2 SAMUEL 7

This is one of my favorite little stories in the Bible. David, in a moment of stricken conscience, decides that he wants to build a proper temple for the Lord he loves so much. What a noble thought, right? Who could object?! But, instead of rushing ahead, he summons Nathan, the prophet, to tell him of his plan.

Nathan, in effect, says, "Sounds good to me. Go ahead, and the Lord will be with you."For two seconds, everything looks like a go... until later that night when the Lord appears to Nathan and says, "Hey, hey, hey! This isn’t in My plan. I’m sorry you told David to go ahead, but you’ll have to go back and tell him that he won’t be the one to build a temple for Me."

Wow. Talk about the prophetic foot-in-the-mouth! Where did we ever get this idea that for a prophet to be a true prophet, he must be infallible a hundred percent of the time? If that’s the case, we can toss Nathan out as a prophet right here. But, in fact, that’s not the case. Even the prophets are human beings who make mistakes sometimes—just like the rest of us.

But the great thing about God is that, even when we make mistakes, He is sure and quick to correct us. We really don’t have to sit around and wring our hands, worrying about whether we have done the right things or said the right things. If we haven’t, God will be the first one to let us know! He has so many different ways of communicating with us, we never need to worry that He won’t be able to tell us what we need to know.

The question is, will we listen?