Proper 12
Preaching
Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
In all likelihood, our text for the morning comes to us from an eye--witness in the court of King David of Judah, and he is a master story--teller. He himself interjects no judgments into his biography. He simply tells what happened. But by the way he gives his account, the characters of both David and Uriah are vividly portrayed to us. Our biographer tells the truth, even about a king, which was an unprecedented procedure in the ancient Near East. But it is the truth which reveals most deeply.
In the opening sentence we are told that it is the spring of the year when kings go forth to battle. But that is vividly contrasted with the last sentence in verse 1: "David remained at Jerusalem." We thereby are given the notice that what follows in the story is not what a king worth his salt would do. Nevertheless, what follows are the actions of the Lord's anointed, the Lord's mashiach, the forerunner of the Messiah.
Details in the text carefully note the provisions of Israel's covenant law. First, in verse 4, we are told that Bathsheba is purifying herself from her uncleanness, according to the law of Leviticus 15:19--24. That is, she has completed her menstrual cycle and is probably near the end of the seven days of purification. Thus, she is entering her time of fertility, when she could conceive. How realistic is the Old Testament!
Second, Uriah is revealed to us as an absolutely upright man. When David summons him home on false pretense from the battle with the Ammonites, Uriah refuses to obey David's seemingly kind instruction to rest overnight in his own house with his wife. Even when David gets Uriah drunk, Uriah will not go home, choosing instead to sleep with minimum shelter for two nights at the entrance of the palace, where the servants sleep. Why is Uriah so obdurate? Because he is faithfully obeying the law of Israel.
In the battles of the Israelites with their enemies, from the time of the Judges on into the time of David, Israel's wars were conducted according to strict cultic rules. Before the troops went into battle, they consecrated themselves to the Lord, taking vows that set them apart from the normal routines of everyday life. And one of those vows was to obstain from normal sexual relations (cf. 1 Samuel 21:4--5), because the soldiers were dedicating themselves totally to God. In his reply to David in verse 11, Uriah therefore points out that the other warriors are camped out at the battle site, with the ark symbolizing the presence of God in their midst. He has consecrated himself as a warrior to the Lord, and he swears by an oath to David that he will not violate that consecration by going home to his wife. In contrast to David's scheming perfidy, Uriah is an upright and honest man, one to be admired for his dedication. He will obey his king, but not at the price of disobeying his Lord. So he remains an extra day with David, but does not violate his vow to God.
David, however, has committed adultery, in violation of the seventh commandment in the Decalogue, which David has sworn to uphold. Bathsheba carries the child in her womb that will reveal that sin, and David will go to any lengths to cover up his own wrong--doing. He therefore orders his commander Joab to place the upright Uriah in the first ranks of a battle, and then when the enemy attacks, to draw back the other men beside Uriah, so that the husband of Bathsheba will be killed. "You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor ... You shall not covet your neighbor's wife" (Exodus 20:13--16, 17). Because of his lust for the beautiful Bathsheba, David, the anointed of the Lord, breaks every one of those basic commandments of the covenant with God.
"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." David thinks to hide his sin from others. How familiar such deception is to us in our time and society! But we never can hide our sin from God. And neither can David, even though he is a mighty king with all the privileges of his office. David has set a course that will lead in the rest of his story to tragedy. God is on the scene, as he is on ours. Let those who have ears to hear, hear.
Lutheran Option: 2 Kings 4:42--44
Chapter 4 of 2 Kings is made up of four miracle stories about the acts of the "sons of the prophets," those early non--writing prophets in Israel in the ninth century B.C. who lived together in closed colonies, ministering to the people and proclaiming the Word of the Lord. Each of the four stories concerns the power of one of the prophets to give life where there is trouble or death. Our particular text records an act of the prophet Elisha, who was the successor to Elijah, and who was noted for his pastoral care of the people. But in these verses, Elisha's succor is given to the prophetic colony itself.
There is a famine in Gilgal (v. 38), a village north of Jericho, near the Jordan River, in central Palestine, where there is a large colony made up of 100 of the sons of the prophets and where Elisha is lodging at the time. A follower of the prophets comes some distance from another town to supply food to the hungry colony from the first harvest of his fruits and grain. But the twenty loaves of bread and the sack of grain are not sufficient to feed all of the men present. Elisha nevertheless commands that the men be fed with the gift. When his servant objects that there is not enough, Elisha replies that all will eat and that some food will be left over, for "thus says the Lord," a Word of God that indeed proves true.
The story immediately reminds us, of course, of Jesus feeding the 5,000 from five loaves and two fishes (Mark 6:35--44 and parallels). Such events reveal to us the power of God and strengthen our confidence in him. But perhaps most notable is the fact that God feeds the hungry. Ours is not an other--worldly religion that wishes to escape the trials and sufferings of this world, as do some mystical religions of the East like Hinduism. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is primarily interested in this world, and he wishes abundant life for all people upon this earth. And so when the prophets and the Messiah come, they give drink to the thirsty and bread to the hungry, and we are commanded to do likewise. For, taught our Lord Jesus, inasmuch as we have done it unto one of the least among us, we have done it unto him. Love for our needy neighbors is love shown toward Jesus Christ. We often ask, "How do we love God?" We do so by lovingly ministering to the needs of our fellow human beings.
In the opening sentence we are told that it is the spring of the year when kings go forth to battle. But that is vividly contrasted with the last sentence in verse 1: "David remained at Jerusalem." We thereby are given the notice that what follows in the story is not what a king worth his salt would do. Nevertheless, what follows are the actions of the Lord's anointed, the Lord's mashiach, the forerunner of the Messiah.
Details in the text carefully note the provisions of Israel's covenant law. First, in verse 4, we are told that Bathsheba is purifying herself from her uncleanness, according to the law of Leviticus 15:19--24. That is, she has completed her menstrual cycle and is probably near the end of the seven days of purification. Thus, she is entering her time of fertility, when she could conceive. How realistic is the Old Testament!
Second, Uriah is revealed to us as an absolutely upright man. When David summons him home on false pretense from the battle with the Ammonites, Uriah refuses to obey David's seemingly kind instruction to rest overnight in his own house with his wife. Even when David gets Uriah drunk, Uriah will not go home, choosing instead to sleep with minimum shelter for two nights at the entrance of the palace, where the servants sleep. Why is Uriah so obdurate? Because he is faithfully obeying the law of Israel.
In the battles of the Israelites with their enemies, from the time of the Judges on into the time of David, Israel's wars were conducted according to strict cultic rules. Before the troops went into battle, they consecrated themselves to the Lord, taking vows that set them apart from the normal routines of everyday life. And one of those vows was to obstain from normal sexual relations (cf. 1 Samuel 21:4--5), because the soldiers were dedicating themselves totally to God. In his reply to David in verse 11, Uriah therefore points out that the other warriors are camped out at the battle site, with the ark symbolizing the presence of God in their midst. He has consecrated himself as a warrior to the Lord, and he swears by an oath to David that he will not violate that consecration by going home to his wife. In contrast to David's scheming perfidy, Uriah is an upright and honest man, one to be admired for his dedication. He will obey his king, but not at the price of disobeying his Lord. So he remains an extra day with David, but does not violate his vow to God.
David, however, has committed adultery, in violation of the seventh commandment in the Decalogue, which David has sworn to uphold. Bathsheba carries the child in her womb that will reveal that sin, and David will go to any lengths to cover up his own wrong--doing. He therefore orders his commander Joab to place the upright Uriah in the first ranks of a battle, and then when the enemy attacks, to draw back the other men beside Uriah, so that the husband of Bathsheba will be killed. "You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor ... You shall not covet your neighbor's wife" (Exodus 20:13--16, 17). Because of his lust for the beautiful Bathsheba, David, the anointed of the Lord, breaks every one of those basic commandments of the covenant with God.
"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." David thinks to hide his sin from others. How familiar such deception is to us in our time and society! But we never can hide our sin from God. And neither can David, even though he is a mighty king with all the privileges of his office. David has set a course that will lead in the rest of his story to tragedy. God is on the scene, as he is on ours. Let those who have ears to hear, hear.
Lutheran Option: 2 Kings 4:42--44
Chapter 4 of 2 Kings is made up of four miracle stories about the acts of the "sons of the prophets," those early non--writing prophets in Israel in the ninth century B.C. who lived together in closed colonies, ministering to the people and proclaiming the Word of the Lord. Each of the four stories concerns the power of one of the prophets to give life where there is trouble or death. Our particular text records an act of the prophet Elisha, who was the successor to Elijah, and who was noted for his pastoral care of the people. But in these verses, Elisha's succor is given to the prophetic colony itself.
There is a famine in Gilgal (v. 38), a village north of Jericho, near the Jordan River, in central Palestine, where there is a large colony made up of 100 of the sons of the prophets and where Elisha is lodging at the time. A follower of the prophets comes some distance from another town to supply food to the hungry colony from the first harvest of his fruits and grain. But the twenty loaves of bread and the sack of grain are not sufficient to feed all of the men present. Elisha nevertheless commands that the men be fed with the gift. When his servant objects that there is not enough, Elisha replies that all will eat and that some food will be left over, for "thus says the Lord," a Word of God that indeed proves true.
The story immediately reminds us, of course, of Jesus feeding the 5,000 from five loaves and two fishes (Mark 6:35--44 and parallels). Such events reveal to us the power of God and strengthen our confidence in him. But perhaps most notable is the fact that God feeds the hungry. Ours is not an other--worldly religion that wishes to escape the trials and sufferings of this world, as do some mystical religions of the East like Hinduism. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is primarily interested in this world, and he wishes abundant life for all people upon this earth. And so when the prophets and the Messiah come, they give drink to the thirsty and bread to the hungry, and we are commanded to do likewise. For, taught our Lord Jesus, inasmuch as we have done it unto one of the least among us, we have done it unto him. Love for our needy neighbors is love shown toward Jesus Christ. We often ask, "How do we love God?" We do so by lovingly ministering to the needs of our fellow human beings.
