October 19, 2014: David and Bathsheba

2 Samuel 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9

So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When Nathan arrived he said, “There were two men in the same city, one rich, one poor. ² The rich man had a lot of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing—just one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised that lamb, and it grew up with him and his children. It would eat from his food and drink from his cup—even sleep in his arms! It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Now a traveler came to visit the rich man, but he wasn’t willing to take anything from his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had arrived. Instead, he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the visitor.”

⁵ David got very angry at the man, and he said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the one who did this is demonic!^{[a] 6} He must restore the ewe lamb seven times over^[b] because he did this and because he had no compassion.”

⁷ “You are that man!” Nathan told David. “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I anointed you king over Israel and delivered you from Saul’s power. ⁸ I gave your master’s house^[c] to you, and gave his wives into your embrace. I gave you the house^[d] of Israel and Judah. If that was too little, I would have given even more. ⁹ Why have you despised the Lord’s word by doing what is evil in his eyes? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and taken his wife as your own. You used the Ammonites to kill him.

Psalm 51:1-9

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love!
    Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion!
² Wash me completely clean of my guilt;
    purify me from my sin!
³ Because I know my wrongdoings,
    my sin is always right in front of me.
⁴ I’ve sinned against you—you alone.
    I’ve committed evil in your sight.
That’s why you are justified when you render your verdict,
    completely correct when you issue your judgment.
⁵ Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin,
    from the moment my mother conceived me.
⁶ And yes, you want truth in the most hidden places;
    you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.^[a]

⁷ Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean;
    wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and celebration again;
    let the bones you crushed rejoice once more.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins;
    wipe away all my guilty deeds!

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Intrigue.  Illicit sex.  Set-ups and betrayal.  Murder. You’d be forgiven for thinking that these are the tag-lines for the latest show on HBO.  The kind of salacious details that get people talking online or on their lunch break.  Instead, they describe what has just occurred in 2 Samuel right before our lesson for today.  David has been King of Israel for some time now.  The young man who made a name for himself on the battlefield (you might recall that stand-off with Goliath) has risen to be the “Big Guy.”  He seems to have it all.  But then his eyes fall on a very beautiful woman who is already married.

David commits adultery with her, attempts to cover it up, but ultimately feels he has to have her husband Uriah the Hittite killed in battle.  Uriah is a soldier in the army of Israel. It’s a chilling scene when David writes a letter with instructions to his general Joab that say to put Uriah in the hardest fighting and then draw back so that he’d be killed.  Uriah is the one who carries the letter.

Let’s pause for a second here.  We also don’t know Bathsheba’s part in any of this: if she was willing to it or not.  When the King has you come over to his house, you don’t have much of a choice. It’s quite possible that Bathsheba was coerced into this intimate relationship.  So that means David is guilty of adultery, murder and quite possibly rape as well.

When our story starts today, the Lord has sent the prophet Nathan to David with the message that what David had done was absolutely wrong.  If you’ve ever wondered if it’s easy to be a prophet, this story should give you an answer. Can you imagine Nathan’s thoughts as we walked up to the palace? Kings don’t like to be told “no” and they certainly don’t like to have their crimes brought to light.  Kings also have a habit of relieving people who do this of their heads.   

But never underestimate the power of a good story. Nathan has David hooked by his tale of the two men and the lamb.  When the “punchline” of “YOU ARE THE MAN!” hits David it must have actually felt like a punch to the gut.

We often prefer to have our characters and stories be black and white struggles between the good guys and the bad guys. We wish that we could just kill all of the bad guys and the world would be okay.  This story shows us it’s not that easy.  To think that we aren’t susceptible to David’s weaknesses is also a mistake.  We might not be kings, but each of us has the chance to take advantage of someone else a little lower than ourselves. 

David is a pretty despicable character, no way around it. But now he does something truly phenomenal.  He COULD have said, “Forget you Nathan! Off with his head!”  He could have said, “Hey, I’m the King, I get to make the rules and say what’s right and wrong!” He doesn’t do this. He acknowledges his guilt and sin.  He utters words like, “I’ve committed evil in your site.”  May we all be able to come to God when we are guilty and say “Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”

And let’s take something else from this story.  May we all remember that God cares.  God cares about how we treat each other.  God cares how kings and bosses and pastors and parents treat the people under them.  God cares.