapidly rob them of their ernestness. Like rotten mangoes, they fall away. And the living church must be perfectly fine with it.
We also note here, very importantly, how David pronounced judgement on himself. How quickly do we judge the error of others? He did not realise that he was the erring party! The beam covering our face is often very small and an insignificant speck! The speck in our neighbour’s eye is, on the other hand, bigger than a walnut tree. This is our nature, unless we submit ourselves under the cross afresh and allow the Lord’s deeper work to begin all over in us.