Go Slowly Richard, Or You'll Miss Much

The story of David and Bathsheba is chiastic:

A - Joab goes out to take Rabbah
   B - David gets Bathsheba pregnant
      C - Uriah dies
         D - Bathsheba mourns for Uriah
            E - Nathan confronts David
         D' - David mourns for his son
      C' - David's son dies
   B' - David gets Bathsheba pregnant again
A' - David goes out to take Rabbah

Peter Leithart makes the following wonderful comment about it in his book, Heroes of the City of Man:

"A more subtle insight comes from comparing the C-D sequence with its corresponding D'-C' sections. Bathsheba mourns, as we expect, after her husband dies, but David, strangely, mourns before his son dies, and afterwards rises from the dust, changes clothes, worships in the Lord's house and eats a meal. Here we have a shadow of the gospel: David sins and deserves to die, but that judgment is instead carried out on David's son. Since his punishment has been born by his son, David is released and goes out to take Rabbah. So also, by the death of David's Greater Son [Jesus], we who also deserve death, are raised from the dust, seated at the Lord's feast and sent out to conquer."

I love the gospel and I love this kind of attention to detail, it's something I aspire to as I read the Bible.

The works of God are awesome not just in their great size and power, but in their diversity and intricacy.

Symmetry is all over the Bible and the Universe, if only I have eyes to see it.