The readings for this Sunday are 2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26-27; 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9
This Sunday’s reading is one of the more difficult ones of
the Bible (and there are lots of difficult texts in the Bible for lots of
different readings!). Yet it’s an
important text because it relates to us today.
Again, this could have been ripped from the headlines, a story of misuse
of power, sex, and coverups.
Yet it’s a story full of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
I’ve decided to tackle this story in three parts:
- Part One: Bathsheba’s story – often overlooked when it’s not being romantically embellished or whitewashed (covered in the previous post).
- Part Two: David’s story, a story of entitlement and abuse of power.
- Part Three: the story of Nathan confronting David, which reveals why David is called a “person after God’s own heart” – which is this Sunday’s sermon (and the next post in this series).
Our story begins:
In the
spring, when kings go off to war,
David
sent
Joab,
along with his servants and all the Israelites
(2 Samuel 11:1a)
This is the story of a man who sends others to do what he
should be doing. At that time, kings led
their armies into battle. It sounds strange
to us – how can a king govern if he’s out fighting a battle. There was literally a “time for war” (Ecclesiastes
3:8), the time between harvest of one year’s crops and planting of the next year’s. Wars were waged, not year-round, but in those
few months.
This season of war, David stayed at the palace, preferring to
let others do his dirty work.
And with time on his hands, he found other things to do.
Restless with inactivity, he took a stroll on palace roof,
enjoying the fine view of the city below.
An especially fine view that night, as he saw a woman bathing on her
roof top.
David was not where he was supposed to be and doing something
he shouldn’t have been doing. Rooftops
were part of one’s private living space – staring at the woman bathing was the equivalent
of standing at someone’s window watching them. You were supposed to politely
look away and pretend you didn’t see anything.
Just like well mannered people do when they accidently catch a glimpse through
the window of their neighbor’s house.
One simply does not stand there and stare.
Yup, King David was essentially a creepy peeping Tom.
And he REALLY liked what he saw.
He asked around. Turns out she was the wife of Uriah the
Hittite. He was a member of David’s
army. We don’t know his rank, but we do
know that he had been with David from the earliest days (2 Samuel 23:39, listed
as one of David’s thirty Mighty Warriors).
Which begs the question – how did David not know this was one of his top
warriors’ wife? Did he not know where
Uriah lived? Had he not met Uriah’s wife?
Maybe they were newly married?
Maybe David hoped she wasn’t who he thought she was. Maybe
he hoped she was another woman, who looked quite a bit like Uriah’s wife.
It didn’t matter. She was married…he moved on her anyway.
After all, when you're a king, they let you
do it. You can do anything.
Somethings never change. smh.
David had her brought
to the palace and forced her to have sex with him. Then
he sent her home.
That would have been the end
of it, but Bathsheba got pregnant. David
is in a fix. Uriah is at war and
everyone will know Uriah can’t be the father.
What if Bathsheba talks?
“I’ll fix this.”
David proves to be the king
of cover-ups. He brings Uriah home from
war, hoping he will do the natural thing a man does who’s been away from his
wife for a while. Unfortunately for
David, Uriah is a man of integrity, loyal to the king and to his comrades in
arms. He stays at the palace
barracks. Even getting Uriah drunk doesn’t
change his commitment. Plan one fails.
David doesn’t look very good
in this story so far. If you’re counting, David has broken the commandment against
coveting, and adultery, and bearing false witness (what is a cover up if not a
huge lie), theft, it gets worse.
The cover-up foiled, David gets angry. Murderously angry. He sends Uriah back to the front carrying a
note to the commander at the front. A
note instructing the commander to put Uriah at the hottest part of the battle,
the weakest point in the line, and. Then. Fall. Back.
Leaving Uriah to be slaughtered.
Once again, David sends someone else to do his dirty work.
Uriah carries his own death sentence.
Joab, the commander sets up the scene for murder. And the opposing army
are the unwitting hitmen. Remember, Uriah is one of David’s trusted Mighty Warriors.
I shudder to think of what he would have done to an enemy (actually he
did worse stuff to his enemies, but somehow that was ok, cause they were
enemies)!
Fortunes of war, huh?
Up the count of broken commdments to include murder and theft. You know the
saying “Murder is theft of a life, Adultery is theft of a wife….”
After a suitable time of mourning, David puts the final spin
on the sordid story: he marries the poor
pregnant war widow.
Way to come out looking like the hero, David!
God wasn’t fooled by David’s machinations. While David was busy breaking the second half
of the 10 commandments, he was also breaking the first half.
It’s interesting that one of the possible meanings of
Bathsheba’s name is “daughter of the oath” and Uriah’s name means “YHWH is my
light.” David violates the oath – God’s
covenant at Mt Sinai, breaking pretty much all of 10 Commandments (words of
life). The darkness of David’s actions is
in direct opposition to the light of YHWH.
There’s more going on here than meets the eye – David’s sins are sins
against Bathsheba and Uriah. His sins are also a violation of the trust he has as
God’s chosen king. And most of all, they
are sins against God.
This is the story of power.
It has been said that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts
absolutely (John Dalburg-Acton, 1st Barron of Acton). This is a story of a powerful man who feels
entitled. Entitled to send others to do
the work he prefers not to do. Entitled
to anything and anyone he wants.
Entitled to do what ever he thinks is necessary to maintain his reputation
and power.
David is acting like a king.
Way back when the people of Israel first cried out for a king, Samuel warned
them about the entitlement that goes with power. David fit that bill to a T.
David's story sounds so much like the stories of modern leaders. There are so many stories of power being abused. Of scandal and cover-up. It’s easy to point the finger and say, “yes,
(so-and-so) is doing exactly that!”
These charges can be leveled on both sides of the political aisle, in
the higher echelons of religions, against CEO’s…against anyone with massive
power.
Let's look closer to home. What about you and me?
How do we use our power?
“Oh,” you say, “I don’t have any power.”
Yes, you do. We live
in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Money gives options. Education gives options.
Choices are power. You have power. How will you use it?
Jesus lays down his power (Philippians 2:5-11) and sides
with the marginalized and vulnerable. The
promised Son of David, Jesus becomes the type of King God wants – one that uses
power to lift up the oppressed, and care for the poor and vulnerable.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same.
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