Skin in the Game

“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. ” (2 Samuel 11:1)

Thus begins the fall of King David – the ‘man after God’s own heart’.

If you’re not familiar with the story, the next verse has David on the roof of his palace, spying a beautiful woman in one of the adjoining properties, bathing. By the end of the chapter, David has married the woman and fathered a child with her. That doesn’t sound too bad except that she was already married. David nonetheless had sex with her, got her pregnant, and then tried to blame the pregnancy on her husband. When that didn’t work, he had the husband killed and married the widow. All’s well, it ends well (or so David thought).

This story has always raised questions for students of the Bible:

1. Was the woman (Bathsheba) deliberately enticing David by bathing in sight of the palace or was this a straightforward case of rape?
2. How is it that Uriah the Hittite (the husband of Bathsheba) is the only faithful Jew in the story, despite the fact that he is a Hittite?
3. How did this story ever get into the Bible, embedded in a narrative that depicts David as the ‘man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14)?

I won’t address the last of those questions today, but the question of what exactly was going on between David, Bathsheba and Uriah has always intrigued me, and my own perception of this story has changed completely over the years.

I used to think of David’s ‘affair’ with Bathsheba as being similar to the ‘Profumo affair’ – the sex scandal that brought down the British government of Harold Macmillan in 1963 – or the Clinton/Lewinsky sex-scandal of 1998. Powerful men have had a horrible history of abusing vulnerable women, and while those two cases made front-page news, I assume that this sort of abuse happens regularly in the clandestine corridors of power. What was different in David’s case, as I see it now, is that his wasn’t a secret affair. I don’t think David ever seriously attempted to hide what was going on between him and Bathsheba.

What we can fail to appreciate is that the government of King David was not comparable to the modern political administrations of London or Washington, nor even Canberra. Archaeologists suggest that David’s capital – Jerusalem – had a population of less than 2,000 people, and his entourage (family, bodyguards, administrators and officials) may have numbered in the hundreds, but not in the thousands. David’s ‘palace’ (which was made of wood, not marble [2 Samuel 7:2]) would have housed a small community, all of whom would have known each other. If David was taking different women into his bedroom in the evenings, everyone in the palace would have known about it.

The text is actually quite clear about David’s shamelessness:

“David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him,”  (2 Samuel 11:3-4)

David doesn’t sneak out of the palace and throw rocks at Bathsheba’s window to furtively get her attention. He organises the whole affair through his team. He wasn’t trying to keep it a secret. All of the palace community would have known what was going on. Whether Bathsheba was a victim or whether she was complicit, I don’t know, but the character I am sure about is Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband. He probably found out about the affair while still serving on the front line in the field. He knew exactly what was going on.

When you read the story from this perspective, you get an appreciation of the way the characters play each other politically. David calls Uriah back to the palace, asks him politely about how the troops are faring in the field, and then tells him “Go down to your house and wash your feet” (2 Samuel 11:7). This is David’s euphemistic way of telling Uriah to go and solve the problem of Bathsheba’s pregnancy. Uriah though goes nowhere near his house so that it is obvious to everyone in the palace that he has not had contact with his wife. When David then asks him why, Uriah gives an obsequiously pious answer:

“The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife?” (2 Samuel 11:11)

What was Uriah playing at? Was he deliberately trying to embarrass the king? Didn’t he realise that David could have him killed? David gives Uriah two opportunities to ‘put things right’ but Uriah refuses to cooperate. What was his goal? Was he hoping to bring down David? Was he planning a coup?

My guess is that Uriah was gambling on the fact that Israel was still under the rule of law. Unlike most ancient middle eastern fiefdoms, where the king was the law, Israel was a faith-based community. Their God was their real king, and God’s Torah governed both the king and his subjects. David had acknowledged that. He was the man after God’s own heart, or at least he had been. What happened?

“ In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. ” (2 Samuel 11:1)

‘David remained at Jerusalem’. That was the beginning of the end. He moved out of the front line and into an office. David no longer had skin in the game.

My mind goes to the horrendous address just given to the US Congress by Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister is agitating to broaden his conflict with Palestine to include Lebanon and Iran! He seems quite happy to sacrifice the lives of countless people – Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians and Americans, as well as his own people. What will it cost him personally if millions die? Probably nothing. What about all those US Congress men and women who applauded him so vociferously? Will any of them go on to serve on the front lines of any of these wars? Not likely.

When we speak of Jesus as our king, we recognise that He is not like the kings of the other nations. The Kingdom of Jesus is one of justice and peace. Moreover, Jesus, most definitely, had skin in the game.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We had another wonderful Sunday Eucharist last weekend though Andrew Logan and I did miss the company of Karyn Hemming, who didn’t feel well enough to join us on the panel. Karyen did connect with us throughout the broadcast, nonetheless. Health and strength to you, dear sister!

Andrew and I got into quite a discussion about the best ways to connect with God, whether through sacred spaces or though isolated spaces. I’ve included a couple of shorts below, but I actually created so many short videos from our last Bible Banter that I’ve now set up a dedicated Sunday Eucharist Instagram page to showcase these video snippets.

If you’re on Instagram, please do me a favour and follow this account, share it with your friends, and help grow our online community.