I wish I could remember who delivered the ‘sermon’ on this text to a principal’s conference a good number of years ago, but since I heard it, it has never left me and I often heard those lines in my head, “In the spring of the year, when kings normally go to out to war.…However, David stayed behind.” So much of the rest of David’s life turns on that line,” However, David stayed behind.” A question that leaders always need to ask themselves is, “Where am I in the spring, when kings normally go to war?” Am I with the army or am I on my palace roof?
When you are in a position of leadership, of power, opportunities come to you that come to no one else: little privileges, opportunities, immunities, bonuses, gifts, access. Salesmen understand this. If you keep the boss happy with a pair of tickets or a golf game, he will be happy to do business with you. The salesman that sold bread flour to my dad understood this well and each week he would arrive with a case of beer. Some went home and some may have stayed in the refrigerator in the bakery. If the night shift bread bakers never tasted that cold brew I wonder what they would have thought of my dad. After all it was his bakery. But a cold beer after a long shift in front of the oven is heavenly.
It was certainly David’s prerogative to not go out to war with his armies. He was the king. It was another thing altogether that he takes Bathsheba, has his way with her, gets her pregnant and then has her faithful and humble husband killed to solve the problems he now faces. It takes a prophet to humble the king.
It was always good for me as principal to teach a course to be reminded what it is like to mark essays, prepare lessons, fill out report cards, and experience what foot soldiers experience daily. Leaders who understand this will seldom have that lonely-at-the-top feeling. These little opportunities come subtlety and it’s easy to forget that you are a leader always. David’s choice to stay home that spring plagued him the rest of his life. In the spring…share a cold one.