#BathshebaToo

Bathsheba's name is linked to one story: the story of David's failings.  

Imagine having one single uncomfortable story associated with your name. We still do this today; I have heard far more about Hermoso being kissed than her football success. What will her legacy be?

And the wife of Uriah? She slept with King David. That's her story. Everything went wrong after that in David's family life. You don't see many Bathshebas on the Sunday School register. 

But this is not her whole story or identity. It's not even a fair snapshot. Who really was she? Does the biblical text give us any more clues? If you're interested, the references are at the end of the post. But let's try and get into Bathsheba's head a little by thinking about her circumstances. 

She is a married woman who apparently does not yet have children - so perhaps still in the early months. Her husband is sold out in his work as a warrior for Israel, despite his non-Israelite heritage. He is away fighting for God. 

Bathsheba is fairly young, but still old enough to run many aspects of home life, rising early to grind flour, to cook, to wash, to tend animals, to trade and probably even to brew beer. There are other people's children to help raise and many meals which take hours to prepare. It's likely she lives in a house with an open area in the centre, around which rooms on the ground floor house supplies and animals. Rooms upstairs will be added for sleeping quarters as the family grows. 

I imagine that it is possible to see into the open area from a high vantage. Bathsheba, tired from work and the sticky heat, wants to freshen up. She collects water and washes herself. From the roof of the palace, a man notices her.

Here opinion divides. I see Bathsheba as a victim; David has spent his life watching and planning. Others have labelled her an opportunist, keen and willing to seduce the king. Either way, this was never going to play out well. 

A knock on the door. A hasty march through the smelly streets. An audience with the king. In private. Does he offer her choice food and wine? Does he groom her? Is it rape? Would it have made any difference if it had been consensual in the world she lives in? Afterwards, confused and frightened, she returns to her home; a place which belongs not to her, but to a man. Just like she does. As she always will.

Daughter.
Wife.
Mistress.
Mother. 

Perhaps she takes herself into the darkest room and closes the door and weeps into her clothes. Is this how the king treats people? There is no one to tell. 

And as the days pass the moon completes a cycle but Bathsheba doesn't. This indiscretion cannot be kept secret. 

Look through the story in 2 Samuel 11 and you'll see the word 'sent' appear many times. David sends people and messages over and over. It puts him in a position of power and authority. In two places however, he does not do the sending, and the word is so frequent that it is certainly a literary choice. 

In verse 5 Bathsheba sends David a simple, frightening message: I am pregnant. The one thing she sends is the one thing David cannot control. This undermines his power and in his confusion David digs a deeper hole. He sends for Bathsheba's husband, tries to send him to his wife, tries to hide or 'unsend' his error. 

Bathsheba would have no reason to know that her husband is close by, that he rejects the opportunity to unwittingly cover the fault. And she certainly does not know that David is unscrupulously engineering Uriah's death. 

A few days pass. Someone else knocks on the door. More difficult news. Now alone with a growing baby inside her, she grieves and weeps again, wailing loudly now. 

And God sees. The second non-David sending of the story is where God sends the prophet Nathan. God takes the story and rewrites it. David can no longer play God and recognises the depth of his mistakes; his heart breaks and he changes his verb. He takes in Bathsheba. She is protected. In time, her swollen belly shudders in waves of pain. She is frightened again, comforted now by the women around her.  

The baby is born, but in another painful twist, he is small and weak, unlikely to live. 

David fasts and prays for the boy, but Bathsheba, her breasts aching with milk, also yearns for her son. This little one's very existence cost the life of Uriah. If he dies what will happen to her? What will happen to her family? She holds her breath, willing him to breathe.

Please God, rewrite this.

Please.

please? 

And the little one dies. 

The text is silent, but Bathsheba's heart must have screamed. Was it not enough to lose her husband and to be the plaything and trophy of a powerful man? Now to lose her child, whose tiny fingers reminded her of her own; whose eyes craved light and life. 

But this is not the end of Bathsheba's story - God has provided a way out and a new future. David accepts her, loves her, gives her status. He takes mercy on her. Bathsheba rises and bears more sons, including Solomon - whose name is Peace. A son loved and chosen by God to succeed David on the throne. 

And in the following years, Bathsheba gains a voice for herself. She finds herself in a court where God is feared and honoured. She hears Psalms sung and stories told of God's mercy and justice, both in David's life and in the generations before. By the time of David's death, Bathsheba is confident, clear and assertive. She listens to men, speaks to them and for them; aware that her own voice now carries weight. 

No longer judged by her looks or her backstory, she is now the mother of the king. No more grinding her own flour or long hours tending animals and children. People come to her. I wonder what she told her children and grandchildren about how David came to be part of her story? Could she redeem that? Does she need to? Perhaps only God gets to do that fully. Bathsheba was not forgotten or rejected by God. The silenced woman gains and voice and is no longer ignored. 

Today we see Bathsheba as a broken character in a story and we have only a few clues to go on, but for me they are enough to indicate God's power to turn a story around and bring blessing and hope. Although there is pain along the way, the pain is not the whole story. The episode we recall is not the whole story of the person created and loved by God.

I pray that my own legacy will be God-honouring and not hijacked by circumstance. But even it if were, God's mercy, acceptance, love and comfort are still true. No story defines me. Or you. Or Bathsheba.  

------

2 Samuel 11 is not the only time Bathsheba appears in the Bible. She's alluded to in Matthew 1 as one of Jesus' ancestors, appears at the end of David's life in 1 Kings 1 and 2, and gets a mention in the title of Psalm 51. Four of her children are named in 1 Chronicles 3: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon. There is a hint that her grandfather might have been Ahithophel, a trusted advisor to David (her father Eliab's name may be listed in 2 Samuel 23:34).

------

Lucy Marfleet loves reading, laughing, her husband’s cooking, walking her dog and marvelling at how tall the kids are getting. She teaches Biblical Studies for Spurgeon’s College on their Equipped to Minister course and has a Masters in Theology from the International Baptist Theological Seminary. See her blog at www.lucymarfleet.com

Pictures from Pixabay