The book of the geneagology of Jesus Christ, the Son
of David, the Son of Abraham:
Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob
begot Judah and his brothers. Judah
begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram
begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed
by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had
been the wife of Uriah.
Matthew 1:1-6 (NKJV)
Scriptures where she can be found:
Her Story:
In part 1 of Bathsheba, we looked at 2 Samuel 11, where we are
introduced to her. Today, I am
going to look at 2 Samuel 12, and discuss the events that take place when
Nathan the prophet comes to David.
Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him,
and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many
flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one
little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with
him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup
and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to
the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare
one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb
and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
So David’s anger was
greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall
surely die! And he shall restore
fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to
David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over
Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s
house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of
Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would
have given you much more! Why have you despised the
commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with
the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have
killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
Now therefore, the sword shall never
depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife
of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own
house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall
lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do
this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’”
So David said to Nathan,
“I have sinned against the Lord.”
And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not
die. However, because by this
deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely
die.” Then Nathan departed to his house.
-2 Samuel 12:1-15
The first verse in this passage says the
Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David.
Nathan didn’t just go of his own accord, but God wanted this to be dealt
with.
I find it interesting the story the
prophet tells to David. In the story,
Bathsheba would be the sheep. The sheep would have been defenseless, unable to
care for itself. That is the
responsibility of the shepherd or owner.
I have had many discussions about her
accountability in this story. Some
people say that she knew what she was doing when she was bathing on the rooftop. Or she could have said no to David.
But the scriptures seem to indicate that
the Lord held David responsible for this action. He was the King. Bathsheba gets caught in a difficult situation. She is "encouraged" to be unfaithful to her husband, she loses that husband that she appears to
love, and she then loses her first child.
I have struggled a lot with the last part. It is a very difficult
situation to think on. Why would the
baby have to die?
I prayed about it, and I think there are
several things we need to consider in regards to how Bathsheba handles this,
and how it is viewed by the Lord. I can
only go by what I know about God and what the scriptures say.
First, it must have been extremely painful
for Bathsheba. But the Bible says that
God is the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). I would like to believe He supernaturally comforted her above and beyond any natural comfort during this time.
Second, this is my thought, but it
occurred to me, what if the child had lived? What would his life had been
like? He would have to live out his days
knowing his father murdered his mother’s husband. And that he was the result of his father
exerting his influence. Not only would
that have been painful, but it would have quite possibly influenced his
character and who he was to become.
The last thought I want to share is what
came to me while I was praying. Again,
it doesn’t say this in the scriptures outright, but I endeavor to look for
Jesus in every situation.
According to Mosaic Law, both David and
Bathsheba should have been put to death.
Both of them. In Deuteronomy
22:22 we read,
“If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband,
then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so
you shall put away the evil from Israel.”
David and Bathsheba were both considered guilty
of adultery. They both were to be put to
death. But the prophet Nathan didn’t bring that up. He said the baby boy would die. He took their place.
Isn’t that a picture of Jesus? He died and took our place. God laid on Jesus the sin of all mankind
forever. He died so we didn’t have
to.
After some time, the Bible says that David
comforts Bathsheba, and they have another child. He is David’s 7th son, and the
Bible says “the Lord loved him.” The
Bible says the Lord sent word by Nathan the prophet and he called his name
“Jedidiah.” Jedidiah means loved by God. An interesting foot note in my Bible says
“she” named him Jedidiah, indicating Bathsheba named him. We know him as Solomon, the King of Israel who wrote several books in the Bible, and whose wisdom was great.
Bathsheba went on to have three more sons with
David. In Proverbs 31, Solomon pens the
famous passage about the virtuous woman.
I believe one of two things.
Either Bathsheba dictated that to him, or he wrote it about her.
To read more posts in this series, go here to Women in the Life of Jesus.
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