Abraham Lincoln wasn't just honest. He was The Man! long before Shaq and others who claim that title. The recently reopened Ford's Theatre Museum reveals that among the artifacts it may display is a Lincoln inaugural medallion etched with these words: "Thou Art The Man." Gloria Swift, museum curator, says, "Every time I hear the current phraseology of that, I'm always thinking of that coin, and I'm like, oh, yeah, let me tell you, it goes way back."
Look, I'm not a huge Bible reader, but even I looked at this and thought "This has to come from scripture."
Sure enough.
2 Samuel 12:7-11
And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
The connection is pretty obvious, although Lincoln seems to be being equated with Nathan and not king David in that it is Lincoln who is informing us of our sins and leading us towards repentance.
No wonder my students cannot make such connections. Even our journalists can't.
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