SS: Mothers of Jesus - Bathsheba

Background:

Jesus at the cross, commits John to the care of Mary, he loved his mother, and he loves these women in his family tree. Jesus willed that these women would be listed for us because that is his heart for his mothers, his grandmothers, and for all who have been shamed, abused, sinned against.

Each of these women, apart from Mary, not only have some story of shame associated with them, but they also each have gentile connections. Matthew, while being the most Jewish of the four gospels, also focuses on the gentile mission in ways that the other gospels do not. The genealogy, while teaching us much about Jesus’ heart for the shamed and abused, is also revealing to us his expansive heart to bring in all people from every tribe and nation under his rule and care.

It’s actually through her marriage to Uriah that Matthew identifies Bathsheba, so Uriah is a great place for us to start in learning more about who Bathsheba is.

Uriah’s Wife

I’m not happy that for a lesson about Bathsheba, we have to center two men, Uriah and David. And yet, most of the information on Bathsheba is given to us in the context of her association with these two men, so this is what’s available to us.

So Bathsheba isn’t named in the genealogy, which is something unique to her compared to the other women here. You might think this is a dig at Bathsheba, that she’s unworthy of being named. Quite the opposite. It’s a slam on David. By referring to her as Uriah’s wife, Matthew is forcing us to remember the whole story. David, the great king of Israel, when he was at his lowest used and abused Bathsheba, a married woman, for his own twisted pleasure. When she became pregnant, David had her husband Uriah murdered so that he could marry Bathsheba and cover up the evidence.

So Uriah is a Hittite. Bathsheba’s gentile connection comes through her husband, Uriah the Hittite. The Hittites were one of the peoples that the Israelites were supposed to drive out when they conquered the promised land. Because of his gentile heritage, she likely would’ve adopted that identity through their marriage.

Uriah is identified in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 as one of David’s “mighty men.” These were the best of the best, the friends who had come alongside David when he was on the run from Saul and struggling to establish his rule as King. They were called his mighty men, and they risked their lives to save David’s life. Uriah was one of these men. He wasn’t just any soldier. This is a man to whom David owes his life.

You see, we can’t forget Uriah in this story. Uriah’s relationship with David magnifies the extent of David’s sin and abuse Bathsheba suffers. This is the man whose wife David covets, who he steals for himself and forces himself upon. He murders the man, and then he lies to cover it up, half the Ten Commandments being broken in one terrible act.

It’s all awful. And this is the story Matthew wants us to remember in the beginning of his gospel.

David and Bathsheba

There is more to Bathsheba’s identity than her status as a victim. We’ll talk about that in a minute. But we need to talk about this atrocious sin committed against Bathsheba if we are going to understand her place in the genealogy.

I want to frame our interpretation of these events before we talk about some of the key details. It has not been uncommon in modern evangelical teaching to frame this story in a way that minimizes David’s sin while casting much of the blame on Bathsheba. Some have tried to paint a picture of Bathsheba as a temptress who lures David into sin. Others have tried to cast this sexual encounter as consensual, thus they describe it as an affair. I think such framings of this narrative are deeply flawed and incredibly harmful. I say that for two key reasons.

First, I don’t think these interpretations fit the biblical narrative.

Consider how Nathan the prophet rebukes David. He tells David this emotional story about a rich man who steals and kills the precious lamb of a poor man. David’s anger is kindled against the rich man, at which point Nathan flips the story and says, “You are that man! You killed Uriah, and you stole his wife.” This prophet sent by God does not at all see these events as consensual, nor does he in any way invite an interpretation where Bathsheba seduces David. Nathan clearly labels David as the one in the wrong, he is a murderer and abuser.

We can view these events in light of the larger story of 2 Samuel. See, David’s fall doesn’t begin here. If you go back to the beginning of 2 Samuel, you find that once Saul dies and David is officially crowned King, he becomes more passive in his leadership. Multiple battles take place where David is not present, he stays behind. And sure enough, the beginning of 2 Samuel tells us that while his soldiers were off fighting, David remained in Jerusalem.

David increasingly isolates himself from his men. I don’t think it is too much for us to say that in his isolation, this is not the first time lust had crept into his heart. This may not even be the first time he had spied on Bathsheba. Sadly, David will remain a passive leader within his own family when his son Amnon rapes Tamar, Amnon’s own sister and David’s daughter.

Diane Langberg: “No one is ruined in a crisis whose soul has not already been weakened by choices made in day-to-day life. We do not wake up one day immoral. Immorality is practiced quietly and in small ways over time. We are anesthetized by the opiate of self-deceit - until the cup is bumped and we are exposed.”

So the biblical narrative reveals to us that David’s sins against Uriah and Bathsheba emerge in this trend of passivity and isolation on his part.

More could be said, but suffice it to say, the biblical narrative does not allow us to interpret Bathsheba as an active, willful participant in sin.

Second, these interpretations fail to understand how power works.

David is the one in power in this narrative. Within Israel, he has great physical, spiritual, economic, and linguistic power. At every level, David abuses this power given to him by God.

While he owed Uriah a great debt, he abuses his power in manipulating events to have Uriah killed.

In the abuse of Bathsheba, David misuses his power in several ways: his physical power of a man over a woman, his ruling power to intimidate a woman in his kingdom, his military power in bringing messengers and soldiers in and forcing them to be complicit in this sin.

This abuse of power may go even deeper. Bathsheba is identified as the daughter of Eliam, possibly another one of David’s mighty men(2 Samuel 23:34). If this is the case, she probably grew up in military and court circles. If this is the case, this adds layers to David’s sin. Not only was she not his wife, not only was she the wife of his friend Uriah, but she also grew up in his presence, and would’ve been a young woman who he was especially supposed to look after and protect.

So I’ll say this as simply as I can, and I know it’s strong language, which is why I didn’t print it, but it needs to be named: David raped Bathsheba. Dr. Diane Langberg, a Christian psychologist specializing in abuse, says that David is Bathsheba’s Harvey Weinstein. If we’re going to understand this narrative, and the extent of Christ’s redemption by bringing it into his genealogy, we need to be able to name this.

Bathsheba: The Wise Mother of the King

The consequences of David’s sin are enormous, beginning with the death of the first child born to Bathsheba. However, Their next child, Solomon will become king after David. And it’s in Bathsheba’s role as Mother that we find an example of a woman who exhibited tremendous wisdom and godliness even she was deeply sinned against.

When David is old and the royal succession is in dispute (1 Kings 1-2) Bathsheba plays an active role as an advisor both to David, Solomon’s half-brother Adonijah, as well as Solomon himself. She displays great wisdom and courage in her ability to navigate the power these men wielded.

But her true wisdom is behind the scenes. Solomon is regarded as this great king of Wisdom, most displayed in the book of Proverbs, which he authored. And at two points in proverbs (Proverbs 1:8 and 6:20) Solomon gives instruction not to forsake your mother’s teaching. Well where would Solomon have learned to value a mother’s teaching? His own mother, Bathsheba. The book of Proverbs exists because Bathsheba brought up Solomon in the wisdom and instruction of the Lord.

Bathsheba is far more than a victim. She was a queen and mother of great courage and wisdom whose faithfulness was honored in being included in the ancestry of Christ.

Summary

Matthew is inviting us to remember the whole story, and here is the effect that ought to have on us: we see that David is no better than anyone else in this genealogy. In fact, it is far more scandalous for David to be named here than for Bathsheba to be a part of this genealogy. David’s sins were great, some of the worst in Israel’s history. Just as Jesus redeems and restores these gentile women who had faced great shame and hardship, Jesus restores and keeps his promises to people like David, even though they are great sinners. The immoral and the more, the abuser and the abused, the strong and the weak, all are in need of Christ’s redemption, all are equally in need of GOd’s grace.

The transforming safety of the gospel allows us to face our pain and trauma. Wisdom is needed for how we exercise this. Not every victim of trauma will be able to face their pain the same way or in the same timing. Yet, safe in the love of Christ, we’re able to grow, however imperfectly, in facing and healing from our deepest wounds.

Both my wife Neva and I come from pretty dysfunctional and traumatic families of origin. When we first became Christians as adults, the gospel was often presented to us as this covering up of shame and trauma. It was almost like, yeah, now that you have Jesus, you don’t need to worry about those things, don’t talk about them, you’re saved now, Jesus has healed all of that, and so on.

And while we have experienced great healing of our shame and trauma in Christ, we often struggled under the weight of that teaching because it felt as if we had to suppress this key part of our experience and identity. As we’ve grown up in the Christian life, we’ve learned that we hadn’t so much healed from our trauma as we had just simply avoided it, because that’s what we thought we were supposed to do.

But in the last few years, we’ve been realizing that the gospel is not a cover for shame and trauma so that we just don’t look at it or talk about it anymore. Quite the opposite. The gospel makes us safe and secure in the love of Christ such that we can look at and name our shame, name our trauma, bring it out into the open, and experience the healing grace of Jesus.

There’s wisdom in this, of course. Good counsel, safe relationships are key. But I think this is worth saying. The gospel isn’t a cover up for us to ignore our pain, the gospel anchors us in the love of Christ so we can face it. Matthew’s genealogy is inviting us to look at trauma and shame in order to see the deep mercy and grace that Jesus invites us into.