Nathan conducts David’s Global Stocktake (2 Samuel 12)

CLIMATE BIBLE STUDY: July 2023  

by Lowell Bliss

Director, Eden Vigil Institute for Environmental Leadership, WCIU

From the UNFCCC website about the first global stocktake, to be conducted this year at COP28 in Dubai:

“Global Stocktake: The global stocktake is a critical turning point when it comes to efforts to address climate change – it’s a moment to take a long, hard look at the state of our planet and chart a better course for the future. The global stocktake is a Party-driven process conducted in a transparent manner and with the participation of non-Party stakeholders, that enables countries and other stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement – and where they’re not. It’s like taking inventory. It means looking at everything related to where the world stands on climate action and support, identifying the gaps, and working together to agree on solutions pathways (to 2030 and beyond).”

Paraphrased from 2 Samuel 12:

The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men on a certain planet, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large supply of known reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas, but the poor man had nothing except one little monsoon.  He was raised on the monsoon rains, him and his children. The regularity of those rains supplied his food, filled the cup from which he drank and made his night’s sleep easier after a long dry season. The monsoon was like kin to him.”

The global stocktake (GST) at COP28 will be the first conducted since the Paris Agreement went into full effect and began its five-year cycles.  In the third year of a cycle, the parties will conduct this “inventory” of “where they’re collectively making progress” on the Paris Agreement goals.  Two years later, they will return to the COP (in this case COP30 in 2025) and bring more ambitious targets for emissions reductions, based on what the GST reveals.  Much depends on the GST being honest, accurate, and transparent—but that can only go so far because it is a “taking stock” only of the collective progress, the aggregate progress.  In other words, an individual government (including the climate-friendly ones) can hide their numbers into the total and spin the illusion that they are doing enough.  We need the Lord to send the spirit of Nathan to point a finger and declare, where necessary: “You are the man!”

If you remember the Old Testament story from  2 Samuel 11 and 12, King David with his many known reserves of wives and pleasures, takes Bathsheba and arranges for her husband Uriah to be killed.  He shows no compunction even when his general, Joab, raises an eyebrow.  So God sends Nathan to David, and Nathan tells the story of a rich man who forcibly takes the poor man’s lamb to accomplish his own agenda, in this case, preparing a meal for a traveller without depleting his own livestock.  David hears the story, “burned with anger against he man,” and exercises his royal power to demand the death penalty and financial recompense. 

Verse 7: “Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’”

Nathan proclaims “what the Lord says,” namely that God has been exorbitantly generous to David, but that what David had exacted from Uriah was “evil in his eyes,” a despising of the creator God.  David repents.

Simon Stiell, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, has said, “The global stocktake will end up being just another report unless governments and those that they represent can look at it and ultimately understand what it means for them and what they can and must do next. It’s the same for businesses, communities and other key stakeholders.”  In other words, let’s pray and campaign in such a way that God is free to convict: “You are that man!  You are that woman!  You are that government!  You are that business!  You are that community!  You are that key stakeholder!”