Since the middle of June, we have been listening to the story of David, our great ancestor and the one from whose line Jesus came (both literally and spiritually). And it is quite a story, and he was quite the hero. The youngest son of a shepherd, he was anointed by God to take the place of Saul, the King. Now Saul had not died. He was still king, but he wasn’t a good one and God decided that he needed to be replaced. So, David, young inexperienced David, was God’s chosen one. And David, through ingenuity and cleverness (remember his slaying of the Giant Goliath), joined Saul’s court. At first Saul loved David, for David was able to soothe Saul’s troubled spirit with his beautiful harp playing. Saul even made David his armor-bearer, a position of great honor. And after his defeat of Goliath, Saul made David the head of his army, and David prevailed in whatever battle he led.
And of course, Saul began to feel threatened by David’s success. He became paranoid and convinced that David was a threat to him, and he made plans to kill David. For several chapters we watch as Saul relentlessly pursues David in order to murder him. And finally in chapter 24 of 1 Samuel the pursuit reaches its climax and David has the opportunity to kill Saul, and he does not. As he holds Saul’s life in his hands, David says:
‘I will not raise my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life. May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the ancient proverb says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness,’ but my hand shall not be against you. Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A single flea? May the Lord, therefore, be judge and give sentence between me and you. May he see to it and plead my cause and vindicate me against you.” 1 Samuel 24:10b-15
David is truly a hero. Not only is a strong and brave warrior, but he is a moral and ethical man. And when Saul and his sons are killed in battle, David is anointed King of Israel. 2 Samuel tells us that he was 30 years old when he began to reign, and by all accounts the first 20 years of his reign were good ones, and he was a very good king. He united the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. He won battle after battle. He established Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom, and he brought the ark of the Covenant (the house of God) to Jerusalem. And God makes a covenant with him. David and God have an intimate relationship that is quite unparalleled in the rest of the Old Testament. In chapter 7 of 2 Samuel God says to David, “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:13-17. And Israel lives in security and prosperity, the likes of which they had never experienced before.
I tell all of this backstory so you can understand exactly how surprising the story about David and Bathsheba and David’s murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, is and how amazing it is that it was even included in the writings of our ancestors in faith. The Book of 1 Chronicles, for example tells most of the stories of David that the books of 1 and 2 Samuel tell, but leave the story of David’s adultery, betrayal of his faithful officer, and murder out of the retelling. Most people like their heros to be perfect. Most nations like to share their history through the lens of glory, goodness, and triumph and prefer to leave aside the ignoble and immoral aspects of their past. But the Bible isn’t an epic poem for raising up national heroes nor is it a history meant to bolster and solidify national power. It is the story of people’s relationship with God and God’s relationship with people. It is the story of the fickleness of humans and the faithfulness of God. And as such, our ancestors in the faith sought to present this story as faithfully as they could, that all who followed them might learn from them and grow in their relationship with God. They understood that if individuals and nations don’t face their history, their entire history, honestly and bravely, they will be doomed to repeat the sins and mistakes of those who went before them.
So, the writers of 2 Samuel give us the story of the now 50 year old David and his abuse of privilege and power. David is at the height of his power. He is comfortable. He is so comfortable that he is not even going out to battle with his soldiers anymore. He sends others to do this dirty work. He has become distant from those he rules. In this story the word “send” occurs eleven times. David is the one who commands and others are the ones who obey. He wakes up from an afternoon nap and walks along the roof of his palace, surveying his kingdom. He has become a confirmation of the prophet Samuel’s worst fears about kings: that they would be domineering, oppressive, superior, and self-absorbed. And we are about to see the havoc that is created when human beings gain too much power. We are about to see the havoc that is created when human beings think they are God.
As David walks along the roof, he sees something that entices him: a woman bathing. There is no indication that the woman sees him. Without any thought to the ramifications, David decides to have this woman, and he sends (that word again) a servant to find out who she is. He discovers that the woman has a name, a heritage, and a husband. She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah has an Israelite name, so is most likely an Israelite who is descended from Hittites. Bathsheba is married to one of the king’s trusted, elite military warriors. And David seizes her anyway. He wants her so he takes her. She is nothing but an object to him. David behaves as if he is above the law. And Bathsheba becomes pregnant thus ending David’s delusion that he was all powerful and in complete control of everything.
David knows he is in trouble. He knows that the law of his land says that an adulterer should be put to death. He knows that the people will be very upset if they learn of his misdeed. He cannot undo what is done. He cannot control the pregnancy, but he can control who people think the father is. So, he hatches a plan. He sends for Uriah and brings him in from the battlefield. He commands Uriah to spend the night with his wife, Bathsheba. He wants everyone to think that Uriah is the father of the child who is already on the way. But he does not account for Uriah’s moral character. Apparently, he thinks everyone’s lust is the same as his own. Uriah refuses to take part in the comforts of hearth, home, and wife, while his soldiers are still on the battlefield risking life and limb. Unlike David, he refuses to rest while others struggle on. Uriah won’t go. David insists. It is an almost comical escalation that ends with David getting Uriah drunk. But even when he is drunk, Uriah still won’t betray his soldiers. The contrast is unmistakable: Uriah, a descendent of the Hittites, refuses the comforts of his own home when the ark and the troops are in the field; but Daivd, the king of Israel, who should be following the ark and leading his troops, commits adultery and tries to lead his loyal soldier astray. David cannot control the actions of a moral and righteous man. But he can have him killed. So, David hatches an even more despicable plan.
David calls his loyal assistant, Joab, to him. He creates a plan that involves sending Uriah into dangerous battle that Uriah might die on the battlefield. Joab, his most loyal henchman, carries out David’s plan, constructing a battle plan that will bring about Uriah’s death, along with the deaths of other innocent soldiers. Uriah is killed and David thinks his secret has died with him. He takes Bathsheba as his wife, and she gives birth to a son.
But it is difficult to completely conceal such intrigue. Certainly, gossip and suspicion must have run rampant around his court. Most likely feared to confront him about his evil deeds, and David may have thought therefore that he was safe, but he forgot to consider his prophet Nathan. The most basic calling of a prophet is to speak truth to power, to point out when those in power are not fulfilling the laws of God, to call to account those in power who are using that power and privilege in ways that harm those with less power and privilege. And so, Nathan enters the scene. David is no longer doing the sending. God is now doing the sending. Nathan is both brave and clever. He understands that he has to break through David’s defenses and denial. So, he tells a story, presumably seeking justice for one of David’s subjects. And David takes his story at face value.
It is the story of someone with wealth, power and privilege who has abused that wealth, power and privilege. The rich man has many flocks; the poor man has only one lamb whom he cherishes as a daughter. When the rich man entertains a traveler, he takes not one of his flocks but the only lamb the poor man has. The recurrence of the verb “take” recalls the prophet Samuel’s earlier warning against kingship, where Israel is warned that its kings will take sons, daughters, fields, vineyards, cattle, and flocks. David is outraged. He is correctly able to diagnose the privileged man’s sins and proclaim an appropriate consequence. Reparation must be made. How shocked he must have been when Nathan said to him, “You are the man!”
The gig is up. David has been revealed as the adulterer and murderer that he is. But at heart is a good and moral man, so he does not do what he could have done. He doesn’t order his guards to seize Natan. He doesn’t even try to defend himself. In the face of Nathan’s truth, he simply replies, “I have sinned against the Lord.” This does not protect him from the consequences of his actions, for whenever violence is unleashed by any human being, more violence is likely to follow. The rest of his reign is full of strife and violence that was never present before. There will be open rebellion in the country, his family will be destroyed by the sword and will turn against him, his wives will be taken, and his child with Bathsheba will die. The writer of 2 Samuel attributes this to the direct action of God. Perhaps, but it is also true that we are connected in ways that we don’t understand to those who went before us and to those who go after us, and the choices we make will have lasting impact on those around us in the present and those who come after us. Anyone who has tried to break a multi-generational cycle of addiction or abuse in their own family, knows the truth of this. Sin has consequences. In David’s case it messes up his family and his royal administration.
So what lesson is there in all of this for us? We are not murderers. There may be an adulterer or two in our midst, but I think that no one here likely seized someone as David did. Is this simply a lesson for presidents, kings, heads of corporations, and any others at the very top of the human hierarchical pyramid? I don’t think so. I think all of us are capable of whitewashing our personal and corporate histories. We are all capable of living in denial about the harms that we have done to others in the use of whatever power or privilege we might possess.
As I dove deeply into David’s story, I couldn’t help but think about American racism and the fights that are going on right now about how to discuss it, think about it, or whether it even exists. Most of us were taught in school a very edited version of American history, in which the many sins of our forebearers were left out. We were given the 1 Chronicles version of our history. And as a result, most of us are unable to see how we continue to perpetuate these sins in our lives today. And the cycle continues.
But over the past few years, more and more people have begun speaking out and telling the truth about our history and about the racism that people of color still experience today. And the backlash has been fast and ferocious. Many have not responded to the truth as David did. The attempts to deny the truths of our history and the experiences of people of color today can be seen all around us. It can be painful to see those we name as our heroes as full human beings, because if they were flawed, then we must be too. We would much prefer to see them as exemplars of morality and uprightness chosen by God to create a new country that would bring freedom and righteousness to the world because we can then see ourselves in the same light, as extensions of these great heroes.
But the truth is that our forebearers were much more complicated. They were brilliant and revolutionary in many ways and they were blinded by their racism, prejudice and desire to accumulate wealth using the stolen labor of African men and women. They bequeathed to us a political and economic system and a culture that were both brilliant in the dignity and respect they granted to white men and diabolical in the racist system they created to keep people of color in their place. If we truly want to be the country we claim we want to be, we have to honestly face the sins of our forebearers and how we continue to participate in perpetuating these sins today. It is the only way to end the cycle. It is the only way to bring healing, health and wholeness to our country. We will continue to be divided and in turmoil until we do.
Perhaps we could begin by taking deeply into ourselves the words of Psalm 51 that we read this morning that are held to be David’s response to Nathan’s truth telling. They certainly would help us admit our fault as David admitted his:
Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, a sinner from my mother’s womb.
For behold, you look for truth deep within me, and will make me understand wisdom secretly.
Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
Amen.
