David: The Strikeout King
Israel My Glory In Depth is a video interview series that explores the author’s motivation in writing their article.2,597 strikeouts. Two thousand, five hundred ninety-seven!
How can a hitter who struck out more than 2,500 times be considered great? Yet, Reggie Jackson was precisely that. Despite racking up more strikeouts than any other batter in Major League Baseball (MLB) history, the charismatic slugger amassed 563 home runs, the 14th highest total of all time. A 14-time MLB all-star and five-time World Series winner, his incredible career and legacy earned his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Much like Reggie Jackson, our lives often consist of a combination of figurative strikeouts and home runs. In fact, no figure in Scripture exemplifies this paradox better than King David. Despite David’s flaws, God worked through him and the house of David to bring the Messiah into the world. Some of David’s failings are encapsulated in the narrative found in 2 Samuel 11: “It happened in the spring of the year, 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 people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem” (v. 1).
Some commentators suggest that David not going into battle with his troops was extremely unusual—and wrong. When kings go off to war and the king of Israel stays home, something is not right. In this regard, David failed his men and his army.
Strike one!
Remaining behind led to his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba:
Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers and took her; . . . and he lay with her. . . . And the woman conceived (vv. 2–5).
Strike two!
After committing adultery, David attempted to cover up the resulting pregnancy by lying to and manipulating Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. David’s efforts escalated to outright deception and, ultimately, to calculated murder. Second Samuel 11:14–17 details his nefarious plot:
In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
Strike three!
King David undoubtedly knew the Ten Commandments given to Moses and the Israelites in Exodus 20. However, he callously broke three of them:
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Strike one.
You shall not commit adultery. Strike two.
You shall not murder. Strike three.
Despite David’s weaknesses and failures, God used him powerfully for His divine purposes, demonstrating His grace through David’s lineage, from which the promised Messiah would come.
God even saw David as a man after His own heart. This fact was evident in the prophet Samuel’s rebuke of King David’s predecessor, Saul, when Samuel told Saul, “The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people” (1 Sam. 13:14). The apostle Paul further confirmed this fact in the New Testament:
He [God] raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus (Acts 13:22–23).
Though he is MLB’s strikeout king, Reggie Jackson is enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Similarly, despite his significant moral failings, King David is honored in God’s “hall of fame.” Hebrews 11, often called the “hall of faith,” extols David as a man “who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised . . . whose weakness was turned to strength” (vv. 33–34, NIV).
King David, a man after God’s own heart, achieved this special recognition despite his strikeouts.
