Matins Devotion - August 20, 2026

2 Samuel 12:1-25

Nathan’s little parable in our reading from 2 Samuel this morning is obviously of great benefit to King David because it brings him to repentance over his sins. But these words are also a great blessing to preachers.

Nathan most certainly understands that you can’t necessarily walk up to someone cold, and call him an adulterer and a murderer. In the case of the king, he might have you put to death, but in the case of regular folks, they’ll just close their ears to the important words of condemnation you have to speak. Rather, what Nathan recognizes is that, if you stoke a man’s outrage at someone else’s sin, it’s too late for him to bottle that anger back up when you reveal that the someone else is actually him. He either has to defend the indefensible in himselfor acknowledge that the evil he was just screaming about three seconds earlier is, in fact, still evil when it’s born from his own heart.

And so, my advice for preachers is to avail yourself of the Nathan trick. Stoke your people’s anger about the evil in the world, and then show them how that same evil has been bursting out of their own hearts. Get them cheering as you condemn the persecution of Christians throughout the world, then show them the ways they persecute the faithful with their own sins. Win their applause by condemning the licentiousness and mammon-worship of the world, then show them how their hearts are brimming with the same lust and greed. Let the people know that they’re right to be repulsed by the sins of others, but once they proudly announce themselves as Team Repulsed, show them how they must now be repulsed by their own manifestations of those transgressions.

Do that and then you can show them God’s beautiful answer to our hideous iniquities. Just as David was spared death as his innocent son died in his place, so we too are spared from death from another Son of David, the greater Son, the Son born not of adultery, but of a virgin, the Son born to bear not just the sins of David, but our sins as well. The blood of Jesus has washed you clean and given you the right to live forever. May we always hate the repulsive sins of the world. May we always hate the repulsive sins in our hearts. And may we always rejoice to receive the beautiful love of Jesus Christ that has made us pure.