The reason I got on that scale, however, was because of a little note I received from a young girl the previous evening. A Filipino, she is part of one of our communities. Her note said: "Brother Aneel, you need to watch what you eat and look after your health because we need you around for a lot longer." What I read between the lines was this: You’re getting fat! Watch your weight!
I think of this young girl as a Truth Teller.
We all need Truth Tellers to point out things that might be going wrong in our lives, or make us aware of blind spots in them that we can’t see unless they are told to us, or neglecting things that we should be paying more attention to. The Bible has many stories of Truth Tellers, one of the most famous being Nathan who spoke the truth to King David (see 2 Samuel 11-12). Here is the story in brief.
He sent a servant to find out about the woman. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” (2 Sam 11:3). Rarely in Scripture, is the geneology of a woman mentioned, and it is highly relevant that in this case, not only is mention made of her father, but also of her husband. The servant, a Truth Teller if anything, was gently pointing out to the king: this girl is somebody’s daughter and somebody’s husband. Think about what you are doing.
Lust is blinding and the king ignored the warning. He sent for Bathsheba and consummated his desire for her. Satisfied, temporarily anyway, he sent her away, believing it to be the end of yet another little adventure, but this was to turn into a misadventure, because the woman became pregnant with his child.
Worried about the reaction of her husband, Uriah, a popular soldier in David’s army, the king immediately became to think of ways to cover up the discovery. Finally, he sent for Uriah, who was currently fighting a war, ostensibly on the excuse of finding out what was happening on the battlefield, and once the conversation was over, he sent the husband home, thinking he would sleep with his wife and believe the baby born was his.
Uriah, however, did not think it was right to go home to his wife when his fellow soldiers were out fighting a war so he went and spent the night in the barracks.
Alarmed, but undaunted that his first Cover Up Plan didn’t work, David sets Plan #2 in motion. He sends for the soldier again, this time plying him with alcohol, believing that drunk, Uriah would go home to his wife. Yet again, however, Uriah showed that he had more morals than this now dissolute king and spent the night in the barracks.
Unnerved, but determined that Uriah should never discover the truth, the king thinks up Plan #3, and what a plan it is. He sends for Uriah once more and this time gives him a letter to take to his army commander Joab. In the letter is written this: “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” (2 Sam 11:15)
Uriah died in battle.
David waited for what he thought was a decent time, then made Bathsheba his wife and now, with everything satisfactorily resolved, undoubtedly believed that life would continue as usual. Fortunately, for him, it didn’t.
I want us to pause here for a moment and look at the state of David’s soul at this moment in time. Anybody who has experienced the passions of lust, knows how self destructive it is. And how consuming it is. I had told a story in an article I had written about lust some time ago of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, but it offers an insight into the all consuming, self-destructive nature of lust. "First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.
Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night.
So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!"
Though the Bible doesn’t say so, I’m pretty sure that David had become like this wolf who had tasted frozen blood, with murder, after the initial guilt pangs, only whetting his appetite. He was heading for certain destruction until God decides to send a prophet called Nathan to tell the king some hard truths.
It isn’t an easy job. The king has already murdered once. What was there to stop him murdering again? Nathan decides not to confront the king directly. He tells him a story of two men, one a rich man with a large number of sheet and cattle; the other a poor man with nothing by a small little ewe lamb that he loved like a child. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. One day a traveler came to the rich man. Rather than take an animal from his huge flock to prepare a meal for the traveler, the rich man took the poor man’s ewe and slaughtered it.
David burned with anger and said to Nathan, "The man who did this deserves to die."
Nathan says to David, "You are the man.”
This scene would be a movie director’s delight, I imagine. Two men, frozen, eyes fixed on each other. Both trembling. One out of rage. The other out of fear.
I can almost hear the thoughts running through both men’s minds. David thinking, “How dare you come before your king with a story like that?” Nathan thinking, “Please Lord, let this not end with my death.”
The king’s hand drops to his sword. He thinks, “Okay. So I gotta kill this guy too. Big deal.” And Nathan, “Oh dear, here it comes.”
But then a long pause as memories fill David’s head. Of a shepherd boy being plucked out of obscurity to be anointed as king of Israel. Of slaying a mighty giant with one smooth stone and instantly ending a war. Of dancing in joy before the Ark of the Covenant as he brings it back to Israel. Of the wonderful relationship that he used to have with God.
David's hand drops. Tears roll down his cheeks. He repents. (And Nathan, I imagine, starts breathing again.)
What if God hadn’t sent Nathan to David? I believe this story would have had a totally different ending. David needed a truth teller to understand the evil of what he had done (and was possibly still doing). All of us need a Truth Teller in our lives. Find one in your life today.
And then act upon the truth that you are told.
Ever since I realized that I needed to lose weight, I have started going out for walks again. It was a little problem finding the time for it because I wake up at 5.30 and sleep at 12.30, and other than a short nap in the afternoon, all the time is spent in work, study or prayer. (I could have skipped the nap, but with temperatures reaching 45 degrees at this time of the year, I wouldn’t be able to do much without getting a serious case of sunstroke.) I discovered, however, that if I skipped breakfast and reading the newspaper, with a few other adjustments, I could free up an entire hour in the morning. I use it to walk. And if I persist, I am sure the end of the month would see me leaner and fitter. And my dear Truth Teller can see me around for a few more years :)
Next: Other Truth Tellers in the Bible
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