Warm Regards for Warm Bodies

There is a touching story in 1 Kings 1 that comes from the time near the end of King David’s life. The record says that when David was very old, he had trouble keeping warm. His servants tried to cover him with blankets, but that didn’t work. They came up with a novel idea – novel to me anyway. The Hebrew is very specific in its description of their solution. They searched for a “young” girl who was a “virgin” to “lie in [the king’s] lap.” The text says that “she was of use for the king.” It is also made clear immediately that the king did not “know” her, that being a euphemism for having sexual relations with her. Her purpose was to share her body heat with the king to make him more comfortable.

A number of things about this situation puzzle me. First, where are David’s twenty-some wives; or were they also having trouble keeping warm, so they were of no use to the king. A heating pad or electric blanket is what we would use today, but of course, this predates Edison by a couple thousand years. However, they did have fire to heat water and skins to put it in – a tenth century B.C. hot water bottle. Hot rocks would have worked too. But David’s servants chose to find a young girl to keep him warm. Without trying to be suggestive I have to say that I can appreciate the personal touch this version of warmth provides.

I am also puzzled by the fact that the servants felt it was necessary to find a beautiful young woman. It seems like a plain young woman would have served the heating purpose, but a woman of beauty was sought. We know that David was considered good looking in his youth, and more than one of his wives was described as attractive. Perhaps the servants realized that the king was accustomed to having pretty things around, so they followed suit with their heating girl.

In any case, they found an Israelite girl from Shunem named Abishag. I don’t want to make too much of this, but God has a way of investing meaning in the most unlikely places, so I’ll proceed. The girl’s name means, “my father is a wanderer.” In today’s vernacular, when a man is a wanderer, it has decidedly negative connotations. In David’s day it was also: Strong’s Concordance lists “father of error,” as a possible translation of Abishag. Abi is a form of address to a father (remember we call God Abba). Shag means “to err, to go astray [morally], to swerve… to commit a sin of ignorance or inadvertence.” In other words, Abishag’s father was not a good parent. She did not have a good father figure in her life.

Then she was called to lie in David’s lap. Instant father. This may not be rags to riches, but it is shag to riches. (Sorry; I couldn’t resist.) Through no fault for her circumstances or conniving for advancement, Abishag was elevated to Israel’s highest household. God did that. The “man after His own heart” got comfort, and the daughter of a cad was blessed beyond belief. And her good fortune does not end there. What happens next may or may not sound wonderful to our modern ears, but it was unimaginable good fortune for a young girl in ancient Israel. She was discovered and desired by the most powerful people in her world.

It didn’t start out well, but it ended better than she could have imagined. One of King David’s conniving sons (sadly he had more than one), Adonijah, came to Solomon after David had transferred the kingdom to him and asked for Abishag as a wife. Although this may sound innocent, it was anything but. To sleep with a concubine of a king or take her as a wife was to assert one’s superiority over the king. Solomon saw through Adonijah’s deceit and refused the request. His next step was to order the execution of his half brother because he could see that he would continue to be a threat to his sovereignty. This sounds cruel to us, but David had advised his son to use wisdom in dealing with threats to the throne. In those days, “dealing with” often involved execution. The record of the kings of Israel proves that Solomon was not the last to apply the ultimate in coup prevention.

Unfortunately, Abishag disappears from the biblical record after Adonijah’s attempted ploy. Even though there is no written record, it is logical to assume that Solomon would have treated all his father’s wives and concubines graciously. We do know that he made considerable provision for his own ladies-in-waiting. It stands to reason that Abishag would have been invited into King Solomon’s harem. This would sound degrading except that in ancient times, it was acceptable for rulers to have many women living under their protection. We should not think of this as his own private brothel, as a king may or may not sleep with his concubines. The place of women in ancient times was such that if they didn’t marry, they had little opportunity to thrive. Being in the king’s harem was not marriage, but it was second only to being the king’s wife.

I like to imagine that because of God’s desire to comfort His favorite son, a young woman was raised from pitiful obscurity to, most likely, quite pleasant obscurity. In the process she had the privilege to fulfill her God-given responsibility and be blessed in return. You may be wondering how this might apply to us. Sometimes we talk about talk about filling a room with “warm bodies” as a way to discount the value of those bodies. Abishag was just that: a warm body, and her willing service to God and king are now legendary. (Okay maybe not legendary, but she is worth remembering.) Maybe the only thing you think you have to offer God is a warm body. Don’t despair. Maybe that is exactly what he wants from you.

Related Posts: David Stayed in Jerusalem; The Blessing of Jacob; Necessary Obedience; Encounters With Eliphaz