After the death of Saul, David being in favor with the people, and strictly adhering to the worship of Jehovah, his reign bid fair to be happy to himself, and to the nation at large: but he had too many wives, and consequently his family troubles came on thick and fast. One son rebelled against him, and flew to arms; and Solomon usurped the throne after the death of his father, and put to death his elder brother by a former wife, under a pretence the most frivolous, to secure himself a safe possession of his usurped power. Another son ravished his half-sister by another mother; and in return, the ravisher was murdered by the brother of the violated virgin. In truth, if it is true as recorded, David’s whole life was one continued scene of blood and slaughter; and on his death-bed he recommended Solomon to murder others—as his oath prevented him from doing it in his lifetime.
However strictly David obeyed Jehovah, and “turned not aside to worship other gods,” in a moral point of view he was a wicked man. His conduct for licentiousness was notorious. In addition to the number of wives he had before the death of Saul, his royal master, Nathan the prophet says that “Jehovah gave him Saul’s wives, besides”; but, not satisfied with all this, so contemptible was his conduct, he sneaked about to obtain a sight of an officer’s wife while in the bath. Such low, cowardly curiosity would disgrace the driver of a dung-cart. A lady’s bath not to be held sacred by this filthy, dirty animal, and yet to be called “the man after God’s own heart”! His actions would disgrace the Devil, for Satan offered no insult to Eve: his worst crime was no more than saying—“Madam, the fruit is good, do taste, it will do you no harm, and you will be the wiser; after all.”
Never let us forget the artifice the Lord’s anointed made use of, in order to conceal his crime. When Uriah, his officer, came from the army with news of importance to David, after the seduction of Bathsheba, the cunning debauchee said, come, Uriah, do not hurry back to the camp; go home to Bathsheba, your wife; she will be happy to see you: go home, my faithful servant, and stay with your wife.
But Uriah refused, by saying, the officers and the army are in the open fields, and I will not go home to take comfort in my own house. So Uriah slept in the gate with the servants. And when David found that he had not been home, he made him tarry another day, and that night got him drunk. In the meantime the King wrote a letter to Joab, the Captain of the host, and sent it by Uriah, to place him in the front of the battle, where he would be killed. The unsuspecting Uriah then returned; to his duty, with his death warrant in his hand; and, according to the orders given to Joab, the commander of the host of Israel, Uriah was placed in that part of the engagement where he fell, covered with wounds and glory.
It will be seen by the orders sent to the Captain, concerning Uriah, by the King, what cowardly artifice was used to murder his noble officer, whose wife, unknown to him, had been seduced. David’s words are, “Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him that he may be smitten and die.” Such an act would disgrace the worst despot on earth, but it was done by “the man after God’s own heart”! When Nathan was sent by Jehovah to David, to remind him of his wickedness, it was done, in the way of a parable. David did not at first discover its application: and it is recorded, that “David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said unto Nathan as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.” “Thou art the man!” said Nathan; and David exclaimed, “Oh! Lord, I have sinned.” In fact, he was found out, but for which he would not have made this acknowledgment.
After the death of Uriah, David took her (Bathsheba) to wife, and Jehovah made up the matter with him; first, by destroying the child, the innocent victim who had no part in the murder; and, secondly, by saving and pardoning David for crimes of the deepest dye: and, also, the Lord told him, that because of his wickedness he should have discord in his family:—“Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee, out of thine house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.” To destroy the innocent child, who had no participation in the crime of the father, is too shocking to be admitted, when it is recorded as the sentence of the just and impartial God. I know Christians will reply, that the ways of God are not as our ways, and that it is wicked in mortals to find fault with what is done by a Being of infinite power, wisdom, and Goodness. In reply, it is contended that the conduct pursued on this occasion by Jehovah, is shocking when ascribed to a God impartial and just, and that it is more becoming mortals, like ourselves, to reject the whole story as a vile falsehood, than to father it on that Being, or that Cause, who:
“Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees.”
To conclude these remarks on David’s life and conduct, we ask, which is the more reasonable supposition, that the whole account, so far as it implicates a God of Justice, is, from beginning to end untrue? or, that a Being of unbounded power, wisdom and goodness, should in any way associate with so abandoned a character as King David? For myself, I prefer the latter. I have omitted another account in the life of David, that requires to be noticed. It is recorded in 2 Samuel, chapter xxiv., that David ordered the people to be numbered. One account says that Satan, and another account says that the Lord, moved David to number the people: no doubt it was done to get the number of the fighting men of Israel; for doing which, the Lord was angry with David; and three modes of punishment were submitted for the choice of the King:—“Seven years' famine, or to flee three months before his enemies, or to have three days' pestilence in the land.” The last was chosen, and it is recorded that seventy thousand men died of the pestilence, as a punishment for the offence of David. It is a libel on the Supreme Being to charge him with the authorship of such injustice and cruelty. That thousands of persons may have been cut off by plague, or pestilence, at times, and in different nations, is highly probable—but not by a judgment for other men’s sins.
In Homer’s Iliad, we have a similar account, written, according to historians, about nine hundred years before the Christian era. In the account of the Trojan War, the commander of the Grecian army, in the sacking of different towns, took many female captives, among whom was one who was the daughter of the Priest of Apollo, one of the Grecian gods. The venerable Priest came to the General, clothed in his robes, bearing the sublime and awe-inspiring ensigns of his god, and demanded the liberation of his captive daughter. The General insulted the Priest by a positive refusal to give up his daughter, and he (the Priest) departed, and offered the following prayer:
“If e’er with wreaths I hung the sacred fane,
Or fed the flame with fat of oxen slain,
God of the silver bow, thy shafts employ,
Avenge my quarrel, and the Greeks destroy.”