Shame: A Letter to David

As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! The LORD has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!" – Excerpt from 2 Samuel 16: 5-14

Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 16-18; Luke 17: 20-37

Yo David,

Man, what are you thinking? I read this over and over again at least four or five times. And all I could think was wow… what would I be thinking here?

Several years earlier you knocked up Bathsheba and killed her husband in the process. The prophet Nathan told you about yourself and you felt real bad. You knew that God was not a fan of what you did.

Not one bit.

So fast forward a couple of years and here you are… running out of Israel to escape from your son Absalom. On the way out you run into Saul’s kin folk. Of course he’s not exactly pleased with you. But wow. He throws stones at you in front of all of your men and curses you saying that you got dethroned because you are a man of blood.

Must not have felt too good man…

What’s interesting is that you know that you were anointed by God through Samuel. That is undeniable. So of course what he is saying about this being retribution for Saul is incorrect. But, you sure do know that you have some innocent blood on your hands.

I too wondered why you didn’t have old boy snuffed out when he was throwing stones. But I get it. Even though he wasn’t exactly right, you knew that you were wrong.

Your tryst with Bathsheba turned you into the man of blood that he was speaking of.

I guess it pays to do right doesn’t it?

I’m not judging you, but it seems like you have some doubts at this point. But how much do you doubt? Do you doubt whether or not you will be king again? Or, do you doubt whether or not you ever should have been?

It seems to me that both are equally likely because of the remorse that you felt for the wrong that you did.

So hard man…

No person is perfect… and hence the difficulty of living life. But one thing you have shown me here David, is that when we do wrong we open the door to all kinds of confusion.

I’ll do my best… sigh…

Peace.

How Small Wrongs Become Big Problems

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." – 2 Samuel 11: 2-5

Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 9-11; Luke 15: 11-32

Don’t do it David! Noooooooooooooo!

Uh oh… She got him. Drats.

We’ll get to David in a minute here but we gotta talk about Bathsheba for a second. You know what my first thought is every time I read this story?

She knew what she was doing…

It looks like folks have been getting trapped for millennia. The game doesn’t change… each generation just adds their own flavor to it.

Ok. If you’re lost… let me recap the play by play here.

David goes for a stroll on his roof. He’s chillin’, looking around the city and low and behold he sees a super bad woman bathing in plain view.

Who does that? Nekked for the whole city to see? Riiiiiight.

Then he has his folks go get her, he sleeps with her, and she gets preggers.

You know what David should have done right? He should have taken a play out of Onan’s handbook!

I kid, I kid.

Ok… David shouldn’t have been up on the roof peeping at folks. Yes I know that the army was away at war and he was probably just chillin in the palace board to tears. But dude… occupy your time in a more responsible manner. Go get a board game, play some backgammon, Uno, dominoes… something else other than the “peeping Tom” move.

What this situation shows is how one little thing can lead to a huge wrong. Later in the chapter David sends Bathsheba’s husband to the front lines of the war to die.

So David went from being a peeping Tom to a murderer at light speed. He made one error that continued to build on itself until he totally acted out of his character.

None of us are above this. We have all been in the position where we have told a “white lie” that snowballed into fictions so great that they could inspire award winning performances.

But when it comes down to it most of our big mistakes can be traced back to the small decisions we make. We cannot avoid all of these mistakes because we are not perfect. But, if we constantly work toward being the best that we can be and stay humble, then hopefully we will have the focus and discipline to admit our smaller wrongs before they become big ones.