The Telltale Sign
Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 11:1 NASB
Then it happened – We are about to read the story of David and Bathsheba. As the Bible heading in the NASB says, this is “David’s Great Sin.” But before we run to the juicy details, perhaps we should pay attention to the set up. There is a little phrase that we have encountered before in the story of David that portends disaster. It is the Hebrew vayhiy, “and it happened.” Interestingly, the ESV ignores this word entirely. But it can’t be ignored. It is the signal to the reader that something unexpected and foreboding is about to happen. We have seen the word announcing the circumstances that caused the jealous rift between David and Saul. We have seen the word introducing the death of the Amorite who assisted in Saul’s suicide. Vayhiy isn’t always the predictor of bad circumstances. It is also found in the story of Ruth. It just happened that she ended up in a field owned by Boaz, for example.
What can we make of this word about fate? What we discover as the stories proceed is that it isn’t fate at all. This is a Hebrew expression for the idea that it appears to be accidental, it looks like fate, but what is really occurring is God engineering. Hebrew is a phenomenological language. It describes the world the way it appears. It does not usually attempt to describe the underlying, but hidden, reality. Hebrew is a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” worldview. This we must keep in mind as we read the text because our Greek Western view is very different. In the Greek Western view, we expect to find linguistic penetration of reality. We desire and assume that language will take us under the surface where we can discover how things really work, what is really happening. The Greek Western world is built around the idea of control and I cannot control something I do not understand, something that just happens completely randomly. But Hebrew is not about control. It is about obedience and obedience does not require that I understand why. It only requires that I understand how. Vayhiy is a word about the apparent randomness of life because I do not always understand why things happen. In hindsight I might be able to explain circumstances, but that doesn’t help me much as they are occurring. What I need is trust that someone does know what’s going on even I don’t. That is the Hebrew idea of “and it happened.” God knows. I don’t. It’s OK.
What circumstances in your life seem to be accidental trials and tribulations? How many times have you come up against the brick wall of understanding and found it impenetrable? When have you given up trying to make sense of things? Maybe you’re trying to force a Hebrew circle into a Greek square. Maybe it’s all designed to get to you say, “I don’t understand. You do. It’s OK.”
Topical Index: vayhiy, and it happened, fate, phenomenological, 2 Samuel 11:1
How. Perhaps this is why we like science so much. So egalitarian and non-judgmental. “Just the facts, ma’am”.
But then there are our two year olds to drive us crazy. “Why?” is their favorite word! How are we supposed to tell them that most of the time we don’t know that ourselves…
I really, really like “obedience does not require that I understand WHY. It only requires that I understand HOW.” Come to think of it, most of the Bible is about telling us how, and it, in sharp contrast to the rest of ancient literature, is historical and forensic and functional. Compare with, say, Homer or Hammarabi, and there is little in common.
I think myth is what we invented to tell our two year olds, for myth is about why, as is the notion of destiny and fate, too. Perhaps we only need the answer to why when we don’t see how, for how is a faith (obedience) response which the world cannot employ. I found that usually the “why?” questions did not come up except when the how of obedience was not being addressed properly. We learn by doing. If we obey we will “know of the doctrine”; then we won’t need to either ask or be asked. It will be obvious.
I think I am going to have fun today with this one. Thank you!
If you thought science was just about the “facts,” then you need to read Thomas S. Kuhn, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”
That goes on my list, definitely.
I actually think we have this myth in our heads that science is that way, but, you are right, we use it far differently. What I also think is that the Greeks gave us a religion called Science, complete with a god they and we call Atom, by which means we fondly hope to control reality, just as they hoped to, but I am still thrashing that one out.
I like the introduction by Ian Hacking (what a name). “Skip this introduction…..this is a work of ….. passionate desire to get things right……..Thomas Kuhn was out to change our understanding of the sciences- that is, of the activities that have enabled our species, for better or for worse, to dominate the planet. He succeeded.” Kuhn viewed himself as a historian, not a philosopher nor scientist (all of which he was). Read the 2012 edition Laurita.
I most definitely will!
Yes. Sometimes it is best to not reason/question why. Other times it is good and helpful.
We can do so much “either/or” thinking regarding matters when that may not be necessary or best; either we are to question and know why or we won’t obey or we are to obey without questioning why.
Certainly there must be multiple examples in Scripture where questioning why or how something is to be as it is to be was part of a righteous dialogue with YHWH. Here’s one:
Miriam said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am not intimate with a man?” And responding, the angel said to her, “The Ruach ha-Kodesh will come upon you, and the power of Elyon will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One being born will be called Ben-Elohim. Behold, even your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age; and the one who was called barren is six months pregnant. For nothing will be impossible with God.” So Miriam said, “Behold, the servant of Adonai. Let it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel left her. [Luk 1:34-38]
Questioning why doesn’t have to negate obedience. But it certainly can. It depends upon the kavanah of one asking the question, does it not? And it also may depend upon the circumstances. Sometimes we don’t have time to question why. It can be a matter of life or death.
‘”Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.”
[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]
Why am I asking “Why?” is a good question to ask. And, “Is now a good time to ask it?” There’s another good question to ask.
“Why? is a good question to ask.”
British and French armies used traditional (Light Brigade) warfare tactics most ineffectively forever. Just do it! They achieved similar results in the Crimea (600 casualties) and at the Somme (more than 600,000) until Vimy Ridge was attacked in April 1917 by the Canadians alone using new tactics that included a new battle plan that informed every soldier HOW and WHY each one had to do his job. They succeeded in less than 4 days with fewer than 3600 dead.
Sometimes “why” is critical. Our young kids asked “whazat?” and pointed. They learned. I do the same. Greek thinking dies a slow death. Hello Hebrew. I want to live.
And on this “Holocaust Remembrance Day,” we continue to ask “WHY?”
And then tomorrow is Israel’s independence day. Shema Israel. ???