Years ago there was a commercial
on TV about a President of a company who had called in his sales department to
tell them he wasn’t satisfied with the way the company was doing their
business, and things were going to change.
The company had forgotten the importance of face-to-face
interaction, and were dependent on
letters, phone calls, and faxes to create new and maintain former clients. Things needed to change and he passed out
airline tickets to different cities (it was a commercial for an airline), and
everybody was returning to personal interaction. At the the end of the commercial the
President had a ticket for himself to use, and someone asks him where is he
going. The President replied, “to see an
old friend.”
Our scripture for this week is
the conclusion of a familiar story in the Old Testament, David’s night of
interrupted sleep with Bathsheba which included lust, adultery, deceit, murder,
a cover-up, and long term family turmoil.
This is a type of story CNN, Fox News, or tabloid papers fight to report
first and embellish, not something we like to read in the Bible. However, many of us know this story and I
encourage you to re-read 11 Samuel chapters 11 and 12. Maybe our “symptoms” of sin are different
than David’s, but regardless of what our sin is, we have learned through this
sermon series even when our sin is “bad to the bone,” forgiveness is the heart of the matter of the
Gospel.
Some other familiar passages you
may want to read before Sunday are Psalm 51, Romans 3:9-31, II Corinthians
5:16-21, and I John 1:5-10. The
following questions may help us as we prepare for receiving God’s Word.
- Is there anything that stirs your imagination in the parable Nathan told David when he confronted David with his sin?
- How seriously did God look at David’s sin, and was there any judgment or punishment handed out when Nathan declared to David, “The Lord has taken away your sin.”
- At the end of II Samuel 12 the servants were afraid to tell David his son had died, and obviously they didn’t understand the change in David’s behavior after hearing of his son’s death. What do you think are some of the reasons for their fear and confusion?
- When we read Psalm 51 today, is there any conviction, comfort, or promises which stir you to come before the Lord?
- Is there anything unusual you don’t see in Psalm 51?
