One of the more memorable moments in my Sunday school career occurred when I
was in the fifth grade. The lesson was on the prophet Nathan and the teacher
read the story about the rich man who took the little pet ewe lamb of the poor
man. I was taken by the parable and felt the grave injustice of the selfish and
arrogant wealthy man. When the teacher told us that Nathan said to David,
"You are the man!" I was shocked. Good king David? The one who wrote
the psalms? The pride of all Israel? How could this be? Did he steal someone’s
lamb? I couldn’t imagine that since he was a shepherd and all. I was puzzled.
My hand shot into the air: "Mrs Roberts, Mrs. Roberts," I blurted out,
"what did King David do to make God so mad?" As I recall, Mrs. Roberts
blanched slightly and stammered, "Well Donnie, we’ll have to talk about
that next week."
I have a feeling it was a difficult week for Mrs. Roberts. This was back in
1948 and one didn’t talk publically about such things, especially with the
fifth grade boys and girls Sunday school class. The next week, Mrs Roberts gave
a very brief and very sketchy account of David stealing another man’s wife.
And ever since that time this has been one of my very favorite parts of the
Bible.
So, what did King David do to make God so mad? This is a more interesting and
complex question than you might imagine. It is easy for this generation which
defines morality in narrow individual terms to make quick work of the text, and
even to find sad parallels with recent presidential history. The quick
conclusion would be that there are moral individuals and immoral individuals.
There are disciplined and undisciplined people, even in positions of great
power. The solution to immorality in high office, is to replace the offender
with someone more faithful to the moral order.
I understand that view, and am inclined in my less thoughtful moments, to
hold it myself. But let’s not go there quite yet, for that would take away too
much of the power of this exceptional story.
This is, perhaps, the best piece of narrative literature ever written. Like
the carefully crafted short story of a master such as Raymond Carver, the
account of David in First and Second Samuel is exquisitely and disarmingly told.
And, Mrs. Roberts was absolutely correct. This is not a narrative for younger
children. That is not because it deals with what are generally titled
"adult themes" but because the story is not really about sex.
Let’s look at the context. The Bible is the story of new beginnings. The
great new beginning in the Hebrew Bible is the miraculous liberation of the
Hebrew slaves in Egypt, followed by God’s faithfulness in leading them into a
land which they were to inhabit as their own—a promised land. The idea was
that these were to be a people of the Covenant—a covenant which provided a new
model of human community. The people were to obey God’s laws and live in peace
and prosperity as an example to the other nations. They were to be a holy people—holy
meaning separate from other nations.
But soon the people were clamoring for a King obviously forgetting the harsh
lesson of the pharaoh in Egypt. The prophet Samuel warned them about the ways of
kings, the inevitability of violence, corruption and oppression arising from the
power of a monarch. But the people would not listen, so, according to the Hebrew
narrator, the Great Sovereign of the Universe decided that if they wanted a King
they would have a king.
In that moment the great tension in the life of Israel was established. From
this moment on there will be a clash between the values of the covenant and the
values of the monarchy, between prophets and kings, between God’s ways and the
ways of the world. This is the context of David’s story.
David appeared to be the exception which proves the rule. He had the heart of
a shepherd and the courage of a soldier. He was a musician and charismatic
leader. Just before our part of the story, David has successfully secured his
power, stabilized the national borders, and moved the Arc of the Covenant, the
most sacred treasure of the people, to the new capital of Jerusalem. He is
established and the people finally have their king. David is established, as
well, with a family, wives and sons. Through hard work and brilliant military
strategy David has secured himself and his nation.
Then the mood suddenly changes in chapter 11:
"In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle,
David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the
Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem."
The narrator subtly suggests that there is a "way of kings" and
that David is well established in that way. Instead of going out to battle
personally, he sends his emissaries, confident in their skill. David himself
relaxes and cools himself on the roof of the palace where he can take his
leisure.
How carefully the narrator eases into the brilliantly brief, seductively
subtle turning point of the whole David story.
It happened, late one afternoon . . .
What prophetic words. "It happened" carries a sense of
inevitability. It is as though the narrator is suggesting that it happened just
as Samuel predicted. After all there is a way of kings.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was
walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a
woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.
Aha! This is what Mrs. Roberts didn’t want to have to get into. The king
saw a woman bathing. He coveted the woman. The king could have anything he
desired. That is a way of kings.
David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported,
"This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite." So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and
he lay with her. . . . Then she returned to her house.
The woman had a name, but the narrator hesitates to use it. In the first
introduction her name is hyphenated: Bathsheba-daughter of Eliam-wife-of-Uriah
the Hittite. She is defined by those to whom she belongs, first her father and
then her husband. Certainly she had no power to deny the king whatever he
wanted, there is a way of kings. And, having has his way, David was ready to
step back again, into the role of good king and faithful servant of Yahweh God.
That was not to be.
The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am
pregnant."
Its an old story, an old dilemma. What David assumed was to be a private
dalliance now threatened to become public. He did not panic. That is not the way
of kings. He plotted. He brought Uriah home and give him an open invitation to
spend a night with his wife. Surprisingly, Uriah was everything David was not.
Too ethical and moral to take pleasure while his comrades were in the midst of
battle without him, he refused. His very integrity forced David to compound his
evil deed by ordering Uriah’s death on the battlefield.
When the report came back from the front, David breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally the nightmare was over. His sins were covered. He was free at last. He
did the right thing. He married the woman the narrator continues to call the
wife of Uriah, and their son was born.
Just as David feels that he has managed everything and life can return to
normal, the narrator quietly announces the devastating truth,
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Here’s the tension: David as a free moral agent, using his power to clean
up the mess he had made, versus the real moral structure of the universe. By the
time David was finished, he had explicitly broken four of the Ten Commandments:
#6, You shall not murder;
#7, You shall not commit adultery;
#9, You shall not give false testimony;
#10, You shall not covet.
The way of the king is about to meet the way of the king’s God. Enter
Nathan, the prophet, with the most impressively effective speech I have ever
heard. He tells David a story.
There is a rich man and a poor man. Nathan says nothing more about the rich
man. He doesn’t need to. Nothing more needs comment. The man is rich. There is
a way of the rich suggests the narrator. But look how the story of the poor man
is fleshed out. Contrasted with the rich mans flocks, the poor man has one
little female lamb which he bought . He raised it with his children. The little
lamb shared the meager meals of the family table, drank out of her owners cup
and slept with him like puppy. The man loved the lamb like a daughter.
The rich man needed lunch meat to feed a friend and instead of killing one of
his own flock he slaughtered the pet lamb of his poor neighbor.
David was completely taken by the story. Tell me who did this thing and I’ll
wring his neck, he offered. Nathan’s response is classic. "You are
the man!"
David shows his greatness by ending his denial, setting aside the "way
of kings" and confessing to his sin. Nathan said to David, "Now
the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this
deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall
die."
In a few years, the child becomes sick and, in spite of David’s fervent
prayers, dies. Later, another son is born to David and Bathsheba. They named him
Solomon from Shalom which means peace.
The rest of David’s life was full of tragedy as was the continuing monarchy
in Israel. . . . until it fell to invading armies. There is a way of kings, and
that way is frequently at odds with the way of God.
It happened, late one afternoon. Walter Brueggemann comments that this
narrative "is more than we want to know about David and more than we can
bear to understand about ourselves."
By reducing this story to an individuals’ bad moral choice and further
reducing the sin to a sexual sin, we protect ourselves from its large prophetic
vision. Certainly personal moral choice is part of the picture, and sexual sins
are all too prevalent, but that is only the beginning. The larger truth is that
power begins to define its own morality. And power, whether it be the way of
kings or the way of presidents and congress, more often than not, becomes
secretive, arrogant, deceitful and militaristic.
There is still a way of politics, a way of commerce, a way of the military.
Seldom are they congruent with the way of the covenant, the way of our Creator
and Redeemer God. This God always looks out for the little ewe lambs, always
offers the faithful more than they could possibly could ask for.
And this creative and redeeming God made something wonderful out of David’s
dreadful mistake. For David and Bathsheba’s son Solomon, continued the lineage
which after many, many, many, generations saw the birth of child to parents
named Mary and Joseph. This child would be known as the Good Shepherd and called
the lamb of God. This child would once again announce the good news of a great
new beginning for God’s people.
The offer is simple. As followers of Jesus we are invited to become part of
the God’s covenant with the whole earth. As followers of Jesus we are to be
wary of the ways of monarchs or presidents, the ways of corporations or armies.
For us there is a better way. The way of our Lord.
Amen.
1. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: First and Second Samuel, John
Knox Press, p.272