During the Days of Unleavened Bread, those of us who observe the biblical Holy Days focus a lot on what the apostle Paul had to say about spiritual leaven. “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8).

Facing the truth about ourselves can be touchy. It is a type of leaven to fail to see when YOU are the cause of your problem, not others. This is a lesson we can learn from the life of King David. It’s a lesson that is very important for all of us to learn.

The lesson unfolds by contrasting two names powerfully linked with David. One is Goliath; the other is Bathsheba.

Facing the truth about ourselves can be touchy. It is a type of leaven to fail to see when YOU are the cause of your problem, not others.

They could hardly be more different—Goliath, a mean 3-meter-tall (nearly 10-foot-tall) bully, and Bathsheba, a beautiful woman and innocent victim. As different as these two are in character, appearance and spirit, there’s a similarity in their relation to David. Both brought him to a point of testing, to a “look in the mirror” encounter with his heart.

They entered David’s life at opposite ends: the giant when David is young, unknown and untested, and the woman when he is old, married and hardened through life’s trials. When facing Goliath, David is a man of prayer, more impressed with God than with a giant. When facing Bathsheba, David is spiritually vulnerable with idle time on his hands. It was spring, 2 Samuel 11:1 reads, “when kings go out to battle, but David remained at Jerusalem.”

We aren’t prepared for the sort of story that unfolds with Bathsheba. What began as a lustful whim develops into a sordid sex/murder crime. He abuses his power (2 Samuel 11:3-6, 12). David sent his servants, sent for Bathsheba, then took her. Then Joab enters the picture to assist with the murder of Uriah (verses 14-17). It’s shocking! And yet David seems blind to it all (especially to a true evaluation of himself).

Now to a question

How does God get YOU to see that YOU are often your problem? It’s fair to ask at this time of year, “Am I seeing within myself what God wants me to see?”

How did God get David to see himself? At this point, the prophet Nathan is sent by God (2 Samuel 12:1). As a prophet, Nathan is required to confront sin, even in the king. But it takes courage, skill and tact to make David aware of his wrong actions. Perhaps they sit at morning “coffee” while Nathan begins to report an injustice. He has a story to narrate; but, interestingly enough, Nathan doesn’t immediately indicate that David is the subject. Had David been reflective and sensitive to his spiritual condition, perhaps he might have seen the trap before he fell into it.

As the story unfolds, David is unaware he is listening to a sermon. David is emotionally drawn into the story of the poor man and his pet lamb and the callous behavior of the rich landowner. His anger greatly aroused, as king and judge he pronounces a death sentence and fourfold restitution. He claims the man had no pity (verse 6). Yet where was his pity for Uriah? This judgment out of his own mouth would haunt him and his family for a long time (verses 10-14).

David listens to an inspired preacher—who speaks in the third person—and gets all worked up about someone else’s flaw. He seethes with indignation out of pity for the poor man and a pet lamb. Pitying and judging are religious sentiments that can be indulged in endlessly, making us feel superior to everyone else. David becomes more righteous by the minute and is absorbed in a huge blur of moral sentimentality. David becomes so insensitive to his own sin that he doesn’t make the connection that he is the villain in Nathan’s story.

Then the sudden moral moment of personal truth: YOU are the one! This is what preachers are ordained to do. Somehow by God’s Spirit and help, they are to use the third-person approach and compel a first-person recognition. Might this have influenced Paul a millennia later in saying: “You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?” (Romans 2:21-23).

The converted response

But then we have the forever-exemplary converted response of David, “I have sinned” (2 Samuel 12:13). He now realizes his position before God as one caught in sin. Perhaps he writes Psalm 51 after this.

There is an enormous amount of self-deception in sin. The Christian walk is to recognize it within yourself.

There is an enormous amount of self-deception in sin. The Christian walk is to recognize it within yourself. The qualities we condemn in others can often also be our own character flaws. It is so easy to criticize, but tough to take it in return. Nathan’s story entraps David. He doesn’t admit his problem until he’s told, “YOU are the one.” At this point, he doesn’t try to justify himself, deny or deflect attention from his problem. Instead, he accepts the rebuke from this other human being, the prophet speaking for God.

An important lesson in this is that when being told something about yourself you have to accept the authority of the one telling you, or you will miss the message. In the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, there are many incidents where correction given by God’s prophets was refused. Acceptance and change were rare.

As potential rulers in God’s Kingdom, how well do we accept rebuke? By resisting, we may be missing a lot of what God might be trying to show. God’s message for David was delivered through the “preaching” message of a prophet.

How to ensure we will receive God’s message

David accepted correction and then repented. In the same way, when we examine ourselves, we must be listening and applying correction to ourselves. When God confronts us with our sin through Scripture, we must accept it and repent.

In the Passover context, Paul wrote: “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:31-32). Acknowledgment of sin and true repentance will help bring you a good attitude. David’s counsel on how to get it is found in Psalms 19:12-13; 26:2; and 139:23-24.

Genuine heartfelt prayer and meditation on these scriptures—and applying them to yourself—will keep you from being self-righteous, self-justifying or having a “puffed-up” leavened spirit. It will work.