DAVID’S FAILED TRIALS

July 25, 2021
9^th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Sam. 11:1-15; Ps. 14; Eph. 3: 14-21
Rev. Denise Clark-Jones

There are whole books of the bible devoted to wisdom. In the canonical Christian bible, which does not include the Apocrypha, the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon and some of the Psalms are considered wisdom literature. Today, the psalm we just sang begins with a fundamental statement of biblical wisdom: “¹Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” The psalmist doesn’t just say that dismissing God is foolish, the psalmist explains why: “They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds.” It is not just the idea there is no power beyond one’s own, but the behavior that the ideology triggers that is foolish. In the bible, wisdom is a gift from God who is omniscient, all-knowing. Thus, to reject God’s wisdom is the ultimate foolishness.

The story of David, Bathsheba and Uriah is a universal morality play that reveals our personal and communal sins. David was not an atheist. He believed in God, but foolishly deluded himself into believing he could deceive God. David’s pride led him to imagine God’s generosity towards him meant he was entitled to whatever he wanted.  The text tells us David knew Bathsheba was married and was married to one of his military officers. His first sin, against Bathsheba and Uriah, was the abuse of power. God chose David to be a king who would rule Israel with the mercy, justice and righteousness God expected of God’s Chosen People. The well-being of the community, David’s fellow citizens, was to be his ultimate consideration.

Of course, a king had certain luxuries, but not at the expense of his subjects’ needs. The Egyptian Pharoah’s treatment of the Hebrew slaves was a memory the Hebrew people were explicitly told not to forget. The king was to rule with justice but was also, himself, accountable to God’s justice. As God had shown mercy to God’s people, the king was to show mercy. God, being the ultimate arbiter of the law and righteousness, expected the divinely anointed ruler to be a model of righteousness and obedience himself – to lead by example.

It has been said that true leaders never delegate tasks to others they are not willing to do themselves. For a current example: take the case of a political leader who gets the Covid vaccine but encourages others not to for their own political gain. Or company owners taking millions of dollars in government Payroll Protection Loans and using the money to close their businesses and relocate to poorer countries where labor is cheap. The Old Testament text tells us that kings were expected to go into battle with their armies. Perhaps if that were still so, armies would not be sent into battle so frequently. Instead of accompanying his men into battle, David remained in the safety of his palatial home. With the luxury of too much time on his hands, he spied on a woman bathing on a roof. It was proof of the folk wisdom: “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.”

Bathsheba was doing a bathing ritual to purify herself after her monthly period so she could enter the temple to worship God. This tells the audience that she could have not been pregnant at the time; and, since her soldier husband, Uriah, was away, could not have been impregnated by her husband She probably assumed that being on the roof she would not be seen by anyone. But, because David’s palace was so large and grand, he was, literally, positioned higher and could watch her bathing.

He did not woo or seduce her, he had palace guards bring her to him. Living too early for the Me-Too movement, Bathsheba endured the indignity women and children have endured throughout history in every time and place. When the balance of power is unequal, there cannot be true consent. Once Bathsheba had served his selfish purpose, David dismissed her.  But a complication arose. Later, Bathsheba sent a message to David informing him she was pregnant.  David was not concerned for her situation, but he did worry about a public relations scandal. It had not occurred to him that he had been disobedient to God and failed his people. As so many David’s have learned, ‘the cover-up can be worse than the crime’ in the circumstances of judgment and the law. At this point in the story, people were merely commodities to be exploited for David’s gain. It is not until later, when his advisor, the prophet Nathan, shows him the truth of his sin, that David realizes that by sinning against Bathsheba, Uriah and others, he has sinned against God.

David devised a plan to fool Uriah into believing the child Bathsheba was expecting was his own. In order for the plan to succeed, he had to get Uriah to go home and have marital relations with his wife. David used Uriah’s superior officer, Joab, to unwittingly take part in his nefarious scheme. David told Joab to send Uriah to David. David gave him leave to return home to his wife. But his plan to send Uriah home was stymied when Uriah refused because the soldiers under his command did not have the same privilege. In contrast to David, Uriah remained loyal to his king and his fellow soldiers. David went so far as to get Uriah drunk to entice him to leave his men and go home, but Uriah was far more honorable and loyal than David and remained steadfast at his post. Finally, David hatched a murderous plot to send Uriah on a suicide mission at the battlefront. When powerful evildoers find themselves unable to control people who are obstacles to their objectives, they attempt to get rid of them by rendering them powerless. This time Joab knowingly aided David in the plot to get rid of Uriah. We see David’s game plan replayed in the current voter suppression legislation being rammed through state legislatures. David needed help to accomplish his evil deed, so he enlisted someone who was willing to go against God’s commandments to be just, merciful and righteous for the sake of worldly power. Joab was willing to be complicit in having his own soldiers, those whose lives were entrusted to his care, killed for the king’s expedient cover-up.

For David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and the other soldiers at the front were only tools for his use.  He denied their humanity, their worth as children of God. Uriah was killed as were other soldiers on the mission – collateral damage.  David took Bathsheba for one of his many wives to preserve his image and add to his harem. Eventually, Nathan led David to confession and repentance, but the damage David had done to others was irrevocable. This was a turning point in David’s reign as well as the whole history of the people of Israel.  Israel had already reached the highest pinnacle of its history and its descent began at this critical junction. David’s relations with his other wives and children began to deteriorate, destabilizing his kingdom. His own son, Absalom would lead a revolt against him. The psalmist warns against David’s foolishness and sinfulness when he used the people God had called him to protect for his own selfish desires: “4Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread.”

The challenge this story presents to us is this: When we have power and privilege like David are we wise enough and faithful enough to resist the temptation to exploit that power at the expense of others?  When the David’s of the world try to enlist us for that purpose, are we wise and obedient enough to God, to keep from becoming a Joab? Do we love justice and mercy enough to see the Bathsheba and Uriah’s plight and stand and stand up for them against the David’s and Joabs?

A recent article in the Journal Star, reprinted from a USA Today editorial, brought this David story to mind. The subject of the editorial was the failure of a minority of the U.S. Olympic team to get the Covid vaccine before going to Japan to compete. I must admit, I am convinced that it is wise to take the Covid vaccine unless there is an underlying medical condition for which one’s doctor believes the vaccine is contraindicated. Since 99% of all new Covid cases are in the unvaccinated population, it is illogical to believe it does not have an effect on preventing serious cases of the Covid virus. As the psalmist asserted: “¹Fools say in their hearts there is no God,” it is foolish to believe the virus does not exist or does not kill people. With 34.4 million cases and 610,000 deaths, just in the United States betting against the virus being real or catching it oneself is not a wise wager.  These unvaccinated athletes appear to be following their own foolish ideologies. Our scientific knowledge is a gift from God. God empowers us to increase our knowledge to lead us to awe and wonder of God’s creation and to help ourselves and others.

The Ten Commandments, part of the Covenant Code outlined in Exodus, and the Deuteronomic Code, from Moses’ final speeches to the Israelites, informs us, as it did the ancient Israelites in David’s time, that the well-being of the community is a critical component of our love and obedience to God. In using one athlete’s own words to explain why he did not get vaccinated, the author broke down this athlete’s rationale for not being vaccinated into three categories: foolishness, selfishness, and willful ignorance. She used the term “ill-informed” instead of willfully ignorant, but it did not seem to fit in the case of this particular athlete. He chose to ignore scientific information because it did not support his singular objective. This athlete, like David, knew the situation in which he was entering. He knew he could be taken out of the games if he tested positive for the Covid virus. He knew he was going to a country with a low vaccination rate. He knew he would be living in close quarters with other athletes. He knew he could pass on the virus to other athletes, workers, and audiences who did not have easy access to the vaccines Americans have because of our wealth, power, and abundant resources. While we have enough vaccine doses for every citizen, other nations do not. His rationale for not getting the vaccine was his concern that his training regime might be interrupted for a few days by side effects from the vaccine. The possibility that he would test positive and would spend the Olympics in quarantine, unable to compete, was foolishly not taken into account. Selfishly, he dismissed the possibility he might be the cause of other athletes suffering the same fate or that his inability to compete might mean fewer medals for the USA Olympic team.

The moral of David’s story is that we cannot put God on a shelf and profess our belief and allegiance while pretending as if God does not exist and what we do to God’s children and the rest of God’s creation has no consequence. When we choose short-term and immediate gratification with no concern about the effects on others, we repeat this ancient story again and again. It was the prophet Nathan who forced David to recognize his sin and repent. Today the church is called to be that prophetic voice in our communities. May we believe what another prophetic voice said to the Ephesian congregation: “by God’s power at work within us, God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” Where there is the will, Christ leads the way. May we be wise in the ways of justice, mercy, and righteousness grounded in love.

Amen. May it be so!

Rev. Denise Clark-Jones, 2021, All Rights Reserved
Westminster Presbyterian Church | 1420 W. Moss Ave. | Peoria, Illinois 61606
WestminsterPeoria.org | 309.673.8501

“What goes through your mind as you sit in the sanctuary and look around?

As I sit in my pew and look up at the cross with the wonderful light illuminating it, I am reminded of why I am at Westminster on this particular day. The cross reminds me that Christ died for me and, in a sense, I am to do the same in my daily life. The brightness of the cross illustrates for me the brightness of living my life in the way of Christ.”