II Sam 12--David's Further Unraveling

"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. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, 12:1 1and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, ‘There were two men in a certain city, 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 meagre fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveller 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 neighbour, 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.'"

Introduction

I only decided to exposit the first part of this story last week because I felt the preacher didn't do a very thoughful job of drawing out the meaning of the passage. I continue with my expositions this week because today's sermon, on the second half of the story, in a church 2000 miles away from the one last week, did an even poorer job on the "rest of the story." The two significant points from this morning with which I disagree are: (1) the scope of David's sin; and (2) the expectation of David when he says the words in 12:13a. The preacher this morning tried to argue that David's sin is like our sin--ultimately dull and not too original. On point (2) he claimed that in 12:13a David was already hoping for grace as he prayed.

With respect to the first point, the story is powerful precisely because David's sin is quite unique and huge. He planned a man's murder to cover up his having had an adulterous relation with the man's wife. We need to focus on the severity and specificity of David's transgression or else we really can't grasp the enormousness of the penalty or the incomprehensible scope of the grace given in II Sam. 12. By arguing that David's sin is like ours (so that the grace of God in II Sam. 12 is also available to us), the preacher basicially spiritualized the sin or, alternatively, so generalized it that the horridness of it disappears. Once the horrific nature of David's act disappears, the Scripture is deprived of power.

With respect to what was in David's heart when he uttered 12:13a, of course we can't be sure. But we can be pretty certain that he wasn't confident of grace. He might have been trying to "say the right thing" (i.e., admit fault) even as he was making preliminary plans to put a different "spin" on his own words--just like contemporary politicians who have affairs and still try to survive politically. But if you read the next several verses after 12:13, you see that David was quite torn apart by the severity of Nathan's words. Perhaps he wasn't praying and fasting only for the son, whose life was in the balance; perhaps he already could see the writing on the wall with respect to family discord that Nathan predicted and was mourning it in anticipation. But the Scripture only makes sense if David is completely undone through the encounter with Nathan. He comes to recognize himself and see that his disgusting, lustful behavior actually killed and will kill people. The fact that the child didn't die for a week brought David all the more to ruin. As day stretched into day, perhaps David felt that God might spare the child. After all, one more day of life might betoken another day of life. But it enhanced the agony, too.

These two bad points made by the preacher this morning managed to "domesticate" the text and make the story a "yawner." God must truly be angry at preachers who don't take the Word of God very seriously..

To My Exposition

It is fairly easy to criticize another. How, then, do I read the passage? Let me begin with a criticism of the lectionary-makers. For whatever reason, they excised the story of Uriah's actual death on the battlefield, which I will note in my comments, as well as the verses after David's first words of confession, "I have sinned against the Lord" (12:13a). Missing is the drama of the week of tortured living as David's and Bathsheba's son hung between life and death. Missing is the fasting and praying and, when the child died, the incredibly rich gift of another child--Solomon. Missing also will be any reading of the repercussions of David's actions in his family's life. Next week's lectionary ready vaults us ahead to II Sam. 18, after the family life of David has completely fallen apart. Pretty indefensible...

Well, in expositing the story of David's infidelity, after he gave the order to his commander Joab to have Uriah killed in the fighting, four points emerge for me: (1) the unintended relinquishment of David's power to Joab in this encounter; (2) the loss of David's sense of justice; (3) the terrible judgments that will stalk the family; and (4) the nearly incomprehensible and unbelievable grace of God in giving a son, Solomon, to David and Bathsheba. The next essay exposits these ideas.

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