Fido with a "Baa"

It’s Nathan and the story he tells is classic. He says that there is this rich man and this poor man. The rich man is loaded! He’s like the Donald Trump of Jerusalem. He’s got goats, cows and sheep coming out of his ears. He’d be a subject for “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” His neighbor (they must not have had many zoning laws in that day to keep the riff raff out of the neighborhood) was poor, and only had one pet lamb. It was their Fido with a BAAA. Ok, lets call her BAA, BAA. Now, when the man eats his Brown Sugar Cinnamon frosted Mini-wheats in the morning, there’s Baa Baa sucking milk out of his bowl. And when Baa, Baa get’s thirsty she laps eight o-clock columbian coffee right out of his Peace Church mug. When he goes to be at night, Baa Baa roots down in the bed at his feet and lays her head across his shin. She is Fido with a BAA.

Well, one day Donald Trump has visitors touring his Jerusalem high rise. He wants to treat them to local cuisine, Lamb chops and linguini. He looks at his herd, but instead of taking one of his lambs, he spies Baa, Baa running around in the yard and sends one of his servants to catch her, kill her and serve her up for dinner.

Well, when David hears this his face turns red with anger, and never stopping to think about the sin, he’d committed, he jumps to his feet in condemnation. “That sorry scoundrel deserves to die!” He says, “and, furthermore, before he’s lynched, make sure he pays that pour man back four times what he took.”

Obviously, he wasn’t prepared for what happened next for in a dramatic moment, the bony fingered prophet turns to him and says, “David, you are the man!” Wow! That was a personal rebuke and it took courage. David was the king and he could have immediately had Nathan killed, but Nathan continues on, showing that this rebuke is not coming from him, and that is what makes it powerful. He says, “Thus says the Lord, God of Israel.” The Preacher’s Commentary says: “What David heard was not just the voice of his people, or the voice of a preacher who didn’t like the way he had been acting: David heard the voice of God and he knew it.”