HOW DO YOU TELL A POWERFUL KING that he was wrong? A king who had many victories at war and was reverently obeyed by both generals and servants alike? The prophet Nathan did just that in the book of Second Samuel in the Bible, and the story shows that the only way we can effectively point out sin to others is by trusting the communication of divine Mind.
In the story, King David lusted after Bathsheba, the wife of one of David's soldiers. He sent for her and later, when she conceived a child by David, he arranged to have her husband, Uriah, killed. The king put Uriah in the front lines of battle, and he was slain (II Sam. 11:15). "But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord" (II Sam. 11:27). For his own redemption, it was imperative to wake David up from his mesmeric dream of lust and self-will. To accomplish this, according to the story, "...the Lord sent Nathan unto David" (II Sam. 12:1). But this was a dangerous mission for Nathan. David could have entrenched himself in self-justification and become enraged with Nathan for bringing him the message from God that David had sinned and must redeem himself. The king could have even put Nathan to death for talking to David in this way.
But because "the Lord sent [him]," Nathan was open to Mind's direction as to how to accomplish his mission. He didn't start by mentioning David's sin. He simply told a story of a rich man who had many flocks but who nevertheless robbed a poor neighbor of his only lamb. King David's response to the story was outrage: "And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die... And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man" (II Sam. 12:5, 7). In that moment, David himself recognized and condemned sin. Nathan had accomplished his mission in an impersonal yet powerful way.
