David - episode 5

With this post we conclude David’s story, going forward from the serious sin he committed with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite (2Sam 11 and following). We remember the king’s reaction  to the parable told by prophet Nathan: «David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this is worthy to die! He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!” Nathan said to David, “You are the man. [...] You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house [...].’ “This is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’”». David, judging the rich and ruthless man of the parable, judged himself. What the king established will realize: David receives God’s forgiveness and will not die, but over the years, he will lose four of his children. They are Bathsheba’s baby and three more: Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah, that die in fratricidal struggles. Absalom, for a short time, steals his father’s throne and wives «before all Israel», fulfilling Nathan’s prophecy. Even in that situation, escaping from Jerusalem, David maintains his confidence in the Lord and lets one of Saul’s relatives curse him. «He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow! The LORD has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned! The LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son! Behold, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!” Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head.” The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because the LORD has said to him, ‘Curse David;’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, “Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD has invited him. It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”».

 

 

When Absalom is killed and David regains the kingdom he does not celebrate, but, with his men’s astonishment and disapproval, he weeps for his beloved son’s fate.

Another sin that David commits over his years of government is to «number Israel and Judah». In fact, if the census is not requested by the Lord (like in the book of Numbers) it means arrogance and the desire to count on human forces rather than on God. David repents and asks the Lord’s forgiveness. The Lord, through Prophet Gad, offers him to choose a punishment. «“Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into the hand of man.”».The plague harshly hits the people and ends only with David’s burnt offerings on Araunah the Jebusite’s threshing floor, the place where in the future the Temple of Jerusalem will be built. That is the conclusion of the second book of Samuel.

In the first book of Kings, we read David story’s end. Even the last years of his life are turbulent («the sword will never depart from your house»). The king chooses as his successor Solomon, another son by Bathsheba; he is anointed by Zadok the priest. However, Adonijah, helped by Abiathar the priest and by Joab the head of the army, wants the kingdom. Solomon’s party wins and David can see the beginning of his successor’s reign before dying. «David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem». Solomon banishes Abiathar to Anathoth, a levitic city near Jerusalem; from that lineage of priests will born prophet Jeremiah several centuries after. Adonijah and Joab are killed. In the next post we will narrate King Solomon’s story.