Day 50

 

The Groupie

 

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!"

 

2 Samuel 12:7

 

 

 

He was a book store groupie. He was in the store almost every day. There were others that were groupies too. Two little old ladies would come in frequently and put some new books on lay away. That wasn't so odd except that they always had something on lay away. They would find a new set of books they liked, return the books that they had on lay away and had not paid off, then put the new books on lay away. They never actually made it home with books or paid something off out of lay away, they just had this revolving lay away going. Anyway, back to this guy.

 

He was a young man in his twenties and worked at a gas station near the book store. He was not too bright but he was curious. He had a new question for me every day. He didn't buy any books he just tried to look up answers in the books and when he came to a dead end he would ask me for help. Normally I didn't mind this and I would help him find what he wanted in a book or just answer the question that he had. He genuinely wanted to know more about the Bible. Sometimes his questions would be odd or we would be real busy and he would just pester you for his entire lunch hour.

 

On one busy day he came to me and asked what the Hebrew word for water was. It was not something that I knew of the top of my  head but I knew how to find out and what book to look in. It was too complicated for me to explain to him to find on his own because as I said he wasn't too bright. (In fact I'm reasonably sure he had some sort of learning disability). As busy as we were I didn't want to take time to look it so I just gave him a flippant answer. I told him that oddly enough the Spanish word for water and the Hebrew word for water are the same they are both "agua."

 

That is completely wrong. Well agua is the Spanish word for water but it is not the Hebrew word. (The Hebrew word for water is "mayim" just in case you are wondering or doubt my ability to find these things out). I thought I had got rid of him in a harmless and amusing way.

 

The next day he was back in the store only this time he wanted a job application. I asked him what happened to his job at the gas station and he informed me he had been fired. He told me his boss had warned him that customers were complaining because he was always witnessing to them and that he needed to stop. He hadn't stopped and had witnessed to one too many people and gotten himself fired.

 

Then he said, "My dad is going to be so mad at me for getting fired." He began to cry and said, "All I want to do is make my dad proud."

 

It hit me hard. I knew that I had not made my heavenly Father proud the day before with that flippant answer to him.

 

It's not pleasant when God hits you right between the eyes. Kind David stole Uriah's wife and arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle. It is amazing the things we can do and not feel guilty.

 Eventually God does get our attention and we see the enormity of what we have done. For David it was the prophet Nathan telling him a story about the theft of a poor man's lamb and then looking David in the eye and saying, "You are the man!" For me it was a guy crying who just wanted to make his dad proud.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Samuel 11:1 - 12:4

• Do you think David thought he had gotten away with stealing Uriah's wife?
• What was David's reaction to the story Nathan told him?
• What was David's reaction when he realized the story was about him? (2 Samuel 12:3)