David and Bathsheba

David and Bathsheba

2 Samuel 11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." … When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.

Jesus is the son of David, and this was central to Paul’s Gospel (Romans 1:3, 2 Timothy 2:8 etc). David was a prophet, priest and king, a shepherd who cared for the poor, a Psalmist who praised God, someone who loved gentiles, and a man after God’s own heart.

 So what a horror to learn that this same David committed such an appalling sin! A godly ruler, appointed by God, and here he is either seducing or raping Bathsheba, and then murdering her virtuous husband. This is terrible! What are we to make of this? How did a Godly man and ruler fall so far? God does not excuse or cover up sin in those he loves – David’s sin is recorded for all time in God’s word. Let us look at how David fell into sin, and how he was restored from it and why all this is recorded for our benefit.  

The episode begins; “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army…. But David remained in Jerusalem.” David has been king for many years now, he has been fighting since he was a boy, the thought of army food and living in a tent again has no appeal. So David remains in Jerusalem. The whole unfolding disaster starts with David just slaking off. The rabbis said flee a small sin because it leads to bigger ones, run to obey a small commandment because it will lead to greater opportunities to serve God. Little sins and little acts of obedience to God are not just singular events. They are more like the bread crumbs in Hansel and Gretel, as you follow one set of crumbs or another, they actually lead somewhere. As we will see, small sins lead naturally to bigger ones, and Jesus said if you are faithful in little you will be faithful in much. David did not start out that year by writing in his “to do” list; 1. rape and 2. murder. He simply wanted to take things a bit easy, and shirked his God given responsibility. And it was that little sin which would lead to the bigger ones. Paul is well aware of this. He doesn’t say, you can play with sin, it wont hurt you, he says Flee idolatry, flee immorality. Don’t eat those bread crumbs, they will lead you to death.   

James 1:15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

So, rather than doing God’s will, David stays in the palace, and one evening he chances to see Bathsheba taking a shower. Like almost any other man on the planet would do in such a situation, David does not resist a second look. He does not flee from immorality. He is not like Job, who writes; Job 31:1 "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.”

So sin starts in the eyes, works on his mind, and then he makes inquiries about her, then sends for her. He is following the bread crumbs to his own destruction. Generally, sin takes time. A teli-evangelist does not wake up one morning with his secretary and wonder, how on earth did I get here? They had worked together for years, she admired him, he was impressed with her. Then he started some harmless fantasizing, it was no big deal, he told himself it was just a way to pass the time, but in fact, it was rehearsing sin, till after months or years, sin, when it was full grown, found him in her bed. So, stay away from the lures of sin, stay away from the little bread crumbs, they will kill you. Never say of deliberate sin, its only a little matter. 

What was David’s sin – well, we are simply told that “She came to him, and he slept with her.” Bathsheba was obeying an order from the king, which she had to do, and then, “he slept with her.” Was it seduction or rape? We will look more closely at Nathan in a minute, but in his God inspired retelling of the story, Bathsheba is a ewe lamb, slaughtered to satisfy another man’s hunger. It is an image of innocence subjected to violence. As such, it strongly suggests that David raped Bathsheba. This conclusion is greatly strengthened by the next verse in the original telling, which shows Bathsheba to be a Godly woman. In the NIV we read; “and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.)” In fact, the New American Standard has a much better translation; 2 Samuel 11:4 And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

The second part of the verse is neither a parenthesis, nor a past tense, leading to unhelpful speculation in the commentaries. The word purifying is not in the past tense, it is a participle – “purifying”. It simply states within the natural flow of the narrative that after he had laid with her, that she, purifying herself, returned home. It contrasts David’s action with her response. David took her, but she, purifying herself, returned to her home. I believe it to be one of the most important verses in the entire passage. If focuses our attention on Bathsheba, and on her reaction to what had just happened. Leviticus 15:18 commands that after a man and a woman had been together, they should wash, and this is what she did, and this was seen as being significant enough to record in Holy Scripture.

So, what is Bathsheba’s story? She is summoned to the palace by the king, a powerful and Godly man. She is then taken advantage of. What then can she do? She cannot call the police, it is the king who has done this. She has no recourse to civil justice. She is simply a powerless young woman, she is simply a victim. Or is she? “and she purifying herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.” Her first action, after being violated, was to obey God. The word purified here actually comes from the same root as the word holy. She purified herself, she holied herself, she separated herself. She washed herself with the commands of God.

Now, on one level, you say, big deal. She was raped and then she takes a shower? – so what? How does this answer to what has happened. On another level, you ask, where was God when she needed him? Why should she obey his commands now? Her life has just been ruined. Why not take the advice of Job’s wife, and curse God and die? And it is here that we start to see the significance of what she has done. We rightly sing “When the darkness closes in, still I will praise.” Well, the darkness has closed in, and Bathsheba obeys God. To the limit of her abilities, she has honored God. This is powerful. It is sometimes only when we run out of options that our true choices emerge. Two thieves on two crosses. All their options have run out. Maybe they had tried to bribe a guard, loosen that rusty bar, sneak out somehow, but all has come to nothing. They are naked, with nails through both hands and their legs. They are going to die. At this point, when they seemingly have no options left, one chooses to curse God, the other to justify him. One spends eternity in hell, the other is given eternity with Jesus.

We always have choices, and Bathsheba chooses to respond to this betrayal by a man known near and far as a Godly ruler, not with despair or self-pity, not with anger, not with a crisis of faith, but with an act of faith. By obeying God when all is darkness, she indeed purifies herself. She is not powerless, but proclaims to the world that her allegiance is to God. There will be times in your lives when everything seems to go wrong. Will you respond like Job’s wife, or like Bathsheba?

Before we move on to look at how God himself acts through his prophet Nathan, I need to make the point that, unlike Bathsheba, we do have recourse to civil justice. Should, God forbid, anyone reading ever be in Bathsheba’s situation, tell the police!!

Now, 2 Samuel 12:1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him." David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

God is not absent from our lives, and we read “the thing David had done displeased the LORD”. God then sends the prophet Nathan to David. This is his normal way of acting. God uses people, we are the body of Jesus. Just as he sends us in the power of his Holy Spirit to proclaim his salvation to others, so he sends us through his Spirit to convict others of their sin.  Leviticus 19:17 "'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor

Matthew 18:15, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. Galatians 6:1-2 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 2 Thesselonians 3:15 Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

In the reference in Leviticus, the word rebuke is repeated in an intensive construction. It is an imperative command, because generally, we hate to tell someone off, and would rather just avoid the whole thing. Rebuking here is seen as the opposite of hate, don’t hate your neighbour, rather rebuke him.  Proverbs 25:12 Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man's rebuke to a listening ear.

The Talmud actually has a cute little passage in it where one rabbi asks; “I wonder if there is anyone in this world who knows how to give a rebuke in love?”, to which another rabbi replies; “I wonder if there is anyone who knows how to receive a rebuke in love?”, where upon Rabbi Tarfon says “when Rabbi Akiva first joined us, I rebuked him every day, and the more I corrected him, the more he loved me.” 

We need to learn and practice how to both give and receive correction in love! When someone, be it a colleague or a friend, corrects you, do you get all defensive and self-righteous and angry, or do you thank them for helping you avoid real trouble? Again, we need to practice giving and receiving correction in love!

This brings us to the prophet Nathan. The first thing we note about him is that he has guts! It is no light matter to tell the king off, other prophets are killed for doing just that to other kings. As well as guts,, Nathan is also wise. As a king, David holds court where people come to him with their cases for judgment. As we see with Solomon, they tell their story, and the king judges. So David is judging his people, its his everyday job, its what he does, he has done it for years and he is feeling safe and comfortable. Along comes Nathan with just another case to be judged, something about two guys in some town, and David listens, and grows angry. The rich man has done a terrible thing! And David, still feeling safe, this isn’t about him, David makes his own judgment; “The man who did this deserves to die!” Instantly, Nathan turns on him “you are the man!” and David has nowhere to turn because he has judged himself. Nathan then continues relentlessly, details David’s sin to him and pronounces God’s judgment.

David now does something quite remarkable – he admits his sin. For most people, and I sadly include myself in this, if you rebuke them, point out a sin in their lives, you get self righteousness, anger, who are you?, how dare you? You get deflection “what about the senior highs...”, you get minimization “its no big deal”, you get dodging, “the woman you gave me caused me to do it, so it is sort of your fault, and definitely hers.” You get endless excuses. The one thing you don’t get is a simple, no frills added “You are right, I did wrong.” We just find that so darned hard!! David himself had tried this earlier, before Nathan convicted him. He tried to pass the child of as Uriah’s, but this lie was foiled by Uriah’s own righteousness.

OK, all stand up, look to the person next to you and say “I did wrong.” Nothing more, no excuses or sad story, just “I did wrong”.

This is what David did, and thank God for it. For this is the beginning of healing and restoration. The next step is understanding his offense. Nathan tells David; “Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?”

David then realizes that he has not just done wrong to Bathsheba and Uriah, but in so doing, he has sinned against God! Psalm 51:2-4 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight

Our sin does not just hurt us and those around us, it hurts the God we love. In Ezekiel 6:9 we read; “because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me,” God is crushed by our sin, as we see most clearly on the Cross.

In committing adultery and killing Uriah, he has broken two of God’s commandments, commandments God gave because he cares about people. Jesus says that the second commandment is like the first, and it is God telling us to love our neighbor. We cannot quarantine the different parts of our lives, and say we love God, because he is nice, but find people harder to get on with. It doesn’t work that way.

1John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

1John 4:20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. 

Do we realize that when we are mean or spiteful to someone, when we say mean things about them, or think it is funny when they are in trouble, or laugh when they are embarrassed, then we are sinning against God himself! This is what David realized.

You cannot be out of sorts with people and in sorts with God, you cannot love God and hate your brother. We are not made that way.

After David is confronted with his sin, openly and utterly repents, and is restored to his walk with God, it is then that we read;

2 Samuel 12:24-25 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him; and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. (means loved by the Lord)

It is the David who is not following God, who is staying back who abused Bathsheba. It was the David who was restored to God who comforted her.

 

The child born of sin dies, for the wages of sin are death, but the child born of forgiveness and restoration lives, and is named Solomon, which means peace. More importantly, it is Solomon who builds the Temple, where the praises of God are sung. It is one of the glories of our faith that God’s praises are not sung by spotless saints, but by forgiven sinners.

David is restored by the actions of a Godly woman, the intervention of a faithful friend and because he truly does have a heart that desires God. When he realises what he has done, and that his relationship with God is forfeit, he is utterly shattered, and from his remorse and repentance comes the undeserved gift of God’s forgiveness.

Psalm 32:1 Of David. A maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

 ² Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

 ³ When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

 ⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah

 ⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

 ⁶ Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.

 ⁷ You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

Psalm 51:6-19 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Looking again at Bathsheba, at the start of the story she seemed just a helpless young victim, but her act of obedience and faith showed her to be something quite different. She showed herself to be a woman of real worth. She goes on to become the mother of Solomon, and the last we read about her in the Old Testament is in 1Kings 2:19 “When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king's mother, and she sat down at his right hand.”

 

She did not do wrong to trust in God when her life collapsed. She could never have imagined this outcome that night she was abused and sent home in her shame. But God cared for Bathsheba.

In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, four women are mentioned, Bathsheba is one of them.

Now, near the end of Psalm 51, David’s great prayer for forgiveness, he says something strange. “In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.” What is this about? Jerusalem’s walls have not been broken down, David has murdered Uriah and slept with Bathsheba, what has that to do with the walls of Jerusalem? What is this about??

Isaiah 26:1-3 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 60:18 “but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.”

Our sin hurts the whole community, our sin makes the whole community weaker. When we sin, we hurt those we sin against, we hurt God, and we hurt the whole community of believers. Our prayers for forgiveness must therefore include the plea that God would build up the walls we have torn down, and make prosper what we have impoverished.

So, in looking at David and Bathsheba, many useful insights are gained, many valuable lessons taught. That little sins lead somewhere, that it is right to obey God even when disaster strikes and we have no earthly hope, the importance of correcting each other, and of an honest confession, and that the fruit of forgiveness is peace and praises to God.

Yet still I am left with the basic question, how do I relate to this event? David is supposed to be this Godly man, this role model, and he does this?? How can I deal with that?? If a church leader did what David did, I would want him sacked and in jail. I can appreciate that it is in Scripture because it is true, but how is it part of God’s saving message to me? How is it part of the Gospel? As we saw, Paul summarises his gospel in his introduction to the Romans; “regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Does that include this passage or was it just the prophet, priest and king stuff? Clearly, that “stuff” is important and is affirmed in the New Testament, but in his letter to the Romans, Paul’s next mention of David (Romans 4:7) he quotes him saying "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”

You see, sometimes we grow familiar with forgiveness, we understand the logic behind it, Jesus dies, I am forgiven, done deal. It becomes reasonable and expected. Then we look at David and think, this guy is a disgrace. You know, I wouldn’t have forgiven him, let alone restored him. If a someone I knew committed adultery and rape, I would want them thrown in jail. They I read his confession, see his broken spirit, and read his Psalms of dancing and wonder that he has been forgiven, and I appreciate anew that forgiveness is a miracle, an undeserved, unbelievable miracle. I know I too need it, and in David I see the unimaginable extravagance of God’s mercy.  

Paul quotes David to affirm this wonder, this miracle of forgiven sin. To know that you are utterly guilty, to know you have no excuse, to know that it is the one you sinned against who is to judge you, this is to know despair and shame and utter hopelessness. You don’t have a chance, and there is no escape.

To then find that this same judge would both uphold the Law, and at the same time grant you his own righteousness, a righteousness that Paul has just written (Romans 3:21-24) comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. To find it’s not just you, but that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that all can be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. This indeed is the heart of the Gospel! If God can forgive David, God can forgive anyone, and that includes you. This is not cheap grace, it is a humble and broken spirit, a genuine confession and an utter turning away from evil. It is the cry of someone who knows their own guilt and has wept bitter tears over it. We read of this in Zechariah 12:10-13:1; “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great,... The land will mourn, each clan by itself, … On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

This is the cry the Father will not turn away. This is the good news! “Descended from David” not only speaks of Jesus as prophet, priest and king, it also speaks of the blessedness of forgiven sin, the undeserved un-earnable miracle of God’s redeeming love. It is the very horror of David’s sin which forces us to look again at the wonder of God’s forgiveness. No wonder that David wrote Psalms of praise!!

As fellow sinners, who have likewise known God’s unbelievable grace, lets rise and praise him now.