A Wayfaring Man

• David did not eat this lamb. This was the man whom the Messiah would come from.

• It was not David’s appetite that hungered for the lamb. This was the man who destroyed Goliath.

• In fact the lamb did not satisfy David’s palate. This was the man who worshiped with abandon when the Ark was returned.

-The lamb was destroyed for the wayfaring man. The lamb was robbed from the poor man. This lamb was stolen from a safe haven.

-When David understood the story, he became so enraged that he demanded that the man who had committed such an act would be killed. He is going to die. Nathan calmly, quietly, and firmly spoke back to David, “Thou art the man!” That statement ought to strike terror in the heart. It should terrify us with it’s heart-searching accusation.

-David, you have just demanded and summoned for your own death. Look at how angry he was as the story is being told.

• The spoiler is eager to punish the lesser scoundrel.

• The villain is ready to destroy a lesser villain.

It is always a sign of a lack of knowledge of our own hearts when we judge our own lives leniently and judge others critically. There was a painter in the old days who was noted as a savage critic of other artists. When he was asked how he could ever pass any of his own work when he had such a keen and critical standard, he informed them: “I have only two eyes when I look at my own work but I have a hundred eyes when I look at the work of others.” This admission states the case in far more things than simply artistic criticism.

• We can pluck out the splinter from our brother’s eye, but be equally ignorant of the beam in our own eye.

• We can pass sentence and applaud judgment on the cruelty of another, but our own cruelty we do not even perceive.

-It is not until some prophet ambles through and focuses the light of judgment on our act and puts before us what sins that we have works in the lives of others. It is not until we see the terrible temper reflected of a man on the gallows of justice before we are able to comprehend our own devices.

B. An Illustration of Exploitation

In December 1925, guests at the swankiest hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, watched with interest as a mysterious man arrived in a Rolls-Royce driven by a chauffeur. Over the next days they studied this handsome man, who walked with an elegant cane, received telegrams at all hours, and only engaged in the briefest of conversations. He was a count, they heard, Count Victor Lustig, and he came from one of the wealthiest families in Europe–but this was all they could find out.

Imagine their amazement when Lustig one day walked up to one of the least distinguished guests in the hotel, a Mr. Herman Loller, head of an engineering company, and entered into conversation with him. Loller had made his fortune only recently, and forging social connections was very important to him. He felt honored and somewhat intimidated by this sophisticated man, who spoke perfect English with a hint of a foreign accent. Over the days to come, the two became friends.