DAVID AND BATHSHEBA: FOLLOWING A RABBIT TRAIL

The Bible is unique in containing many different books by different authors written over an extended time period of time, but all of it holding together as a unified piece written by one author, the Holy Spirit. And reading the Bible was meant to be an exercise in personal discovery. But how can you navigate through the messiness that is the whole Bible? There are two ways: linearly and laterally.

Linear

For you more logical thinkers, one way is to take a single theme, person, place or image and follow it systematically through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And in this respect, there is at least one study Bible that has got it right, Thompson Study Bible. A number of themes are identified and assigned numbers so that it is possible to follow these themes throughout the Bible.

For this type of study, you might need helps such as a topical Bible, Bible dictionary, a specialized book like The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, or (especially) an exhaustive concordance. The advantage to a linear approach to the Bible is that you can see similarities and differences in each theme as you proceed through the Bible, which often demonstrate God's progressive revelation to mankind.

Lateral

But for you more creative thinkers, there is another way to study the Bible and appreciate how it all holds together as a single work of literature: laterally. This is a very indirect, almost stream-of-consciousness, technique. One famous example of this type of thinking to solve problems comes from the elaborate machines constructed by cartoonist Rube Goldberg. I actually taught the use of similar techniques when I gave a series of seminars on creativity at work years ago, and I have over the years learned to appreciate the value of such a seemingly random way to approach Scripture. It is sort of like taking your mind for a walk. And the same study resources can be used to aid such a journey, especially study Bibles that have lots of cross-references for each verse. There is another term for lateral thinking: Following Rabbit Trails. I'll give you an example of a rabbit trail that I followed recently.

I started out wondering about King David and how he could do some of the horrible things he did while also being a devout man after God's own heart. I began with the first verse of the story of David and Bathsheba:

II Samuel 11:1-2: Here we see David relaxing at home while his troops are out fighting his battles for him. This indirectly points to David's mid-life crisis (too old to go out to battle) and foreshadows the sad end of story (he will purposely send another officer out to his death).

The root of David's sin when he sees Bathsheba is described in I John 2:18 “...all that is in the world – the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the Father but from the world.”

Also, James 1:14-15 “But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.” In a literal way, David's sin did lead to a birth and then a death.

This language reminded me of the temptation in the garden where Eve saw that the fruit was a delight to the eyes (Genesis 3:6), a story which brings in the presence of Satan. Satan isn't mentioned in the David and Bathsheba story, but wasn't David specifically tempted by Satan on another occasion?

In I Chronicles 21:1 Satan entices David to carry out a census. But there is a parallel account in II Samuel 24:1 where it says that it was God who tempted David. We get the same phenomenon when comparing parallel accounts in different books of the Bible – often lost in a Chronological Bible where the accounts are sometimes merged together or one account is chosen over the other. Comparing the parallel accounts side by side is sometimes more enlightening to highlight differences in details and try to make sense out of them.

Where else are Satan and God said to be jointly responsible for testing a believer?

Job 1-2 is one of the passages where we really see Satan in action and in direct opposition to God. But there is another place in the Bible that demonstrates the same thing: the temptation of the Son of David in the wilderness (Matthew 4). Can we see a common m.o. for Satan by comparing these two events? Not really. In the case of Job, a man has everything so Satan takes it away from him. In the second case, Jesus has nothing and Satan promises to give him everything. The contrast between the two stories shows that Satan has more than one technique (Look at Ephesians 6:11 with its mention of Satan's “wiles”).

The third temptation involves Satan promising Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he will only bow down to him. This reminded me of an occasion where a person did bow to an angel.  John does it both in Revelation 19:9-10 and 22:8-9 and is reprimanded. This may indicate a retelling of the same event and show that the events in Revelation are not necessarily given in chronological order and may include repetitions.

Two cases of inappropriate bowing in which the shoe is on the other foot are seen in the Book of Acts. The first is when Herod Agrippa is called a god by the people and refuses to deny it.

“On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat on the platform and delivered a public address to them. The people kept shouting, 'The voice of a god, and not of a mortal!' And immediately, because he had not given the glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down.” (Acts 12:22-23)

By contrast, when the Roman citizens take Paul and Barnabas as gods and bow to them, they tear their clothing to indicate that it would be heresy (Acts 14:11-15). By the way, Luke often pairs together stories in Acts that demonstrate opposite actions of people under similar circumstances.

I thought about other cases where people tear clothing and kept coming back to David. He cuts off a piece of Saul's clothing and has a twinge of conscience over the incident even though he could have killed Saul (I Samuel 24). Why? Because Saul is the man God picked, and therefore David is very scrupulous not to harm him. When I compared this regret David shows over cutting off a piece of clothing to David's seeming lack of remorse for his act of killing Uriah, I thought about the end of that story where Nathan confronts David (II Samuel 12).

Nathan concludes by saying, “Why have you despised the word of the LORD?” And David replies, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

It has been pointed out that during the incident with Bathsheba, David broke all of the last five commandments – those having to do with our relations with other people. But he was always very careful not to break the first tablet of the law involving God himself. I think it took Nathan to get David to realize that the whole law was the Word of God, not just the first commandments and that he was dishonoring God just as much when he broke the second tablet of the law. That is why David could say in Psalm 51: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and I have done evil in your sight.”

The above should demonstrate several things:

1. Sometimes the shortest distance is not the best way to get from one point to another.

2. In any topical study of the Bible, however it is conducted, there will be much useful fallout from some of the side issues you encounter along the way.

3. It is only by considering the Bible as a unified whole, rather than a set of isolated books, that one can truly appreciate its message.

4. Unlike the teachings of the Eastern religions, true Christian meditation on the Word involves complete engagement of the mind, not turning it off.