Episode 408 Confronting David (2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26-27; 12:1-9; and Psalm 51:1-9)

This week BibleWorm reads the story of David and Bathsheba as told in 2 Samuel 11:1-5 and 26-27, 2 Samuel 12:1-9 and Psalm 51:1-9. We talk about the complacency of David, who stays at home at the time when kings go out to war, and the ways his loss of a sense of responsibility to the community leads him to violate Bathsheba, Uriah, and the will of God. We discuss the complexity of the biblical portrayal of David, who is a great biblical hero and yet a deeply flawed human being, and we wonder whether we have lost the capacity for recognizing such complexity today. And we give thanks for the compassion of God, who can forgive even so awful a thing as David has done…and yet we wish for more from David, who seemingly  makes no attempt to repair the human damage he has done. Forgiveness without reparation and reconciliation feels a little cheap to us, to be honest, and we wish to have seen more from David…and from God.