"It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, 'Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?' So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness." Then she returned to her house." (2 Samuel 11:2-4)
Then David conspires to kill Uriah, and Uriah dies. David then marries Bathsheba. 2 Samuel 11:27 says "the thing that David had done displeased the LORD." In 2 Samuel 12 God sends Nathan the Prophet to David. Nathan tells David a parable which is actually about David. David says that the person in the parable deserves death. God, speaking through Nathan, launches into quite a tirade against David. Here are some of the 'highlights' of the tirade, and what follows: "Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.' David said to Nathan, I have sinned aginst the LORD.' and Nathan said to David, 'The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die.' Then Nathan went to his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became sick... On the seventh day the child died." (2 Samuel 12:9-15, 18)
Here we have two people saying that David sinned, both of them Prophets. There is another place in the Bible in which it says that David did not sin except in regards to Uriah the Hittite. Unlike the case 'Abdu'l-Baha mentioned, there is no one else involved here who sinned. It would be a little difficult maintaining that the rebuke of David was meant for someone else, given that 1) who else sinned? 2) David is described as doing sinful things. Also, David admits that He sinned. I don't know why an admission of sin shouldn't be taken at face value. Unless we 'spiritualize' the story away, David should be put to death according to Old Testament law. Deuteronomy 22:22 says, "If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall purge the evil from Israel." David had sex with Uriah the Hittite when she was married.
I'm not entirely sure if there's a reason for it, but I've noticed for some time that while in general everything 'Abdu'l-Baha says seems rational and easy to accept, a lot of the stuff He says on the Bible seems quite problematic to me. Is there some reason why this might be so?
Regards,
David
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