homily on David, Bathsheba, & Grace
2 Samuel 11
David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba
1 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.
2 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. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.
(Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, 13 David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
David Has Uriah Killed
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” 16 As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors. 17 The men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.
18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting; 19 and he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling the king all the news about the fighting, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.’”
22 So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us, and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall; some of the king’s servants are dead; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another; press your attack on the city, and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
26 When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. 27 When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.
Nathan Condemns David
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord,
2 Samuel 12
1 and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds; 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; 6 he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 8 I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. 11 Thus says the Lord: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. 12 For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” 13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house.
Bathsheba’s Child Dies
The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill. 16 David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 The elders of his house stood beside him, urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 18 On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, “While the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we tell him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” 19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, he perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”
20 Then David rose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the Lord, and worshiped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate. 21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you rose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’ 23 But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Solomon Is Born
24 Then David consoled his wife Bathsheba, and went to her, and lay with her; and she bore a son, and he named him Solomon. The Lord loved him, 25 and sent a message by the prophet Nathan; so he named him Jedidiah, because of the Lord.
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The Bible is full of stories, many of them bright and beautiful, wise and wonderful. Some are outrageous, horrific, incredibly unfair, appalling cruelty, just plain wrong.
Some are pure sin, selfish, outright evil, as this horrifying scandal of corruption, abuse of power, David and Bathsheba’s adultery followed by the wicked murder of the woman’s husband, satanically wicked. What did OT justice call for? A capital crime: that David and Bathsheba be stoned.
David did not count on Uriah’s integrity, a man of honor who, called home from the battlefield, as a matter of principle, Uriah would not go home to sleep with his wife while his men dying in battle could not go home to their wives. That’s not unusual, I saw, read about, and heard of that sort of sensitivity, call it conscience, a higher loyalty, during Vietnam, soldiers on leave for a few days who would not take full advantage of it, because their comrades were fighting and dying in the jungle.
Who is the real man here? No matter which was God’s favorite, and there are always favorites, even and especially with God, the story is clear about David and Uriah, who was the Man and who was the lowlife maggot.
The Bible does not give us this story to show what a virile, handsome, desirable, sexy hunk of maleness king David was. Of course Bathsheba went to David, sorry but it’s a principle of human psychology, and life experience, that the man with prestige and power takes the woman he wants.
And David did. David, whom God loved, was entitled, spoiled, a scoundrel in the full tradition of his ancestor Jacob.
You know the rest of the story [If you don't, I put reprints of it, 2nd Samuel 11 & 12 on the table in the back by the door, pick one up and take it home]. David had Nathan, his chaplain, his spiritual advisor, who called him to account for his mortal sin, and then pronounced Absolution. Which brings us to the wisdom of this good old Sunday school bible story. THIS IS A STORY OF THE GRACE OF GOD. AMAZING GRACE.
God loves you, sins and all, just as you are, the way you are. God is not keeping watch and taking names, God is not making a list and checking it twice, God is not the class monitor making sure you don’t get away with anything. More than anything else, the scandal of David and Bathsheba shows God’s power and will and desire and Grace, because God loves you, to forgive even your most heinous sins, to lead you back to righteousness, to help you reclaim your self respect. You cannot undo your sins, what’s done is done, Uriah is dead and cannot be alive again, the grace of God is that God still loves David.
The grace of God is that God loves you, still and all, no matter what. Do not put yourself down. You are worthy, of immense value to God.
God raised Jesus from death and sent Jesus back to us, to show us that God loves us and returns to be with us no matter our sins; God loves you.
God loves you, God forgives you. This is not mindless liturgical rote, this is not nebulous theological haze; it’s the grace of God. Take it to heart when, in a few minutes, after our liturgical Confession, you hear the assurance of God’s loving pardon. God loves you. Like David, you are forgiven. You will not die for your sins. You are saved.
The gospel of the Lord.
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Homiletic endeavor, the Rev Tom Weller, Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida, Sunday, July 25, 2021, Proper 12, Year B. 2 Samuel chapter 11 & 12.
Art pinched online.