We are familiar with this story in all of its titillating details. I have often thought that this isn't story about Bathsheba at all but about how sin spatters and ruins and destroys people around especially when you think your sin is secret, especially when you keep your sin secret. David's arrogance seduces, destroys what was a great love story and murders. David repents and writes eloquently about his repentance in a often quoted Psalm but Uriah still is dead and Bathsheba still lost her baby and her life and her husband.
There isn't much in this story after all is said and done. David is front and center ... What do we know about Bathsheba. She was beautiful, she was bathing on a roof top...most likely a ritual bathing area for purification, David wanted what he saw and he got it. She got pregnant...David began the process of cleaning up his tracks. He hadn't thought about marrying her...he wanted Uriah to unknowingly become the father of his baby growing in Bathsheba's womb. Uriah was a good man, a noble man and loyal man. David was none of those things. He dies, Bathsheba marries David, baby dies...another baby is born and baby Solomon becomes the next king, wisest man in the world. Bathsheba's is mentioned in Mathew as the wife of Uriah...she is mentioned only in connection too...Some think this is a slight to Bathsheba, I think it is an honoring of Uriah ,who was not in the line of Jesus.
This week we are numb with the horror of children's death by a madman. It is the face of evil, it is the embodiment of what evil is...The madman who killed 20 children, the madman who killed all the babies in Bethlehem, the madman who killed one man.
A baby changes everything...
Come, Lord Jesus, Come...
Make things right
Shine again in this dark night
Let us hear some angels sing
And hear the hope those angels bring
We will come and bow before
Only to adore..only to adore
Broken hearts and bended knee
Such a desperate need
No comments:
Post a Comment