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Today’s reading from 2 Samuel is a direct continuation of what we heard last week, the story of David and Bathsheba. This is a tough story in Scripture to hear, not least because it deals with David, the Great King of Israel, the line from which the Messiah was to come, in not the most positive of lights.
Yet it is an important story. It has been deemed so important even, that The Children’s Illustrated Bible includes it as one of the Biblical stories they felt worthy to include, and it should be said that’s not a terribly long list, all things considered. In fact, that’s where I first learned about this story when I was just a child.
Now The Children’s Illustrated Bible doesn’t really hide any of the details in the story of David and Bathsheba, but that’s not much help to a kid who knows very little about marriage, cheating, and the like. When I first read this story, I did what any kid confused with a lot questions about more adult things would do. I went to my mom and asked her what was going on with this story.
My mother, in her infinite wisdom, just said, “Why don’t we go for a walk?” You see, we lived in the same neighborhood as our priest, and he was known to go for a walk around the time I asked my question. Her hope is that we would run into him and that I might ask him what was going on with this story. Which is what happened. I can’t tell you what he said, but it was enough to satisfy me at the time.
Fortunately today we have VeggiTales, which gives us a way to explain this difficult story to children. A lot of details are changed, but King George and the Ducky gives a good start to explain some of the key issues of David and Bathsheba’s tale.
Instead of King David, we have King George, and instead of Uriah, we have Thomas. Thomas has a rubber ducky that King George spies and wants for himself, even though he already has so many. In this story, George’s kingdom is in a “pie war” with the next kingdom over, replacing Israel’s fight with the Ammonites. Just like in our story from Scripture today, George, like David, wants what Thomas, or Uriah, has. Just like in Scripture, George sends Thomas out to the front lines of the battle in order that he will be taken out and George can have the ducky he desires.
Unlike with Uriah, Thomas comes back, though completely psychologically damaged from the fight. George sees this as giving him the opportunity to keep Thomas’ duck, so all is well for him.
Then Melvin, the stand-in for the Prophet Nathan, comes to give King George some advice. He basically repeats the story Nathan tells to David in our Scripture today about the rich man with many sheep taking the poor man’s one sheep to feed his guest. Just like with David, George is appalled and says there will be a steep punishment for this crime. Both Melvin and Nathan point at the king and say “You are the man!”
This story is important for us because it helps us face our own wrongdoing, just as David had to. It is from this experience that he gave us the 51st Psalm, the most important poem about repentance that we hear every year at Lent.
Now King George and the Ducky ends happily. George helps Thomas get better, gives him back his ducky, and asks for his forgiveness.
David’s story doesn’t have quite the same tone. Uriah is dead, and so David cannot receive forgiveness from him. Instead, David and Bathsheba lose their firstborn. David never completely recovers from his grief over what he has done, which leads to internal struggles in his family, the major one we will hear the end result of next week.
Eventually all is restored to order, and David and Bathsheba have another son, Solomon, who takes the throne after his father dies. Solomon is known throughout history and the world for his wisdom, yet this also gets him in trouble. To created alliances with other kingdoms, Solomon marries many foreign wives. To keep them all happy, Solomon also allows them to bring in temples to their false gods for worship. This eventually leads the Israelites away from the Lord. After Solomon, his sons divide the kingdom, weakening Israel. All this leads to the fall of Ancient Israel as they turn further and further from the Lord.
All this stems from one action, there very first thing we see him doing in our reading from 2 Samuel last week: David wasn’t out leading his troops like he had in the past and was supposed to. This was one of the things the Prophet Samuel warned the Israelites would happen, that the king would send their sons to do his battles for him, as we saw earlier this season. Out of the actions of one man, a revered man too we might add, the entire country crumbles.
Our actions can have momentous impacts, not just on us, but on those around us. We have to remember that. This is why the story of David and Bathsheba is so important to share. Out of David’s sin, a snowball effect occurs impacting all of Israel around him.
For this reason Ephesians calls us to “no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.” It is why Ephesians calls us to realize where we stand and to use our gifts to be what God would have us be whether as “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers” or any other role we would have in the community really.
It is all too easy to fall down the wrong path. This is what we see those speaking to Jesus doing. It is what we will continue to see them do throughout this month. They fail to see the nature of Jesus’ work. They fail to grasp the point. Nothing good will come of their failure to understand what Jesus is there for, what He is there to do.
Our actions are important, for they don’t just impact us. We need to take time to stop and think about them. That’s something I strive to do every day of my life. It’s something I hope you will do as well.
When we inevitably fail, we can’t drown in our despair as David did, which we will, once again, see next week. Instead we have to turn to the truth which Jesus was trying to tell us. We cannot do this on our own, but if we lean on the Lord, as Jesus Himself teaches, we will be restored, renewed, forgiven, and fed.