Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Beginning and End (06/04/26)
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TITLE: The Seventh Day | Previous Challenge Entry
By Joanna Dietz
06/11/26 -
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The form of a human lay stretched out on the ground. All night he had assumed this position. The sun would not show itself for yet another hour, but still the man continued to lie face down, prostrate upon the earth. Sporadically, a fit of grief would rack the otherwise motionless frame. But his eyes remained dry, the supply of tears already having been drained days earlier.
The lips of the soul-sick father had been moving inaudibly in prayer. Now they paused. His mind lapsed into memory . . .
It had all begun last spring.
A decision to stay home from battle. A glimpse of something he craved. The message sent. A momentary delight. But sin had been committed.
And then there was the coverup.
At this remembrance, the mighty form of the man lying in the dust gave a great shutter. Many a man had been killed in battle, but that one, calculated casualty of war now weighed more heavily on his soul then all others.
But life had seemed to move on. He and his beautiful new wife had excitedly anticipated the arrival of their first child. Although their marriage ceremony had taken place only a few months earlier, already the time had come for her to give birth. The blatant incongruity was apparent to all, and the palace had buzzed with hushed whispers of the “affair.”
Scenes from the past few weeks continued to reenact themselves inside the father’s mind.
The night of her labor had been a long one. The father remembered hearing the pained groans of his wife as he paced outside her chamber. He remembered how all had become still, and then—oh, how his heart had leapt—another cry had pierced the morning air, the wail of an infant sucking in his first breath. It was the voice of his beloved child, his own precious newborn, full of life.
The next few days had been paradise. Almost. The smitten father would steal away from his royal duties whenever he could maneuver an escape from his counselors, treasurers, and generals. Searching for him, they would find him in the women’s quarter, seated by his wife, cradling his newborn.
It was there that the messenger found him.
Without taking his gaze off his baby boy, fast asleep in his arms, the king had beckoned with his hand for the servant to approach.
“Nathan is here. He wishes to speak to you.”
Glancing up from his son, the king had calmly replied, “Tell him I will be with him directly.”
Nathan had been standing, staring out a large window when the king entered the throne room. An ominous feeling hung thick in the air. Without looking at David, Nathan began to speak. “There were too rich men . . .”*
Within the hour, David’s sin had been exposed. The secret was finally out. Hardness of heart had given way to humility, and the sinner was now forgiven. But this could not be the end of the story. Sin would take its toll: violence, rebellion . . . even death. And the life to end was the one only just begun.
Returning to his wife and child, King David had found the infant much changed. Doctors were summoned. Remedies were administered.
The memories continued to recall themselves to the father, piercing his heart afresh. Oh, what grief his sin had borne! He could still see the red, swollen eyes of Bathsheba gazing up at him, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. He could hear the weak cries of the newborn, gasping for the air he had so recently started to breathe.
The infant had desperately clung to life. And so it had been for seven days.
The night had passed. The glow of the sun was upon the horizon. All was gray.
Stiff and chilled to the bone, the king was aroused from his introspection by a group of his servants, clustered by the wall opposite him, whispering.
This could only mean one thing.
Calling the servants to him, David spoke.
“Is the child dead?”*
A long pause.
“He is dead,* your highness.”
The king arose. With slow, steady strides, he entered his own chamber. Soon he reappeared, clean and in fresh robes. It was time to worship the Lord, with whom lies the power to give and to take, to begin and to end.
Based on 2 Samuel 12
*Quoting 2 Samuel 12, NASB95
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