You Are the Man—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 11B (2 Samuel 11-12)

Thou Art the Man, Peter Frederick Rothermel (1884)

2 Samuel 11:26-12:15 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. ²⁷ When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, 12 ¹ and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had very many flocks and herds, ³ but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare and drink from his cup and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” ⁵ Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; ⁶ he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

⁷ Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; ⁸ I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. ⁹ Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. ¹¹ Thus says the Lord: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. ¹² For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and in broad daylight.” ¹³ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child born to you shall die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house.

The Lord struck the child whom Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill.

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                A recent Supreme Court case concerned the amount of immunity a President of the United States has when it comes to their decisions and actions while in office. Is it absolute or are there limits? The Court ruled that on core matters, they are immune and should be presumed immune on other matters unless courts decide otherwise. However, when it comes to private/personal criminal matters, they would not have immunity. But where do you draw the line? That’s the big question. Ultimately these questions of immunity are related to questions of power and accountability.

                When you are an absolute monarch, as was true for most ancient monarchs, including King David, there isn’t anyone who can hold you accountable. At least that’s what they often believed. When David commanded that Bathsheba be brought to his palace, she went because you don’t say no to the king. When he wanted to take her to his bed, she had no say in the matter. When she got pregnant, David found himself in a predicament, so he decided to cover it up. He first requested Bathsheba’s husband to return from the war that David should have been involved with (kings generally led the armies into battle), so he could have Uriah pay a visit to his wife, engage in a sexual encounter so that when the baby was born no one would be the wiser. Unfortunately for David, Uriah was an honorable man who refused to spend time with his wife when his fellow soldiers were off fighting David’s war. When all of David’s maneuvers failed, he had Uriah put in a position where he would die in battle.

                The reading for the Eleventh Sunday of Pentecost (Year B) picks up after Uriah’s death, which David’s general (Joab) set up. The passage begins with Bathsheba in mourning for her husband. After a suitable period of lamentation, David brought her to his house and married her, and the baby they had conceived was born. Once again, Bathsheba didn’t have a say in this. David was the king, and what the king desires will happen. So, in David’s mind, that should be the end of things (2 Sam. 11:26-27a). But it wasn’t. You see, even though David thought he had covered his bases so that no one other than his inner circle, who in their loyalty to David would keep quiet, and Bathsheba would know what had happened. People might think that David was being nice by inviting Uriah’s widow to join his household. Though he thought he had covered his bases, God knew what happened, and God was displeased with what David had done (2 Sam. 11:27b).                

               While David’s inner circle, either out of loyalty or fear (or a bit of both) stayed silent, David wasn’t out of the woods quite yet. That’s because bad decisions and actions often catch up with us. While David might have been a man after God’s own heart, and God may have made David great, God could also be displeased with David. That is the case here. Though David had created what he thought was a foolproof cover-up, he couldn’t hide his sins from God who was displeased. So, God sent Nathan the prophet to hold David accountable. We’ve already met Nathan, who was the person who anointed David as king in Jerusalem and who communicated with him about building a temple for God. Since he was David’s spiritual advisor and pastor, he had access to David that others might not have.

When God sent Nathan to confront David, the prophet didn’t challenge David directly. Instead, he tells a story that essentially sets a trap for David. He wants David to truly understand what he had done in taking Bathsheba from her husband and then having him killed. The best way to do that was with a short story or parable.  

Nathan’s parable introduces us to two men. One is quite rich, and the other is poor. The rich man has large flocks of sheep, while the other man only has one lamb whom he treasures, such that the lamb is like a daughter to him.  Pet owners can understand how this man and his family felt about this lamb who was essentially a member of the family, who even shared the family’s meager meals. The story then continues, for one day a traveler stops by to see the rich man, who is a neighbor of the poor man who is the owner of this beloved lamb. Because the rich man wants to be a good host, he offers to serve a nice lamb dinner. However, even though he has lots of lambs to choose from, he doesn’t want to slaughter one of his own animals. Instead, he takes the poor man’s one lamb, slaughters it, and serves it for dinner. Why not? Surely the poor man didn’t have the resources to push back. So, the rich man was a good host and the meal didn’t cost him anything.

When Nathan finished telling this parable, David was outraged by what he heard. How could do something like that? David responded by pronouncing judgment on the rich man who stole the lamb from the poor man. David told Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity” (2 Sam.  12:5-6). When David said this, he stepped into Nathan’s trap. He had framed himself by pronouncing judgment on the man who stole a lamb from his neighbor. After he made this declaration of judgment, Nathan turned to him and said, “Thou art the man.” Yes, by taking Bathsheba to his bed (remember she couldn’t have said no, which raises the question of whether this should be called rape), making her pregnant, and then trying to cover it up by having her husband, Uriah the Hittite, killed, David was no different from the rich man in Nathan’s story. David took what belonged to Uriah.

Nathan wasn’t finished after revealing that David was the man in the story. He continued by reminding David that God had anointed David as king and rescued him from Saul’s attempts to kill him. God gave David Saul’s house and Saul’s wives. God could have added even more beyond the kingdom, so Nathan says on behalf of God: “Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?” Then Nathan rehearses David’s actions, including taking Bathsheba and having Uriah killed. Therefore, David and his family will suffer the consequences. He will lose wives to his neighbors and more. Yes, Nathan tells David that what David did in secret, God will do to David in full view of the public. After rehearsing all that would happen to him, David, fully humbled, declares: “I have sinned against the LORD.”  

There is a clear patriarchal dimension to this story, which we need to address. As Grace Kim notes, “in a patriarchal society men have more power than women, who are sometimes viewed as little more than sexual objects.” To illustrate this point, she points out that women are often casualties of war when they are sexually molested or raped. As a Korean, she knows the stories well of the Korean women who, during World War II, were forced to serve as “comfort women” to service Japanese soldiers. She writes that “sexual sins against women continue worldwide, and congregations and denominations need to bring these issues to public awareness so that they can be addressed” [Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, p. 344]. 

Keeping this in mind, we can heed Nathan’s response to David’s actions. The story has patriarchal elements that we need to acknowledge, even as we take note of Nathan’s message that God had seen what David had done and was displeased by it. Nathan also wanted David to know what the consequences would be due to his actions. One might ask, if David thought the rich man was worthy of the death penalty, what about him? Did his actions warrant the death penalty? While David and his family would suffer, such that even the child that Bathsheba had conceived would die soon after he was born, he wouldn’t die as a result. There is a word of grace here, but no immunity from prosecution.

The prescribed reading ends with the first clause of verse 13, where David confesses that he had sinned. Understandably, the lectionary creators would cut the reading off at this point because what follows is problematic. The writer of 2 Samuel suggests that God caused the death of the child as punishment. David might not die but his child would. While we might want to end in verse 13, we would be wise to continue on to hear this word in verse 15. It offers us the opportunity to consider how God might act. Does this sound like a God whose steadfast love (hesed) endures forever?

As we ponder the question above, we should also take into consideration the other consequences of David’s actions. Whether God causes these events to happen or not, they are signs that corruption has entered the household of David. For example, his son Amnon raped Tamar, Amnon’s half-sister, which led to her brother Absalom taking revenge by killing Amnon. Then Absalom rebelled against David, which led David to flee Jerusalem. Finally, David’s general, Joab, killed Absalom, which created deep grief in David’s heart. While we celebrate David as being a man after God’s own heart who served as the model for the expected messiah, who Jesus would embody, he was a very complicated figure.

Psalm 51 is attributed to David. It is a prayer of confession and lamentation, that is said to have been inspired by the death of David’s first son with Bathsheba (they would have a second son, Solomon, who would serve as David’s heir). David prayed, seeking God’s forgiveness:

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence,
    and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit. 

(Ps. 51:10-12)

David’s concern here is with God abandoning him, so he seeks a clean heart. He wants the joy of his salvation restored to him. The story we read in 2 Samuel, together with the prayer David offers in Psalm 51, reminds us that God holds us accountable, even as God offers us a word of grace. It’s not that he (and us as well) had been granted absolute immunity, but he did not lose that connection with God that he treasured. Nevertheless, the reading from 2 Samuel reminds us that power can and often does corrupt. Might we keep that in mind as we seek to live out God’s calling on our lives?