Thursday 3 May 2018

2 Samuel 11 David: Lust and the Murderer



My #MeToo story. I had a really good husband and he was close friends with our King David, we even lived next door to the palace. Uriah, my husband was in the military and one spring he went off to lead his men against some of our enemies, but the king, his friend stayed home for this campaign. Usually the king would lead his men, this is why they admired him so much, but this time King David didn’t. No one thought much of it, but one afternoon I went to bath on the roof of our home because it was warm out and I had just finished my time of the month. An hour later a messenger came from the king to come to the palace. Then I discovered that he had watched me bath. I felt violated that he had disrespected me this way.
Then it became much worse, it took me into his private chambers and told me to undress so he could see me unclothed again. I began to cry, but he insisted and after I was undressed he took me to his bed and began touching me all over, and then he slept with me. I felt so ashamed and dirty because the only man who had ever touched me before was my husband, and now the man that me husband admired and considered a close friend had just violated me. But this isn’t the end of the story, I became pregnant because of what the king had done to me and I’m not sure about everything that happened next, but the story ends with my dear husband Uriah dead and the king claiming me as another one of his wives after the official time of mourning was over. What makes some men look at us as just things to use?
David and Bathsheba, a story of sex and power, of deep betrayal and callous disregard of other’s feelings and rights. This is a story of the abuse of power and betrayal of the most intimate kind, a story of David being a king just like the kings of the nations around him, focusing on his wants and desires instead of his people and who God calls him to be. David creates huge amounts of hurt and damage to Bathsheba and Uriah, but also severely damages his position as king and in his relationship to God. We focus on Bathsheba, because we’ve turned this story into some kind of a twisted love story because Bathsheba becomes the mother of future King Solomon, because Jesus comes from the line of David and Bathsheba, but it’s no love story, it’s a story about a king with deep flaws, with large cracks in who he is. It’s about abusing trust, something that is way too common, even today. Some people believe that they are so special that they can do whatever they want to anyone they want and it’s alright because it’s all about them.
Jewish rabbis teach that this is a story that contrasts the immoral and flawed King David with the moral and upright man of strong character Uriah. David has slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife and now she is pregnant and David is faced with a decision: what do I do now? David decides to try to hide what he’s done and calls Uriah home from the battlefield. David hopes to get Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba so that everything can be hidden. Now Uriah is no simple soldier, he is one of David’s 30 mighty warriors, heroes who stuck with David even during his time of exile and persecution by King Saul. These are the warriors who were willing to risk their own lives so David could become king. Uriah is such a trusted warrior and friend that his home is next to the king’s palace, a place of honour and respect.
This is where the contrast comes: David betrayed Uriah and now tries to hide his sin. He calls Uriah home to get a report on the men and how the war is going, and then encourages Uriah to spend the night with his wife. The expression, “wash your feet” meant sleeping with his wife, but Uriah sleeps with the servants because of his loyalty to his men in the field. When David asks him why he didn’t spend time with Bathsheba, Uriah says to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” David then gets Uriah drunk to weaken his loyalty to his men, but Uriah drunk still has more principles and a better character than David and in the evening Uriah sleeps again on his mat among the servants; he doesn’t go home. Now David arranges with Joab, his field commander, to make sure that Uriah gets killed in one of the battles because Uriah’s faithfulness to his men is too strong. This is in contrast to David’s lack of loyalty to him. David’s response when Joab lets him know that Uriah died in battle is basically, “Ah well, these things happen.” A callous cruel response. The problem is that these things don’t just happen, David planned it all out.
This is one of those stories that echoes forward to Jesus and one of the echoes is how he too was betrayed by someone close to him, one of his twelve disciples Judas who also deliberately planned out a betrayal of Jesus because Jesus wasn’t acting how Judas wanted him to, to claim the throne of David in Jerusalem. This leads Jesus to the cross, where Jesus claims kingship over all creation as he defeats death itself in order to bring healing and wholeness into creation again. Jesus' kingship is one of justice and hope, of healing and faithfulness rather than betrayal and hurt. The cross brings forgiveness, even for betrayals such as David’s and Judas’. But it’s not a cheap or easy forgiveness where we just say, “Oops, sorry, won’t do that again.”
God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David with what he’s done and who he’s becoming. It’s not just the extreme wrong that David has done, it’s about how what he did shows who David has become: a king in the image of other earthly kings instead of becoming like the king of heaven and earth who has called his followers to love him above everything else, and to love his neighbour as himself, and to show mercy, fight for justice and to walk humbly with God. When David’s confronted with who he’s become and how he’s destroyed the lives of people he’s called to protect, David is changed, he confesses, and more importantly, he repents, he changes and begins working on becoming who God has called him to be.
The cross calls us to confession and repentance, to a searching of our souls and hearts to see how we might have also betrayed others, hurt others because we want to be gods of our own lives, focusing on our own wants and desires instead of Jesus’ call to follow him and partner with him so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. The cross confronts us and calls us to focus on our character, on who we are and whether we allow what we say we believe about Jesus to actually shape who we are as his followers. The cross also brings forgiveness and grace for the sinner and healing to the one sinned against. 
Psalm 51 is David’s confession and reveals his repentant heart. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge… you desired faithfulness even in the womb; taught me wisdom in that secret place…  Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me… Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you… My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Faith is about our beliefs about Jesus actually being lived out. Faith is not just knowledge, it’s about how our knowledge of Jesus and the relationship we have with Jesus shapes our character and our relationships; ultimately it comes down to obedience in becoming who Jesus calls us to be as his followers: people shaped by grace, mercy, forgiveness, desiring justice, fighting against oppression within our cultures, creating communities of health where people are able to flourish; all summed up in Jesus’ command to love God above everything and to love our neighbour as ourselves. It's about humility and working towards reconciliation with those we've hurt, admitting our fault and asking for forgiveness. It may not come, depending on how much you have hurt, but the effort needs to be made and the person hurt is the one who sets the boundaries then. 
It’s about loving our neighbours so much we want them to have a relationship with Jesus too because we believe that they will be better off knowing Jesus, that they can find healing and hope from Jesus. Jesus went to the cross so that one day when he returns there will be no need for such a movement, but he has placed us here to begin to create that place right now, right here where he has placed us as his church, his bride.

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