About a month ago the Sunday morning Bible study class that I facilitate began a study in the book of 1st Kings. At only 3 chapters into our study I have to admit that I am quite amazed at the application aspects and various implications ie; gospel,evangelizing, etc; that I missed from earlier readings and study time.
1st King 1:1-4
1 When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him. 2 So his servants said to him, “Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.”
3 Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 4 The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.
I emphasized verse 4 of 1st Kings 1 because it was a section of the text that happened to
gnaw at me during my preparation and, it became an unanticipated subject of much discussion one Sunday morning. During preparation I put verse 4 on the back burner and let it marinate a while ie; trusting the Lord to open my mind and eyes to the deeper things at His discretion instead of me trying to will my own understanding or spin on the text.
As part of the study, we would jump back to David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba, discussing how the consequences of his sin played out as it related to 1st Kings. As noted earlier,the interaction between King David and Abishag in 1st Kings 1 ended up being a slight detour; some folks expressing skepticism(?) about David’s non-relations relationship with Abishag.
2nd Samuel 11:1-5
1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
A peripheral thought that occurs to me is that of how cynical attitudes can creep in and corrupt our professed belief that Scripture is inerrant (2nd Timothy 3:16-17). It’s cynicism in that when we consider the multiple wives and concubines that David had, plus his affair with Bathsheba, it would seem that the natural perception of king David is that he “loved” his women. The problem is not in making that assessment of king David’s earlier character; where we have a problem Houston, is when we’re convinced through our cynicism that this aspect of David’s character never changes.
I’m convinced however by a few things from Scripture, that David was a changed man with respect to his perceived “love” for women. Firstly by 2nd Timothy 3:16-17, meaning God doesn’t contradict Himself nor does His word. Riding on that thought then is the belief that God meant exactly what He said when He tells us that “…the king had no intimate relations with her.”
In addition to those thoughts however, I’m further convinced that by His wisdom God reveals something about David. Have you ever read Scripture and wondered why something is said or some Biblical character is mentioned which doesn’t really seem to have much relevance like… Abishag for instance? As I read 1st Kings 1, I was curious as to 
what was the point of telling us about Abishag, this bed warmer for the king and; why does the Bible make a point to tell us that David DID NOT have “relations” with her?
Earlier, I mentioned that we did some jumping, back and forth between 1st Kings and 2nd Samuel as we discussed David, his sins, consequences, Adonijah’s plot etc;. A point that I missed, or rather had not been revealed to me at the time was a common thread and the contrasting results of David’s interaction with these two women in his life. David’s fall was a result of lusting over a beautiful woman (Bathsheba), whereas with Abishag the Bible tells us that David doesn’t try to fulfill any desires he might have had for this beautiful girl. There’s a certain twist of irony if you will in the sense that the same thing that ensnared David is also the the same thing that points to God’s sanctifying process and power in the life of David.
“…the king had no intimate relations with her.”
Grace and peace be with you.
Got-Fruit(?)
1st Kings 1 (afterthoughts on Abishag)
I emphasized verse 4 of 1st Kings 1 because it was a section of the text that happened to
gnaw at me during my preparation and, it became an unanticipated subject of much discussion one Sunday morning. During preparation I put verse 4 on the back burner and let it marinate a while ie; trusting the Lord to open my mind and eyes to the deeper things at His discretion instead of me trying to will my own understanding or spin on the text.
As part of the study, we would jump back to David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba, discussing how the consequences of his sin played out as it related to 1st Kings. As noted earlier,the interaction between King David and Abishag in 1st Kings 1 ended up being a slight detour; some folks expressing skepticism(?) about David’s non-relations relationship with Abishag.
I’m convinced however by a few things from Scripture, that David was a changed man with respect to his perceived “love” for women. Firstly by 2nd Timothy 3:16-17, meaning God doesn’t contradict Himself nor does His word. Riding on that thought then is the belief that God meant exactly what He said when He tells us that “…the king had no intimate relations with her.”
In addition to those thoughts however, I’m further convinced that by His wisdom God reveals something about David. Have you ever read Scripture and wondered why something is said or some Biblical character is mentioned which doesn’t really seem to have much relevance like… Abishag for instance? As I read 1st Kings 1, I was curious as to
what was the point of telling us about Abishag, this bed warmer for the king and; why does the Bible make a point to tell us that David DID NOT have “relations” with her?
Earlier, I mentioned that we did some jumping, back and forth between 1st Kings and 2nd Samuel as we discussed David, his sins, consequences, Adonijah’s plot etc;. A point that I missed, or rather had not been revealed to me at the time was a common thread and the contrasting results of David’s interaction with these two women in his life. David’s fall was a result of lusting over a beautiful woman (Bathsheba), whereas with Abishag the Bible tells us that David doesn’t try to fulfill any desires he might have had for this beautiful girl. There’s a certain twist of irony if you will in the sense that the same thing that ensnared David is also the the same thing that points to God’s sanctifying process and power in the life of David.
“…the king had no intimate relations with her.”
Grace and peace be with you.