Trust and testimony

Trust

The coming judgment

A foretaste of the gospel

A much-neglected name of God

Leadership in the Old Testament

Blow the trumpet!

“Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say: ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’ Cry aloud and say: ‘gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities! Raise the signal to go to Zion! Flee for safety without delay!’

For I am bringing disaster from the North, even terrible destruction. A lion has come out from his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to lay waste your land. Your towns will lie in ruins without inhabitant. So put on sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” (Jeremiah 4:5-9)

This is Jeremiah at his strongest and most confident; delivering a broadside in the early days of his ministry when news had reached Jerusalem that the Babylonian army was on the march. The whole pronouncement is in poetry, which would no doubt have made it more striking for those who heard it in Jerusalem, at a time of complacency and comparative prosperity.

It is difficult to date this passage but the indications are that it came soon after the untimely death of Josiah and early in the reign of his son Jehoiakim, which puts it in the period 607-600 BC. The Babylonians were busy acquiring sections of the old Assyrian Empire and steadily moving towards Judah (the Northern Kingdom of Israel having already been scattered by the Assyrians).

This proclamation from Jeremiah is a perfect example of the prophetic ministry in action, performing his role as the ‘watchman’ of the nation and messenger of God. It is a series of announcements, each in the imperative to add drama to the news being conveyed: “A lion has come out of his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out” (v7). But this was no ordinary piece of news. The Babylonians may have been the army that was threatening Judah and the holy city of Jerusalem, but the agent was God!

Claiming Immunity

Ever since the Temple, envisioned by King David but built by Solomon, was dedicated, it had been more than just a place of worship for the God of Israel. It was a living monument to the covenant between God and the house of David – the dynasty that David founded, that was endorsed and blessed by the Lord.

Hear God’s solemn promise at the dedication: “If My People who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

This proclamation from Jeremiah is a perfect example of the prophetic ministry in action

That promise had become the focal point of a ‘royal-temple ideology’¹ that screened out covenantal reality and permitted self-deception. The aristocratic families surrounding the King who were in charge of the national government, and the priestly aristocratic families who were in charge of the Temple, were all under the deception that Jerusalem (represented by the Temple) was inviolable and that Judah as the Promised Land could never be invaded by a foreign army because it was under the protection of Almighty God. It was this delusion that Jeremiah’s harsh poetic pronouncement aimed to dispel.

Jeremiah alone seemed to perceive that they had failed to recognise that their covenantal relationship with God was conditional! It was conditional upon the people of Israel being totally faithful to the Torah, with the Decalogue at its centre – especially having no other God than Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Judgment Inevitable

The royal-temple ideology assumed that the covenantal conditions were fulfilled through morning and evening prayers in the Temple, conducted by the priests on behalf of the nation. But this was a mere religious ordinance.

This was the message that Jeremiah was called by God to proclaim (hence the imperative in his poetry): “Sound the trumpet throughout the land!” The purpose of sounding the trumpet was not simply to warn of the dangers on the international horizon, but to bring a message of warning from God: “I am bringing disaster from the north, even terrible destruction”.

There is no call for repentance in this pronouncement – only a call to put on sackcloth and lament. Jeremiah perceived the inevitability of judgment upon the nation and he knew the hardness of the hearts of the people. He had already called for them to break up their un-ploughed ground - the hardness of their hearts - but there had been no visible response.

Without repentance and turning, the covenantal relationship between God and Israel was dead. In fact, it was worse than that: it was a dangerous delusion that would bring disaster upon all the people, the priests and the prophets as well as the King and his family. No-one would be spared.

But the stark message of this pronouncement was that it was not the Babylonians who should be feared, but the God of Israel who had been deserted through the idolatrous practices of the people. There were even hints of this within the Temple itself, which showed the utter spiritual corruption that had become embedded into the nation.

Jeremiah perceived the inevitability of judgment upon the nation and he knew the hardness of the hearts of the people.

Depths of Conviction

The poetic pronouncement concluded with a declaration from God himself, beginning with the apocalyptic phase “In that day”. It stated the stark reality of the judgment that was about to descend upon Judah: “The King and the officials will lose heart, the priests will be horrified, and the prophets will be appalled.”

The fact that there is no ‘unless’ - no call for repentance or softening of the message - shows the depths of conviction that Jeremiah had received in his time of standing in the council of the Lord. In those moments in the presence of the God of Israel, time had been suspended, the future had become the present, shadow had become reality. The full horror that was about to descend upon the nation had been revealed to the Prophet. Like the Apostle Paul some 500 years later, he could not keep silent: “Woe unto me if I do not declare the truth of the word of God!” (1 Cor 9:16).

Of course, Jeremiah knew that if there were repentance in the nation, the Babylonian army could not penetrate the walls of Jerusalem or bring devastation to the cities of Judah, because there was no power on earth that could defeat the God of Israel. But he also knew the hardness of the hearts of the king and the priests and the leaders of the nation, who were blinded by a powerful spirit of corruption from the world that prevented them from perceiving the truth.

We Need Prophets!

The New Testament has many warnings of a similar blindness coming in the days leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus. 2 Timothy 3 speaks of this and the letters of Peter have strong warnings of the delusion that will drive the nations into a time of darkness and infect the Church with different forms of corruption.

Those who have prophetic gifts today need to spend more time in the council of the Lord, as Jeremiah did, and then to declare boldly what they are hearing and seeing revealed. In these days when the leaders of the Western nations have turned away from truth, and when many church leaders are also blinded by various forms of spiritual delusion so that they are unable to declare the word of the Lord, the greatest need is for the Lord to raise up prophets in our midst.

May those who have learned to stand in the council of the Lord, to recognise his voice, to understand how he is working out his purposes today – be given boldness by the Holy Spirit to declare the word of the Living God in this godless generation that is hungry for truth, but does not know where to find it.

References

1 E.g. Brueggemann, 1999. A commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and homecoming. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

This article is part of a series. Click here to read previous instalments.

The heart of God: Dr John Garvey considers the prophetic psalms of David.

King David does not often appear on the list of Israel’s prophets. But Peter certainly regarded him as a prophet (see Acts 2:30). In fact, there are more quotations in the New Testament from the psalms which are attributed to David than from any of the other prophets, with the exception of Isaiah.

Not only was David a prophet – he was the head of a school of prophets. In 1 Chronicles 25:1 we see that David set aside “some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.” All the men of this hereditary guild of prophets were under the supervision of their fathers, and the fathers were under the supervision of the king himself. “The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets” (1 Cor 14:32) indicates that it was not only as their king, but as their senior prophet, that David was overseer of their ministry.

We can read the work of some of these men in the Book of Psalms, and this is also the place where we find David’s prophecy. The style and content of his words are very different from the other prophets. This is because the psalms were written as songs for temple worship, and not mainly for teaching or exhortation. What we know of David’s gifting agrees with this – he was a poet, not a preacher.

A Prophet and a King

But how did David become a prophet? We are used to prophets who confront kings, not kings who preside over prophets! We are not told directly of his call, but it seems likely that the start of his ministry coincided with his anointing by Samuel as king, when “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power” (1 Sam 16:13).

The cosy idea we sometimes have of the shepherd-boy David writing psalms whilst tending his sheep is unlikely. In the NIV, there are a few psalm headings which may suggest that they were written before David began his reign (for example Ps 34), but he had already been anointed as king. He may have been a poet and musician from his youth, but it took the anointing of the Spirit to make him a mouthpiece for God.

Not only was David a prophet, he was the head of a school of prophets.

However, anointed kingship alone did not make him a prophet either. Of the kings who were descended from him, only his son Solomon was a prophet, and though Solomon wrote many proverbs he only wrote one psalm. What was so special about David? To answer that, we must look at the content of his prophecy.

It could be argued that every psalm is prophetic, because all were inspired by the Spirit and included in the canon of Scripture. But it will be more useful here to distinguish ‘prayer’ from ‘prophecy’ and look at those parts of David’s psalms which specifically declare God’s will and foretell his future acts. If we do this, we find that David’s prophecy has two particular emphases.

Prophetic Themes

His first theme is the righteous and the wicked, viewed as a king would view them; as the righteous who need to be encouraged, and the wicked who need to be disclosed and weeded out of the kingdom if the king is to rule well. Examples of this are Psalm 5:9-10 (quoted in Rom 3:13), where David calls on God to banish the wicked; and Psalm 12:5 – God’s own oracle to a discouraged king declaring that he himself will protect the weak and needy from those who malign them.

His second theme is the king himself, and in particular the descendant whom God promised would inherit his throne forever. God had made this promise to David by the Prophet Nathan: “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever” (2 Sam 7:12-13). This is the promise, or covenant, on which depends the whole concept of Jesus as the Messiah, or Anointed One.

David may have been a poet and musician from his youth, but it took the anointing of the Spirit to make him a mouthpiece for God.

In Acts 2:30-31, Peter said that David was a prophet and “knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.” This refers to Psalm 16:8-11, which Peter had already quoted to the Pentecost crowd.

The apostle presents a picture of David as trusting fully in God's promise and being enabled by the Spirit to see something of how it would be fulfilled in Jesus. How far he understood what he was seeing, and how far it was unconscious, we perhaps cannot know.

King of Kings

Some psalms, like Psalm 110, seem to have been written for use on royal ceremonial occasions, such as a coronation. That is, they concern David himself and the later kings as well. And yet, they include things which could never apply personally to any human king, as Jesus himself pointed out (Matt 22:41-46). In Psalm 110 David calls the king “my Lord” (v1) and “a priest for ever” (v4).

Other psalms, like Psalm 22, were personal prayers which, in the light of the events of Jesus’ life, astound us with their accurate prediction of his sufferings. It is almost as if David himself, half consciously and half unconsciously, were living out the life of the coming messianic king.

This is perhaps the best way to look at David's prophetic gift. Unlike the other prophets, he was not just a chosen watchman, but himself a central figure in God's salvation plan. He was the first of the royal line that would lead to Jesus. He was a ’type’ of Christ, just as the Passover was a ‘type’ of his Passion and the temple a ‘type’ of his Church.

Like King Jesus, King David rescued his people from their enemies, ruled them with justice and compassion, and led them in their worship of God. His victories foreshadowed Christ’s victory. His sufferings exemplified those of the one who was to come. Israel looked back at the golden age of David as a model of the eternal reign of ‘David’s greater Son’.

David was not just a chosen watchman, but himself a central figure in God’s salvation plan.

Understanding the Heart of Christ

No man before David ever understood better the mind and heart of Jesus. The very nature of his role as Israel's archetypal king, a “man after God's own heart”, led to so many comparisons with the life of his promised successor. Then again, God's providence created more parallels, such as his persecution by evil men and his betrayal by close friends. We see these reflected in David's prayers, prayers from the depths of a godly heart. If we add to that a spirit guided by prophetic insight to see what his descendant’s reign would bring, then we can see that David’s prophecy gives us a unique view of our Lord.

We might almost say that if you want to know what Jesus has done, you must read the Gospels; but if you want to understand his heart, you must read the Psalms. This, above all, is David's prophetic word to the people of God today.

Trust and obey: life lessons from the ministry of Samuel.

 In the sixth part of our series on the relevance of the message and ministry of the non-writing prophets for today, Pete Dye looks at Samuel.

The significance of Samuel as one of the great men of God is often unrecognised. In some ways he was second only to Moses as a leader of God’s people - Israel. Samuel was also the last of the judges, and the measure of his worth as leader is seen in the kingdom that emerged under Saul and then David.

After settling in their land, the 12 tribes had quickly become disgruntled and divided. The structure of their nation was falling apart. The judges, whom God raised up, were often only recognised by one tribe or group of tribes, and only briefly did they unite the people. It was a time which the writer of the Book of Judges summarised as: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Jud 21:25).

Samuel's Early Years

Samuel's father, Elkanah, had been married to his mother, Hannah, for several years. They had no children, so Elkanah took another wife who was fruitful and bore him children. Although this provided Elkanah with what he desired it also brought division into his household.

Hannah, a godly woman, took her burden to the Lord and vowed that if he gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord. The Lord answered her prayer and Samuel was born. Hannah fulfilled her vow and brought Samuel to the Lord. He lived in the house of the Lord under the tutelage of Eli, without his mother's closeness. Eli, his substitute parent, was ineffective as a father - as was demonstrated by the behaviour of his sons Hophni and Phinehas, who were wicked men.

In some ways Samuel was second only to Moses as a leader of God’s people.

Although, at first, Samuel did not recognise the Lord speaking to him, once he did he responded immediately and gladly. This marked out his life; he was a man who heard God clearly and was obedient to what he heard. One of the great needs of today is for men and women to do just this. God has provided us with his written word as a benchmark, but he also speaks clearly through the prophetic word, which must always be tested.

Intimacy with God

In many ways, Samuel was a shadow of our model, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Psalmist describes the Messiah as the one who says, “I desire to do your will, O my God” (Ps 40:8). Jesus had an open ear to his Father. Is this not the secret of any ministry that God blesses? It begins with this kind of intimate relationship with God.

The Lord was with Samuel and his early experiences set the tone for his life. As God spoke to him so Samuel was able to speak the word of the Lord clearly to the nation. It was more than just the word of the Lord, however! Samuel had an intimacy with the Lord as the Lord revealed himself through his word (1 Sam 3:19-21). The Lord showed Samuel in incredible detail what would happen, and then confirmed his word by its fulfilment. In that way, God let ‘none of his words fall to the ground.’ Should we be expecting that kind of prophetic word today?

As a young man, Samuel knew intimacy with God through prayer. Like Moses, he was a man who talked with God. His public praying was a reflection of the private relationship he had with God. Jeremiah 15:1 links Samuel and Moses in this respect: “Then the LORD said to me: ‘Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go!’”

The people of Israel had reached a situation of utter disgrace before God. They had been under Philistine oppression and had lost the Ark of God in battle. They had never had authority from God to use the Ark in the way that they did, and it was only a sovereign act of God that made the Philistines return it.

Samuel was a man who heard God clearly and was obedient to what he heard.

Repentance

20 years were to elapse before the people turned to the Lord in repentance: “It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord” (1 Sam 7:2). During this time Samuel was able to speak to the nation clearly about God’s terms.

If there was a seeking after God from the heart, then there were things to do to express that repentance. He called the nation to cleanse itself from the false gods that had been tolerated and they responded to his call. They put away all their false gods and determined to serve the Lord alone (1 Sam 7:4). On this basis, Samuel could call the nation to come together.

The implication of Scripture is that this repentance was in part the result of Samuel's ministry. Although his words had come to Israel, his words had also come to God in prayer. At the right time, in this national gathering, he could pray publicly for the people of God. Scripture records that the Lord both heard and answered his prayer (1 Sam 7:9).

Is this not relevant to God’s people today? Are there not false gods worshipped by God’s people in modem Britain? There are gods of materialism that are avidly worshipped in the modern church. They may be more sophisticated than the Roth of Samuel's day, but just as insidious and destructive to the people of God. Samuel was straight with God's people. They had to serve God alone and his preaching had great effect.

Man of Integrity

Another feature of Samuel’s ministry was that he was a man whose judgment could be trusted. He never judged to please men of importance. He could be trusted and did not accept bribes. He was scrupulously fair. Sometimes good men can make bad judges, and some bad men can make good judges. Samuel was both a good man and a good judge. Even while Saul was king, Samuel was the supportive elder statesman who did not get in Saul's way. Samuel made a circuit of Israel; from Bethel to Gilgal and Mizpah and then back to his administrative seat in Ramah, Samuel would travel the land.

Samuel was straight with God's people - they had to serve God alone, not idols.

Our modern world, despite its sophistication, is full of dishonesty. This even affects the Church. The Christian in business and work a few decades ago would be known for his integrity. I believe that Christian standards are slipping. We have become too much like our culture in its dishonesty. Maybe God is calling us afresh through Samuel to live lives of transparent honesty and integrity before the world and in the Church. People respect that and feel safe with it, even if it makes them feel uncomfortable. We need Christian leaders with that same characteristic.

Sacrifice and Cost

There was also a cost involved in Samuel’s life and ministry. His mother had promised him to God as a Nazirite (1 Sam 1:11). And so he was, his life was totally consecrated to God from his days in the sanctuary at Shiloh under Eli until his death.

But it was never easy. He went through experiences that the modern psychologist would use to excuse unrighteous behaviour. He left home at an early age and may have felt rejected. He lost the sanctuary that had been his home at Shiloh when it was destroyed by the Philistines. He could so easily have become bitter because of this. Then his sons disappointed him. He had great expectations of them and made them judges, but they accepted bribes and did not follow his ways.

He was the leader of Israel, but was told by God to first anoint Saul, and later David, to be king. Samuel felt deeply rejected by this, and God had to point out to him that it was the Lord who was being rejected. Samuel was only rejected because he was God’s anointed representative. What an example to us as we excuse our behaviour because of our circumstances!

Samuel's home was at Ramah. He administered justice and built an altar to the Lord there. His home, his work and his worship were all in harmony. Some Christians manage to compartmentalise their lives. They can be keen Christians as far as church is concerned, and yet at work no-one knows that they are Christians. Sometimes they are different at home to how they are in church. Samuel was consistent and presents a tremendous challenge to us. His godly life and example were the means which God used to bring together 12 ungodly tribes into a nation that was one under the leadership of David.

John Job continues our series on the message and ministry of the non-writing prophets.

Shakespeare has introduced us to the king's jester. His function was much more than making jokes. He played the same sort of role as the press today in holding authority in check. In Old Testament times, the one who was supposed to do this was the court prophet.

Sadly, the record of such men was abysmal. Jeremiah summed up the problem with his unforgettable comment that they spoke “peace when there was no peace”, that is, they went along with policies which should have been resisted. They approved of proposals which meant marching into the jaws of catastrophe. But, there were exceptions. One was Nathan.

Nathan's Mission

Early in his reign, King David went off the rails with a series of disastrous errors. It began with indolence. It was the time of year when kings usually went out to war. The army went, but David stayed at home. This was the root of the problem, for David looking on from the vantage point of his palace spied (lower down the hill) a woman bathing.

Soon it was a case of adultery and, to crown it all, Bathsheba (as she was called) became pregnant. On hearing this news, David attempted a cover-up. He summoned her husband, Uriah, home from the fighting, and encouraged him to go home to his wife. When he demurred, the king ruthlessly engineered his death: he ordered that Uriah be stationed at the most dangerous point in the battle line.

This was when Nathan was sent to rebuke David - a high-risk venture! It could easily have seen him summarily executed. Any realisation that we have broken the law requires action to make amends, and what is less obvious but equally true is that we are called to react when somebody else is flagrantly at fault, not least when it is a matter of hurt or broken relationships.

Early in his reign, King David made a series of disastrous errors which began with indolence.

My father went out of the back door one night in 1938, and saw the next-door neighbour about to drop his wife from an upstairs window. “Stop!” he shouted. It takes courage to interfere with one's next-door neighbour, but next morning the man came round and thanked him.

Nathan's problem called for a different approach. We do not know how his message from God came to him, but he hardly received a divine fax to relay to the king. Simple awareness of David’s wrongdoing created a responsibility to say something about it. In such circumstances, we are challenged to translate God's message into terms with maximum impact on the person concerned, and yet present it in the most gracious way possible.

Nathan’s Tactics

At this point, Nathan has a good deal to teach us. He did not attempt his mission like a bull at a gate. Instead, he gradually came round to the issue that he wanted to raise; as did Jesus when he wanted to confront the woman at Sychar with the sinful promiscuity which had led her to be living with her sixth partner. In the end, his message came out with crystal clarity, but he led up to it with a friendly and tactful conversation.

He was not like an Antiguan girl I once partnered with in house-to-house visiting on a student mission. To women who answered the door that Friday afternoon, expecting to pay their milk bill, her approach shot would be, “What do you think of Jesus?” It was one of the most effective conversation stoppers l have ever heard!

Nathan did not make this kind of mistake. He began by telling David a story. Significantly, it was about a shepherd. Again, there is a striking resemblance to Jesus' technique with the Samaritan woman. In her case, water was what dominated her life. Because she was an outcast she was obliged to fetch it in the heat of the day and could not do it at the usual time of morning or evening. Jesus used the notion of thirst to bring home to her the spiritual need behind her depressed search for acceptance, security and love which had led her from one man to another.

Awareness of David’s wrongdoing created a responsibility for Nathan to say something about it.

Similarly, shepherd language was mother's milk for David. From his earliest youth he had minded sheep and there is evidence that he did it in an exemplary way. It was nothing for him, he told Saul when volunteering his services to fight Goliath, to engage in single combat with lions and bears if they attacked his flock. The enemy champion would be just one more victim for his presumption in challenging the flock of God.

Nathan's Parable

The story that Nathan recounted was of a wealthy sheep-farmer who had limitless flocks, while his neighbour possessed one pet ewe-lamb. The ’fat cat’ had a visitor one day whose arrival called for a meat meal — something of a rarity in the Israel of those days. But, instead of killing one of his own sheep, he took the lone lamb from next-door and served that up.

Only a story, but David became so involved and angry that he spoke as though the guilty farmer could be spirited from Nathan's parable and made to pay four times over for the lamb he had taken. “You are the man”, said Nathan, and with devastating directness he spelt out first the privilege God had conferred upon David by making him king; then the love he had shown by protecting him from a chapter of murderous attempts on his life by Saul; then the generosity he had shown him, such that he had only to ask for as much again as he already possessed and his prayer would have been granted. How had all this been repaid? By laziness, adultery, deceit and murder.

Nathan went on to warn David of the results of his action. Bitter experience years later when Absalom usurped the royal harem on the roof of the palace for all to see must have reminded him of what the prophet had said to him. Painful, painful words, no doubt. But, they were tempered by what was to come. For when David admitted “l have sinned against the Lord”, Nathan was able to reassure him: “The Lord has laid upon another the consequences of your sin.”

In learning how to deliver God's message with grace and yet maximum impact, Nathan has a good deal to teach us.

He was referring to the fact that Bathsheba's son was going to die and, when this happened, David was to see it as the punishment that he himself deserved. No Christian can read this, without seeing reflected what we ourselves owe to Jesus, whose death on the Cross is not only a rebuke to sin, but the assurance of God's forgiveness for sins however grave.

The Message for Today

We can learn first of the need to speak to those for whom we are charged with God's message in language which they can understand. It is no good simply firing at them texts torn from the Bible. What they need to grasp is embodied in Scripture, certainly; but it needs to be presented with the same imaginative insight that Nathan used to get across what God had to say to David.

Biblical teaching is embedded in a culture alien to ours and far removed in history. A bridge has to be built between this and the mental furniture of those with whom we want to communicate. If you are talking to 10-year-olds about the danger of idolising possessions, it is no good talking to them about land or houses; it has to be video games or mountain bikes.

For the average Near Easterner, originally addressed by the Ten Commandments, a donkey was a prized possession and figures in the injunction against covetousness. No doubt you could find somebody today who might covet a donkey but, in the garden of the standard suburban semi, it can only be a liability. So the biblical language needs translation: the donkey of the Near Fast becomes a Jaguar car for 20^th Century man.

The second thing to notice is that for Nathan's bow there were two arrows. The first was the arrow of rebuke: it needed to wound because David was unaware of the heinousness of what he had done. It was an arrow which had to be fired with subtlety. If the shot had been too obvious, David might have seen it coming and shielded himself. But there was also the arrow of healing in the prophet's quiver. Once the king could acknowledge that he had grievously sinned, the way was open to declare that God would forgive him.

In Nathan’s bow were two arrows – the arrow of rebuke and the arrow of healing.

Forgiveness

So it should be whenever correction is the order of the day. Not only does it need to command a hearing, but it needs the back-up of restoration. Sometimes in the face of exposure, a person's life will fall about him like a house of cards, but the Christian never goes into such a situation without offer of a remedy.

Even David: adulterer, murderer, dissembler though he had been, was a candidate for pardon. He is there to convince the most abject offenders that no net is beyond God's power to unravel its meshes and release them, no deed so damning as to prevent his raising up the head that hangs in shame.

Here then is a good test of our motivation. Any Pharisee can put others down. The fuel for self-righteousness comes from finding fault with somebody else. But it is no part of the Pharisee's stock-in-trade to offer forgiveness or restoration to the victims of his criticism. He depends on keeping his victims in the condemned cell to convince himself of his own adequacy. Certainly, there are times when a Christian has to take the lid off wrong-doing. but not without offering the recipe for God's pardon.

Do we desire to make that offer? That is the acid test of whether our attitude is truly Christian. If it is a spirit evident in Nathan. we ought to be able to harbour it much more. For we have heard the risen Christ speak his word of peace to disciples who knew that they were implicated in nothing less than his death upon that appalling Cross.