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Devotionals

Bathsheba

It’s easy to think that because one is a Christian that we are better than others. People in the world might be like this but we who love Jesus cannot be like that because we do not find our identity in possessions, wealth, education, image or our heritage.

As followers of the Lord Jesus, we do not seek to impress people with any of those things. We find our identity in the Lord Jesus Christ! He does not look at the outer person. He does not look at the bank balance. He does not look at the house, possessions or vehicle we have. He does not look at our position at work or the network of friends or business associates we have. No! He looks at the heart! The condition of our hearts is what is important to God.

We have look at some women who participated in the Bloodline of Messiah (Jesus). There was Tamar, Rahab and Ruth who were all Gentiles (pagans) by birth. Tamar was a deceiver, whilst Rahab was either a prostitute or an innkeeper or both. Rahab risked her life to protect the soldiers (spies) of Israel. Ruth dedicated her life to care for her mother-in-law. Rahab and Ruth both married men in the Bloodline of Judah and had sons whilst Tamar deceived her father-in-law, causing her to fall pregnant. Three unlikely women, pagans … yet God used them to participate in Jesus’ descendancy. They were not of Israel’s stock. They worshipped foreign gods … yet God chose them and at the very least, Rahab and Ruth became true followers of the True God. We have one last woman to consider …

Bathsheba, a Married Women and an Adulterous

When reading about her we want to believe she was spotlessly pure and that king David was the bad guy. David was a warrior king in the sense that he, under the good hand of God, was a great militarist. He won wars, subdued nations, united the tribes of Israel and was loved by the people. In 2 Samuel we read:

2Sa 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.

No reason is provided why David did not go to war … but the stage is set for what follows. It seems as though David was restless one night and unable to sleep. He decides to go for a walk on his palace roof. This roof was likely a typical Middle East, flat roof with a doorway leading from the upper room onto the “roof”. Maybe outside was cooler than inside and as king he surveys the Capital City. The sun’s light tends to linger late … giving him visibility.

Suddenly he has a bird’s eye view of a woman having a bath. Obviously her house was nearby … and lust starts! Being king and having staff at his disposal he sends someone to find out who this woman is. The information he received was revealing … not so much as to her family line and that she was married, but because she was Uriah the Hittites wife … and Uriah was away at war! David sends for her and sometime after being with her for that night he receives the message that she is pregnant.

Perhaps because of the Prophet Nathan being sent by God to David and his confession in Psalm 51, once the weight of adultery hit him … I tended to give David full blame for this act. But was Bathsheba totally innocent? Bathing outside might not have been the biggest problem … but what about the fact that the king’s high-rise palace was so close giving visibility to anyone walking on the “roof”? It also seems as though she came willingly to the king … and I say this because we don’t read that she was raped as when David’s son Ammon raped his sister Tamar (2 Kings 13). It is for this reason I will say Bathsheba was an adulterous.

Now that she is pregnant a huge problem arises. Her husband is at war … how did she fall pregnant? Death would be the penalty. David contacts his military general requesting that Uriah return home and report to the king. The king received him and encouraged him to go home … yet we read:

2Sa 11:9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

Bathsheba was a Jew, Uriah was a Hittite. It seems he was a covert to Judaism and extremely loyal, patriotic, skilled soldier in the Israeli Defense Force. He was a principled soldier … to the point when David question him about not going home that night, he responded:

2Sa 11:11 “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

That night David made Uriah drunk, yet he still refused to go and sleep with his wife. Then David wrote Joab the general a note requesting Uriah be put in the thick of battle which caused his death (Read 2 Sam 11:14-17).

2Sa 11:26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 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.

The child that was born died, yet she fell pregnant again and gave birth to Solomon who followed David as king. Apart for all the lessons, warnings and cautions, what we need to see in all these four woman who played such a pivotal role in Jesus’ ancestry is that each one would have been rejected by today’s high society, religious leaders, wealthy and opinionated, the “better than thou art” people, yet graciously God used them to accomplish His perfect rescue plan.

Mat 1:5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.

Does God not say:

1 Cor 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

O Lord, help me to look at other through the shed blood of Calvary. Amen.

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