David and Bathsheba: Expositing the Text

The lectionary committee has given us this text in the middle of July--historically among the lowest-attended weeks of the church year. This text is, for me, one of the most moving and powerful texts in the Old Testament. It tells the story of the unraveling of a "man in control"--King David. The story illustrates, among other things, David's lust, cover-up, growing desperation and finally a resort to murder. Indeed, one might best characterize this text as an examination of the uncontrolled power of lust and lust's empire. At least ten points come out of this text for me, which I will exposit after providing the text, from the NRSV:

"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 not you 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 do no such 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. 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.'"

Introduction

This is a story of almost unparalleled brutality. It shows how lust, using the instrumentality of human power, can get out of control and do anything, yes anything, to cover its tracks. I think the reality of life in 20th and early 21st century America has removed any doubt from anyone's minds that events described in this story, indeed, are well-within the mind and imagination of some powerful people. The Scripture provides an unparalleled opportunity to probe the contours of lust, the confusion that lust engenders, and the massive ways that deception, cover-up and murder follow in the wake of lust. Yet, for all the lessons we may derive from the text, the author of this passage never "makes a point." He never tells us to avoid this type of behavior or warns us about the consequences. Yet we see in the story a parable of human longing and desire, desire that can consume and bring down even a person seemingly most insulated from harm.

At Least Ten Points

The story "speaks for itself" at one level; but at another level we can pause, at least, on these points.

1. Let's begin with the obvious one. David is home resting while his troops are out fighting. Kings go out to war in the Spring; David was at home. There is no indication that he is not well or otherwise indisposed. No explanation is given for why he stays at home. Perhaps a secret longing had already gripped him, a desire to "see what happens" when he is out of the rhythm which he knows is good for him and which nature approves (i.e., going out to war in Spring). We can try to go against the rhythms of nature and of the expectations of our work and call in life, and we think we are strong when we are doing it, but it is as if we are swimming against a current or, more perilously, driving the wrong way on a freeway. Nature, call, work, all give us rhythms and things to do. It is perilous to break out of these patterns. Maybe David felt he needed some "R & R." But there are "approved" ways of doing this, too, ways that wouldn't have presented the same possibilities for trouble. This, then, is the first point: David strays from the natural order and his job description by staying at home. Be wary of breaking the rhythms of your life unless you are very sure what will result.

2. David is sleeping in the afternoon. When the basic rhythms of life are abandoned, others which we don't recognize tend to obtrude. He rises from his couch in the middle of the day. Surely there is no reason for rest at that time. But there is something even more insidious here, which I almost hesitate to mention because of the sexual overtones of it (but, then again, this story is about sex and lust, isn't it?). When a middle-aged man rises after a nap, he tends to be more sexually "ready" than if his energy had just dropped through finishing up the day at work. Sleep has a wonderful way of restoring the sexual drive. So, he rises from the couch in late afternoon, ready for....? Already there is a subtle signal from his body that something is different, something is wrong. He is thinking about his "manhood" now. His arrhythmia has already set in, and he decides to take a walk. Well, of course, he has the highest roof in town, and from that roof he is able to look out and see the roofs of the "lesser" people all around him. He is a man who commands; one of the signs of commanding his people is that he can snoop into their private affairs, into what is happening on their rooftops. So, it is as if he says to himself, 'Hm, let's see what is happening around me.' What is he really doing? He is looking for a place to park his lust, even if he isn't thinking through every step of the way. He is looking for something that will give him a sense of rhythm now that he is walking down a path and embracing a rhythm he doesn't recognize. Weakness wants to be replaced with strength; so he looks for a way that he can use the thing that most characterizes him--his manly strength. His eyes scan all around, and what does he see?

The next essay tells us.

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