One Bad Decision
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One Bad Decision
One Bad Decision
I have been watching and reading the uncovering of abuses across churches for the last two decades.
I have not spoken about it until this point.
It is a sensitive point for many, many people.
Abuse of power through sex and trauma seem to be a plague in the church these days.
Given the sensitivity of the matter in our culture, I have been hesitant to speak about it.
Just bringing it up can cause some to relive or remember experiences they have had.
WARNING: We are going to speak about violence and rape. If that is a trigger for you, then please be prepared.
BUT: I would encourage you to listen, because we are going to see how this bad decision is viewed by God and God’s people.
AND: I hope to DESPEL some ASSUMPTIONS about this story.
David (beloved, lover)
Bath-Sheba (daughter of the oath, seven)
RUMORS: Ask for people to recall the story.
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
David, who was a great warrior, has decided to remain behind while his army fights without him.
NOW, pay really close attention to story.
WE WILL find this has some hyperlinks to other stories in scripture.
***** It happened, late one afternoon...
I have heard this preached and I have used this by skeptics to discredit David and the Bible for this story.
Consensual?/Tempted Him?/Sexual Assault?
DOES NOT SAY SHE IS ON A ROOF, DAVID IS ON A ROOF!
****** David sent and inquired...
Is this not Bath-Shebba (Daughter of the Oath/Seven)
Daughter of My God’s People (eliam)
Wife of Uriah the Hittite
***** David Sent Messengers (mal’achim)
Key language here: Mal’achim and laqach (took)
BUT: There are accomplices in the matter.
STOP: The KING sent people to get her. This means that others are going to know, they have to know what is going on.
They just let it unfold.
****** And the woman (not bathshebba) conceived...
NOT Bathshebba, “the woman”
IN FIVE VERSES we have quite a story.
And David has made for himself and Bathshebba and his accomplices quite a mess.
Here are a few elements from this story that we should observe:
He saw something very good (tov meod)
She is the daughter of My God’s people
He send’s messengers (mal’achim/angels)
His accomplices must lie
David has coveted his neighbor’s wife
Does this remind us of any other stories in scripture?
Gen 6, Abraham (Hagar), Judah (Tamar)
All of this over SEX.
Quickly go over the rest of the story...
Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
(What your FEET, euphamism ‘uncover your feet’)
David ARRANGES for Uriah (her husband) to come home and have sex with her so everyone thinks it is Uriah’s child.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? Others know.
Uriah is an honorable man
What we don’t know is if URIAH KNOWS?
BUT THIS DOES NOT WORK
GETS HIM DRUNK, that does NOT WORK
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.”
DAVID arranges for Uriah’s MURDER
WHOLE ELABORATE PLAN...
And David’s response to Uriah’s death is to TRY HARDER NEXT TIME!
DAVID has implicated multiple people into this sexual assault.
He is behaving just like the Sons of God did in Genesis 6.
And what about Bathshebba.
When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.
And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Again, the Hebrew reveals some things that are lost in the English.
The word used for husband here is not Isha, the more common word. It is a word for master, owner, lord, land owner, citizen.
I think this verse and wording is ON PURPOSE.
It was not consensual.
She was very much dedicated to Uriah.
Now she is a pregnant widow. And her child is the child of the King.
*****And when the mourning was over...
Strangely enough, she is following the Torah. Give the widows a period of time to grieve.
She bears to him a son.
CAN YOU IMAGINE...
This is a story right out of today’s headlines.
Sexual assault leads to a pregnancy.
A generation ago, she would be forced to marry the father.
A FEW of those marriages worked out, but most did not.
The woman, the ezer, has a history of being mistreated throughout the scripture.
It is no different than today…human’s in power abuse people.
What does God think about this?
*******But the LORD was displeased...
I appreciate the translators attempt to SOFTEN this.
What is really says is...
But, in the eyes of the LORD, the thing David did was evil.
That language, “in the eyes of the LORD” or “God saw...”
Again, even our translators try to soften this up to protect David’s reputation.
David has become Saul. (Nerd)
Will anyone have enough courage to confront David
Yes, a Prophet of God will confront David.
WATCH THE LANGUAGE CLOSELY,
And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
NOTICE:
THE LORD SENT…God wants DAVID confronted.
God wants this to come out.
And Nathan confronts David about this.
It is not left in the dark.
How will David Respond...
Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
We look at this and think it is a FALSE RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION.
But I disagree. David is not connecting the two together.
He is has not meditated on the Torah. If he had, he would put two and two together.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO THE CHILD?
The child dies at the hand of the LORD.
And this is why.
David makes a RASH VOW, just like we saw last week, and what DAVID DOES NOT KNOW is THIS VOW is against himself and his family.
Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.
God goes on to explain to David how this is going to change his Kingdom forever.
David’s actions and his vow bind a fate to the kingdom that will not be undone until Jesus arrives.
And even then, Jesus does NOT TAKE THE EARTHLY throne.
It has been made unclean by the bloodshed of David.
The actions of David have brought down his house.
God did not shy away from addressing the issue.
What’s done is done.
God’s prophet did not shy away from confronting him.
BUT all of David’s council, leaders, messengers, are all in on the cover up.
And that is what bothers me.
Church leaders are being caught
Victims are being dismissed
And the excuse for NOT punishing or PROSECUTING is:
They are doing God’s work,
and we should forgive them.
People feel like they are
forced to choose between:
Salvation, shepherds, and survivors.
And most often, this is over sex.
Some large denominations have lost their way and let Sexual Abuse run rampant in the church.
And then we look at what is happening in our society (gender dysphoria, abuse of children, trafficking) and we WONDER WHY?
God’s church is the power on earth to lead people from their sin to salvation.
When the church loses sight of that mission, we lead people from salvation to sin.
I am not laying all this at the feet of the church, but we are certainly not helping.
When we consider how God responds so strongly to this, it is because of the links between what David did and Genesis 6.
The biblical authors fully understand that when we take the EZER, and maximally ABUSE HER, the world will DESCEND into CHAOS.
And they want to avoid that as much as possible.
Paul instructs modesty for women because of the angels (mal’achim)
What can we do?
Resist temptation, flee from evil.
Report it to leadership.
If leadership won’t report what is illegal, then you do it.
Get help for the survivor, if they are young, it is not their fault. Pay for therapy for them.
Leaders should have discretion to recognize temptation and they should report it too.
Do it with grace and mercy towards others.