Decmeber 23 PM

"Bathsheba: Woman of Weakness, Mother of Promise"

2 Samuel 11: 2- 27; 12: 24- 25; Matthew 1: 6 

Normally when we study this story we focus our attention on David.  However, this evening we take a little different look at it.  Rather than focus on David, we will look at this story from the perspective of Bathsheba.  That is going to be a rather difficult task, because she is clearly a secondary character.  The author intended to focus on David not her. 

Bathsheba's name appears on only two other occasions:  In 1 Kings 1, when David's son Adonijah tries to take over the throne, Nathan comes to her and tells her to inform the king about it and to remind him of his promise to make Solomon king.  And  then in 1 Kings 2 after David has died and Solomon is king,  Adonijah comes to Bathsheba to manipulate her into unwittingly aiding his attempt to take over the throne from Solomon.  In neither of these references do we get very much additional insight into her character.  And  each time she takes action only after she is prompted to do so by a man. 

There are a couple of conclusions that we can draw from this.  The first is that her character was not central to the purpose of the authors of Samuel or Kings.  And secondly, like most women in the Middle East in her time, she did not have much ability to control what was going on around her.  While is it is true that perhaps some of the more shrewd women were able to do so,  it does not appear that Bathsheba was. 

I don't know about you, but that is what I find endearing about her character.  I can identify a bit with her.   I, too, spend much of my life responding to situations in which I have been thrust.  That is not to say I don't take leadership and initiative when I need to.  But, for the most part I am responding-- doing what I can and have to do in situations I don't control.  And like Bathsheba I would not be considered an important character even within our little denomination.  Probably, after I die the only reference many will find about me will be my name in the section of our church Yearbook listing deceased ministers.

Now, if you have some similar feelings about your life  (and even if you don't)  I invite you to hear what the scripture says about this seemingly unimportant character, who was one of the few women that Matthew bothered to list as an ancestor of Jesus (though not by name.)

A couple realities about the story demonstrate clearly how weak and vulnerable Bathsheba was.  In v. 5, she gives word to David that she is pregnant.  Clearly Bathsheba is afraid.  Uriah, who had been away at battle could not have been the father and he would know the child was not his.  This would not just wreck Bathsheba's marriage,   but according to the laws of Moses Uriah could have her stoned to death for her adultery.

It is true that David also could have suffered some embarrassment here.  Yet, as king, he may have been able to deny the whole thing and probably get away with it.  Powerful people can do that.  Bathsheba could not.

Another reality is that demonstrates her weakness is how the affair with David happened in the first place.  One commentator I read hinted that perhaps Bathsheba had seduced David.  That is nonsense.  People who speculate about this fail to give enough weight to the vast difference between her position and King David's.  She clearly was a victim of David's sin. 

We live in a time when to some extent it is true that no man is above the law.  It still might be easier for powerful people to evade paying for their deeds.  But, it is nothing like Bathsheba's time.  Back then the king was the law.  If people had a disagreement, they went to the king to settle it.  He was the highest court in the land and the highest lawmaker.  What he said was law.  And in most countries in that time, it was not unheard of for kings just to seize someone else's wife and make her part of his harem.   You might remember the stories about Abraham being afraid that the Pharaoh and later King Abimelech would take Sarah as his wife and kill him.  Well, things weren't that different in Bathsheba's time.  When David sent his servants to call her to come to his palace, she had no alternative but to obey. She had to come to come to him whether she liked it our not.

Other commentators have speculated as to whether she truly grieved for Uriah or whether she was just doing what was expected of her.  According to the customs of that time, when someone died, his/her family mourned for a period of seven days.  So, if Bathsheba wanted to cover up her adultery, she had better play the part of the dutiful grieving wife.

This too is nonsense.  Why wouldn't this woman grieve for her husband? Compounding her sense of guilt and shame was the pain of losing her husband.  One cannot read this story and not be struck by the nobility of Uriah's character.  Bathsheba lost a good husband.  Of course, she wept bitter tears.

Now there are some who not only question her grief, but who even

And so, this powerful king caused this poor woman shame, fear, grief.  He took away her purity and her husband.  And there was little she could do about it.  (In  the prophet Nathan's story in chapter 12, she was the lamb who was sacrificed.)  It's true that David sent for her and married her.  But, she had no alternative.  Her husband's murderer was her king.  And she had nowhere else to go.

Now, as we have seen, Bathsheba's weakness was due to more than just the fact that she was a woman who lived in a very patriarchal time.  It also was due to her the subject of a king who held great power over her.  When the people of Israel rejected God and demanded a king, the prophet Samuel had warned them of grief that their demand would bring them. (1 Sam 8: 11- 18)

He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. ¹⁵He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. ¹⁶Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. ¹⁷He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

By seeking to dethrone God the Israelite brought this curse upon themselves and their children. 

Cornelius Plantinga, President of Calvin Seminary, once wrote these words,

"For centuries people have blocked, frustrated, humiliated, and oppressed other people to "keep them in their place." Whites have done this wickedness to blacks, rich to poor, men to women. Victims of this oppression have rightly sought to be free.

   But a great spiritual danger always accompanies the democratic spirit. The danger is that we may seek to rid our lives of not only human but also divine dominion. ... The danger in a popular democracy is that we may try to democratize God. If we don't like God's program, if "our eyes are opened" and we conclude that God isn't necessarily any better qualified than we are, we can simply vote him out and run for office ourselves."

To reject God as Lord and king puts us under the tyranny of Satan and evil and has grave consequences for us as individuals, as churches, and as nations.  Surely many of the problems that have plagued our society in these past years have come as direct result of our seeking to dethrone God and his laws and live as we please. 

But, the good news that we find in this story is that God will not be dethroned.   No king is above the Lord.  In the world of that day they may have thought they could do what they wanted without any regard for the people they hurt.  But, God is on the throne and will remain so.  No king can overthrow him.  No people can force him to resign.  Our God reigns.

We can see that in chapter 12, when God sent his prophet Nathan to confront the king with his sin.  In v. 7 the Lord through Nathan says

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel,

David  wasn't sovereign, God was.  He had given David the kingdom and he could take it way.  The king didn't stand above God's law.  God forced him to his knees.  He had to acknowledge his sin and guilt. The king didn't control life and death.  God did.  He could pray and pray to God for his son's life, but God decided that the child would die.  And he died.  Even David's life was in the God's hand.  David did not die, because God in grace determined that he would live

God is Lord and king and he is a loving and gracious king.  Not only did he forgive David of his sin.  But, he also gave David and Bathsheba another son.  As this grief-stricken woman once again grieved over the loss of one dear to her, the Lord gave her a son of promise, a son of his love: Solomon.  And God chose this son to be a great king who would rule his people.  

Some time ago the Bethany bulletin, published by Bethany Christian Services told the story of a young woman named Julie who had a child out of wedlock and who then decided to give her child up for adoption, write her story.  She ends by saying,

"I have not regrets about my adoption decision for Megan.  She is almost five years old now and has grown into a happy, beautiful child.  She is blessed with a wonderful family who gave her what I could not.  Each picture or card I receive reassures me of God perfect plan for my daughter.  God turned my mistake into someone wonderful, and her name is Megan."

Matthew, tells us that this story doesn't end with King Solomon.  It ends with King Jesus.  God turned this ugly sin into a blessing for the entire world.   The story ends with Jesus coming from the line of David and Bathsheba. 

However, it didn't end with Christmas..  It continued to the time when as King Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph.  It continued to that time when King Jesus also became the lamb of God who freed the world from Satan's tyranny.  The real King didn't slay someone else's lamb to pay for human sin, he sacrificed himself.  But the story doesn't  end there.  The King who was slain arose and ascended to his Father's right hand to rule all things.  But the story doesn't end there.  It will finally end when Jesus  returns to judge the world claim his kingdom forever.

Listen to the words of this king in Rev. 21: 5 and following,

⁵He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

 There are times when we feel so weak and so unable to control the powerful events and people in our lives.  There are other times when we have sought to dethrone God and take over our lives only to find that we are not in control at all.  Let us know that the Lord is king.  And when we are ready to acknowledge him as Lord and king, he can talk all the ugliness and sorrow in our lives and turn them into something beautiful.  That is the joy and  comfort of Christmas.  AMEN!