Women with a Story to Tell: The 'Merry' Wives of David: Bathsheba c.

“Thou art the man!” 

 “Everyone keep cool; nothing going on here, no deception. We’re just the people of God sitting around talking, right?” 

“Thou art the man!”

 “Who keeps saying that? And why is he speaking King James English? Maybe we will wake up; it’s a nightmare, right?”

 Yes, David and Bathsheba, it is a nightmare, but you are not asleep. Instead, Nathan the prophet is here in the king’s court, and he has been telling a story. Wind it back a little. Listen again to the story that Nathan is telling.

“There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 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. 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” (II Samuel 12:1b-4).

 A sad story, is it not? The part about stealing and roasting the ewe should get to David. After all, he was a shepherd. 

“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; he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity’” (II Samuel 12:5-6).

 David reacted as he should. This is a great injustice, so the king made a judgment. Now, David wants to know where that cold-hearted lawless man is.

 “Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!”

 “What? Is this some kind of joke? What do you mean, Nathan? I don’t herd sheep anymore, and I don't steal sheep. You are a prophet, just tell me what God says.”  

 Nathan is a prophet of God and he is no dummy. The issue is a tricky one. My former colleague at Asbury Theological Seminary put it this way.

 “Our text has presented a dilemma: How does one challenge nearly absolute power? The books of Samuel slowly define the nature and limitations of the new Israelite monarchy, and the question now becomes: How does one correct this king who has assumed so much power? Will Yahweh permit this abuse of power to stand?” (Bill Arnold, 1 & 2 Samuel: The NIV Application Commentary, 2003, page 532).

 Nathan had been ‘sent’ by God (see II Samuel 12:1a) to stand against the abuse of power, and a true prophet does not shrink from his call. Nathan appears to know that “The best way to expose David’s hypocrisy is to have him condemn himself” (Arnold, 1 & 2 Samuel, page 533). 

 Thus David judges himself in his response: “Where is the man, he will pay for this abuse of riches?” Nathan said, “Look no further, rich king, you are the man!” Now comes another word from God. 

 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 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. 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” (II Samuel 12:7-9).

  David realized: “Oh, my God! He knows everything! I wanted what I had no right to take, and then I backed up my claim with violence.” How unlike a true leader. David has been trapped in a web of his own weaving. 

  An old proverb says: “The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley” (‘go often astray’, by Robert Burns). 

 The Lord God Almighty puts it this way: “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).