Tag Archives: David

Oct 25 2012

A Royal Violation – An Orange Day Sermon to End Violence Against Women

A Royal Violation

An Orange Day Ser­mon to End Vio­lence Against Women

The fol­low­ing ser­mon by Rev. Jef­frey Geary was orig­i­nally preached at the White Plains Pres­by­ter­ian Church on the Ninth Sun­day after Pen­te­cost, July 29, 2012, and is pub­lished here on Octo­ber 25, 2012, this month’s Orange Day, when Unbound, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations, lifts up voices that name and chal­lenge vio­lence against women and girls.
 

david-and-bathsheba2 Samuel 11:1–15

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to bat­tle, David sent Joab with his offi­cers and all Israel with him; they rav­aged the Ammonites, and besieged Rab­bah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

It hap­pened, late one after­noon, when David rose from his couch and was walk­ing about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beau­ti­ful. David sent some­one to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daugh­ter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hit­tite.’ So David sent mes­sen­gers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was puri­fy­ing her­self after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman con­ceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’

So David sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hit­tite.’ And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the peo­ple fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house, and wash your feet.’ Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there fol­lowed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the ser­vants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, ‘Uriah did not go down to his house’, David said to Uriah, ‘You have just come from a jour­ney. Why did you not go down to your house?’ Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the ser­vants of my lord are camp­ing in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.’ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomor­row I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his pres­ence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the ser­vants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

In the morn­ing David wrote a let­ter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the let­ter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the fore­front of the hard­est fight­ing, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.’

See

The David Story: A Royal Violation

for the rest of the story….

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