"The Glory is Fallen"

David’s story had been an example of what to look for in a leader – a man with a heart that attracted God; a man with such courage and zeal for the living God that he will take on giants. Now his story becomes a warning!

[1] “David and Bathsheba” by Michael Falk

2 Samuel 11:1-15

October 27, 2024

Dr. Todd R. Wright

Poet e. e. cummings wrote,

“the glory is fallen out of the sky

the last immortal leaf is dead

and the gold year

a formal spasm in the dust

this is the passing of all shining things …”

He was writing about fall foliage, but he could have been writing about our passage.

Stan Mast observes, “This text is the Continental Divide of David’s life and of the history of the monarchy in Israel.”[2] He’s right, I think. This is the point when everything starts to fall apart, and the shine of David’s glory is overshadowed by his slide into the leaf pile of sin.

Mast explains: “Up to this story, everything gets better and better for David, as he climbs (or, more accurately, is lifted by God’s grace) from shepherd boy to [anointed] King, [from nobody to the warrior who defeats a giant], uniting Israel, conquering enemies, establishing Jerusalem as capital city, building a palace, and receiving a divine promise of an everlasting dynasty. [But] after this story, it’s all downhill as his family falls apart in shocking ways, and he has to run for his life, and Israel is divided and finally dragged off into exile, leaving Jerusalem and the temple in ruins. This story is the tipping point where the dream ends and the nightmare begins.”

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It all begins with a simple image: “In the spring of the year, when kings go out to battle, David … remained in Jerusalem.”

Scott Hoezee muses on what is hidden behind that simple description:

“In the spring, when the roads and meadows dry up sufficiently to allow would-be invaders the chance to go to war against neighboring lands, David stays behind in Jerusalem.”[3]

Did you ever wonder why? Hoezee does. He imagines:

“[David is] older now. And although there was a time when he looked good riding in his chariot with his royal cape flapping behind him in the wind, now he sensed he looked a [little] ridiculous. He has a paunch. The armor [is] a bit snug. His swagger [is] gone. It hurt some days when he got out of bed. It was easier to let [his general,] Joab, and the younger folks go to war and do what needed doing. He no longer needed to dirty his own hands in the mud and blood and guts of battle. He could run things just as well from the palace situation room.”

So he stayed home. Fine. But the narrator hints that David’s decision will lead to problems.

David is a man of action. He has spent a lifetime accomplishing great things, for God, for Israel, for someone who his father forgot to call in from the fields. He won the hearts of the nation and defeated every enemy; he unified a kingdom and built the Holy City, but now… he was bored.

Hozee writes, “He didn’t exactly miss the days when Saul might pin him to the wall with a javelin at any minute, but there was something about living with a death threat that made David feel oddly, profoundly, alive. The shouts of ‘Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands’ were now faint echoes from his past.”

So David was moping around his palace when he saw her.

She was beautiful! And suddenly David had found something new to conquer!

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Anna Carter Florence shakes her head. She writes, “[David] has several wives and many concubines at this point. But he’s zeroed in, and he wants what he wants — even though the woman has a husband and isn’t available. David sees, wants, and takes. Why? Because he can. Because he’s the king and has the power to do it.”[4]

Samuel warned about this – that kings take what they want. They abuse power.

David’s story had been an example of what to look for in a leader – a man with a heart that

attracted God; a man with such courage and zeal for the living God that he will take on giants. Now his story becomes a warning!

As Carter Florence puts it, “We might as well cue the ominous music, because there’s a predatory precedent on the loose now.”

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So what do we do with a story like this? How does it help us as we choose leaders?

Three things, I think:

First, it is a dangerous thing when a leader stops doing what they are supposed to be doing, in the Spring of the year or in any season of life.

David was supposed to be leading the army of the living God. He’d been doing it ever since Saul shirked his responsibilities facing Goliath. It was his calling. Without it, he became lost.

So, we do well to consider what our leaders should be doing, and ask if they are doing it.

Second, David treats Bathsheba terribly. He orders her to the palace, and he rapes her.

She is like countless other women abused by powerful men. “Statistics tell us that one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by the age of 18 in the United States.”[5]

We fail them if we excuse their abusers. We fail them if we put the blame on the victim; label them as tempters; or gentle our language – as here, when we often call it adultery rather than rape.

And we fail God’s persistent call for justice if we ignore what our leaders have done – as if they are above the law.

Third, David treats Uriah terribly too. He tries to manipulate him to cover up his own guilt.

But over and over, Uriah, a Hittite, a foreigner, shows more integrity than the king of Israel.

Many have painted Uriah as a gullible stooge, but I wonder. If he refused to go to his own home and slept at the entrance to the palace with all the servants, don’t you think at least one of them confessed what he had witnessed while Uriah was away on the battlefield? Don’t you think he knew?

This story is a warning about how the evil deeds of a leader impact everyone around them. If they speak up, they are branded as disloyal … or worse. If they keep quiet, they become part of the cover up and thwart justice for the very people that deserve defending.

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The lectionary stops with the story still unfolding. Bathsheba is pregnant. Uriah is about to be killed. And it looks like David will get away with it.

It is unsettling. We want justice, but leaders often find a way to avoid the consequences.

But eventually the narrator mentions, “The thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”

God is not asleep. God will not ignore what David has done, even though he was a man after God’s own heart. God will act. But that is a story for another day.

Until then, we have the law and the prophets to remind us what is right. We know what God expects of leaders, of all of us. We know what we should be looking for in our leaders. And because we live in a democracy, we have the burden and privilege of choosing our leaders.

May God be with us! Amen

[1] “David and Bathsheba” by Michael Falk

[2] Here and following from his reflections on the text for cepreaching.org, 7/25/21

[3] Here and following from his reflections on the text for cepreaching.org, 7/26/15

[4] From her article in the Christian Century, “Read the Rape of Tamar, and pay attention to the verbs”, 8/1/18

[5] Ibid