David and Bathsheba, Third Essay

7. David's mode of "handling" the situation begins to enmesh him in a complex scheme that gradually unravels right before our eyes. At first David must have been bothered by the pregnancy, but he had already thought of ways to circumvent the news--he would just order that her husband come home for his "R & R," have sexual relations with his wife, and then return to battle. But since David now is involved in a cover-up, all of his energy and skill has to be devoted to making sure that the hint of a scandal doesn't reach him. He is so completely "off" his rhythm now that he has to spend all of his time devising schemes to avoid responsibility rather than focusing on ways to rule his people. I wonder sometimes how much mental effort of Richard Nixon went into evading the forces that eventually brought him down in August 1974. David is now caught in a sticky web of lust's spidery ways, and every time he "pulls away" from it, he leaves a bit of his flesh behind.

8. David had probably thought about how he would "cover up" even before he summoned Bathsheba to the palace. So, he puts his plan into place. Summon Uriah from the battlefield, command him to go to his home to spend the night with his wife, send him back to the battle, and no one will get "hurt." But David's duplicity is already evident in the way he treats Uriah. He asks him a question--'how is Joab doing?' When you think about this for a second, you begin to realize that David no doubt had others better situated and tasked to answer the question than Uriah. Uriah must have thought it odd that David was asking him this question. Perhaps he sensed deeply in his spirit that the question really was "How is David doing?" Thus, his decision not to stay with his wife during the night could be motivated not simply by military-type discipline but by a deep fear that something was amiss. His spending the night with the servants reflects this dedication and this fear.

But there are a couple of other things going on here. Note the way David speaks to Uriah. He tells him to go home and "wash your feet" (v. 8)--a euphemism for having conjugal relations with his wife. The person who is guilty of the most heinous breach of the duty of fidelity, who literally has screwed the wife of his soldier, now tries to cover it up by using a euphemism. It is almost as if he is saying, 'Uriah, it pains me to have to mention such a subject, and I will do so with all propriety, but I would like you to visit your wife.' David the prude. Right. He uses language and action, then, to try to pull off his massive cover-up.

One more thing. Uriah is, no doubt, a disciplined solider. Where did he learn that discipline--so that he would not lie with his wife while his fellows are in the field? No doubt from Joab, the commander of the forces, David's right-hand man. Uriah was so loyal precisely because he had imbibed the virtues of David. How utterly rank David must have felt himself to be when his subordinate is now mirroring back to the king the virtues that David himself has inculcated--and David now wants to have Uriah break from his values. Once lust has nestled in the breast, it implicates others in its twisted schemes, and it cannot be satisfied unless it has perverted the way of innocent people. Lust shows no regard for person, for spirit, for relationships, for sacredness. It is its own bonfire, feeding only on itself, until it disappears in one smoke cloud.

9. Uriah is given three chances to sleep with his wife. On the third occasion, David gets him rip-roaring drunk so that his faculties will be loosened, his defenses down and his libido "up," so to speak. Still he holds firm. Uriah gives the finest silent testimony to fidelity in the Scriptures. He doesn't obey his current commander-in-chief because he is obeying the "better angels" of the nature of the commander-in-chief in his earlier manifestation. Uriah's fidelity must eventually have become hateful to David. Uriah is causing unnecessary "problems" for him, and he has to go to "Plan B" now.

10. Plan "B," sending Uriah's death notice to Joab by Uriah's own hand, ranks as one of the cardinal acts of betrayal in the Bible. But David is now a desperate man. He will have to have Uriah killed. Then when Bathsheba has a child, here is what he will do. He will hold a special ceremony for the child and the father, honoring the valor of Uriah and perhaps even giving a sermon/message to the People of God of how God has been faithful to Uriah (by providing a child) because Uriah had been faithful to his task. A life is taken, but a life is given. That will be the "gist" of David's message. He has worked this thing out so well theologically. The only thing that might ruin David's plans is some enterprising investigative reporter. But that kind of person didn't exist in ancient Israel. Oops..there are prophets, but David probably hadn't thought this one through that thoroughly....

Summary

The sermon I heard on this passage today, at Fourth Presbyterian Church Chicago (where I spent an hour from 11;00 a.m. to noon blogging part of these essays), spent comparatively little time with the text and came up with the laudable, but rather obvious, conclusion that David was a flawed person--but that God is pleased to use flawed people. The word "flawed" isn't strong enough to capture David's action. Indeed, David is a despicable person here. He is vile, base, contemptible. His actions deserve to be regarded with abhorrence and disgust. His deeds are characterized by baseness and depravity. This, friends, is true corruption, perversion, and viciousness. In the old English common law, a person was considered to have the intent to commit murder if his action demonstrated an "abandoned heart." This is precisely what David's actions against Uriah showed. He abandoned his heart, and so God abandoned him. He has shot himself off into the darkest reaches of a cold universe through this action. Flawed, no. "Flawed" is a polite word that the preacher heard in seminary. We are in the realm of complete debasement. Welcome to the Bible.

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