Nancy Dawson
David tells Joab, make sure that he’s killed by being on the front lines in the battle with the Ammonites.
David Capes
I have a rabbi friend who lives in Israel, and he said that David, though he was “a man after God’s heart”, violated 9 of the 10 commandments. David himself was deeply flawed, but ultimately finds forgiveness in God. But still, there are consequences to be paid for his actions.
Nancy Dawson
It’s not known whether he really knows her by name. He just sees this woman. I think it’s after that he finds out that she is the wife of Uriah. But he definitely knows of Uriah. The text is very clear in 2 Samuel, where it depicts David as impulsive. In this coercive type of language, there’s a string of verbs that says “he saw, he inquires, he sent for her, he took her and he lay with her”. The big question over the years has been, how complicit was she? Is she bathing in public or somehow wanting to be taken like the Hollywood movies might suggest.
David Capes
It’s hard to refuse a king. There’s the imbalance of power and the coerciveness of it. It really doesn’t give her a whole lot of wiggle room.
Nancy Dawson
You definitely see this unequal power dynamic in this situation. He’s the king. The text is not clear. It doesn’t say she refused but it’s very plausible that she thinks maybe David has news of her father, Eliam who’s in the army. Maybe he has news about Uriah. She does go and he takes her. Some of the translations implies this adulterous encounter, but I would posit that she is more the recipient of the actions.
We think of adultery in modern terms, which implies mutual consent. But the story, if you look at it in context and carefully, you don’t really see that. Because after this takes place, David is trying to cover it up. She tells David she’s pregnant, and he realizes her pregnancy is going to be known fairly soon. So, he calls Uriah home. He tries to get Uriah to come home to sleep with her. But the honorable soldier that he is, he does not sleep with his wife. He sleeps outside the palace and identifies himself with the other military soldiers. It says in 2 Samuel 11, the thing that David has done, displeased the Lord. Of course, all of our actions are known to God as are our thoughts, and our motivations. This is an
egregious kind of overstepping or abuse of his royal powers. As you said, he violates God’s laws.
David Capes
It’s interesting that Matthew brings her up in this genealogy. He could have just skirted over this story. Because David’s a heroic figure. After all, Jesus is described at the beginning as the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Nancy Dawson
Yes, and the author of 1 Kings says David has done what is right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord’s commands, all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah, the Hittite. How is he remembered? This is clearly saying he did something egregious and violated his position. It’s only recently that you hear this term, a power rape. Even 30 or 50 years ago, people suggested that Bathsheba is fully aware of what’s going on.
David Capes
But I think we’re looking at it now with a fresh set of eyes and see things much differently. And again, I love the way Matthew puts it, going back to what you were just saying, about that passage in 1 Kings. David fathered Solomon through the wife of Uriah. He’s intentionally bringing up something that was scandalous, that was terrible, that was shameful, for which David paid dearly.
Nancy Dawson
And even Nathan, when he approaches David and confronts him, tells a story about a rich man and a poor man. The poor man had only one ewe lamb, and the rich man had many sheep. He had a whole flock. And so, He’s appealing to this Shepherd King identification of David. He says that the man was trying to offer hospitality to a traveler, and instead of taking one of the many that he had, he takes this poor man’s ewe lamb. It’s just so sad, you know. He took the pet that felt almost like a child. He fed it in his home like we would find a lost baby deer and bring it home and raise it with your children.
And so, you see this identification of Bathsheba with this innocent ewe lamb. And really she is going to be like Jesus, as the Lamb of God, the innocent lamb of God. You can make these parallels. If you look at this inter-textual associations, you clearly see that.
So, all this, of course, leads to Nathan saying you are the man that did this. Eventually David is forgiven by God. In a normal Levitical situation, if there is the taking of another person’s wife, both the man and the woman are to be killed. But God graciously forgives David. You see this especially when he writes Psalm 51. He says, “against you and you only have I sinned.” Of course, he has sinned against Bathsheba. He sinned in the murdered Uriah and so on. But there is forgiveness.
It’s interesting, when I did the genealogy of Bathsheba. And I explained this further in my book. It’s through her that you get the double line of the Messiah. In Matthew, it passes through Solomon as a kingly line. And in Luke it passes through David and Bathsheba’s son, Nathan. How great is that? I mean, it’s David and Solomon. This is going to be the monarchic line of kings that last until the time of the exile. But you also see this non kingly line that passes through David and Bathsheba’s son Nathan. This shows us we have a loving God that in his providential, sovereign plan, he can take the brokenness of the world and the brokenness of famous people. Honorable people, at times like David and not so honorable, people like Judah was with Tamar and so on. And he can bring about good. And
these are the people in Jesus’ ancestry.
David Capes
I love the identification of Jesus as a friend of sinners in the New Testament. And it strikes me that that’s a part of the picture that is being painted. In the family of Jesus, there are some deeply embedded sins of His people. And now all of a sudden, as Jesus enters the picture, he is known as a friend of sinners. Not that he leaves us in our sin, but he’s trying to redeem us out of that and bring us home. Dr Nancy Dawson, thanks for being with us today on the podcast.
Nancy Dawson
Thank you so much.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
