You the man!! 

I love this common slang to encourage other guys.  We used to say it when playing pick-up basketball at FHU.  I like using it to compliment or encourage a brother who has done something cool.  I tell my boys – “you the man”  and sometimes throw a little spanish on them “Tu el hombre.”

But that is not how God was using it when he spoke to David through Nathan the prophet (2 Sam. 12:7).

He told David a story about a poor man who had one ewe lamb taken by a rich man who had plenty.  David got the point of the story but he wrongly applied it.  

pointing hand by digital_a
via www.sxc.hu

He said the man who did such should die and restitution should be made fourfold because he did this thing with no compassion (2 Sam. 12:5-6).

Then Nathan told him, “You the man!”  This is the literal rendering of the Hebrew.

We are so similar to David.  

In many ways most of the stories and instructions in the Bible are meant to convict us.  The stories from the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus are meant to transform us (Heb. 4:12).  They are meant to convict.  They are meant to show us our sin and shortcomings.  Yet we read them and get lost in the information.  We may get the message, but we apply it to our enemy, neighbor, or spouse!  We may even point our fingers at those who are violating them, yet we blindly neglect to apply the truth to ourselves.  

A friend once remarked to me, “the longer I study the Bible, the more I wonder if most all of scripture doesn’t have a purpose similar to this parable told by Nathan to make us say, “You the man.”  

It is only by looking into our hearts and saying “I am the man” that we realize our need for Jesus and His good news (1 Tim. 1:12-17)