David and Abishag

When David was old (about 70), he had a hard time keeping warm at night no matter how many blankets were piled on.  His advisers came up with a great solution.  Find the prettiest hottest virgin woman in the kingdom to sleep with him and hold him in her arms in order to keep him warm him at night! This was done and Abishag was selected to serve the king thusly and she loved him deeply and served him loyally.  However, they did not have sexual contact/intercourse, or as KJV states ...the King knew her not.

This all seems rather improbable.  Consider the plight of Abishag as she was taken from her family and surroundings.  Did she not have any other prospects for her future?  How could she be so willing? A similar situation happens in the book of Esther.  Apparently this is a Jewish tradition, the prettiest virgins of the land serve the King willingly.

They did not have sexual contact - what is the definition of sexual contact if sleeping in ones arms - perhaps naked for better heat transfer - is not sexual contact?  Intercourse?  How does the writer know this as a fact? (Okay, the answer is God directed the writer.) Then what is the point of including this information? To show that David was so saintly at this point that he abstained from deflowering a virgin? That was definitely not his history with women. Or that he was so old that he was indeed incapable of intercourse and totally oblivious of what was happening?

Furthermore, why didn't Bathsheba serve as the bed warmer? How did she feel about this arrangement? Apparently the David the King didn't sleep with his wife (wives).

Are we to believe that David was just an innocent bystander in this? Arranged without his input?

Perhaps the story is included to set the stage for Solomon later killing his rival older brother and thereby eliminating him from contention for the kingship when the rival brother merely asked for Abishag to be his wife.

Or to make it appear more plausible that the profit Nathan and wife Bathsheba could trick David into believing that he had promised and sworn by God that Solomon would be the next king. Another common theme, the wife helps trick the old man into making the younger son the preferred heir over the more rightful older son.