David & Bathsheba

The story of David and Bathsheba is a very interesting one to me, because it takes one of the hero's from the Bible and shows his very human side, and how the consequences of sin affects our lives.

God loved David. He said that David was a man of His own heart. Honey, that's pretty awesome to be a man of God's heart! 

David saw Bathsheba bathing on her roof and decided he wanted her, and sent for her. Later Bathsheba discovered she was pregnant. Now, the problem is that not only was Bathsheba married to a man named, Uriah, but Uriah was, and had been away to war so there's no way it could have been her husband's baby. 

So to clean up his mess, David sent for Uriah and had him come home with the hopes that Uriah would sleep with his already pregnant wife and nobody would be the wiser. 

Except Uriah refused to go home because he was an honorable man who would not go home until the rest of the soldiers could also. Now this was a problem because if Uriah proclaims that Bathsheba is pregnant due to adultery then Bathsheba could be stoned. So King David decides to orchestrate Uriah's death by sending him to the front lines. Where he does die.

From that point on David's life was in constant turmoil. His infant son with Bathsheba died and much more upsetting and heartbreaking things with his children. David asked and received forgiveness from God, but sin has consequences.

The thing that always stops me in my tracks when I read this story is what God tells David after David had Uriah killed and then he married Bathsheba, God asked David why he had done such a thing? That not only had David committed murder, but he also married Bathsheba. God asked David why. Why had David not come to him if he wasn't satisfied... that He would have given him MORE. 

David was a King. He had a harem. He had any and everything, yet God said he would have given him more. Now, I do not equate that to mean more wives or even Bathsheba... I think it simply means that before you act on your impulsive feelings and go sin, pray to the Lord about your feelings and, yes, even your desires. He loves you and wants you to be happy so he can help you either resolve your feelings or he will give you more...better...even better than Bathsheba, but in his way...the right way. 

Yes, I said even better than Bathsheba. I think the Lord wants us to to be able to control our fleshly wants and desires, with his help of course. But David did what his flesh wanted instead of consulting God. Look at it this way, if you trust in God and pray to him when you feel susceptible to sin, and we all sin friends and we also all struggle with sin, then it will work it out...and in the best possible way. 

As a bit of a side note, I'd like to add that even though what David and Bathsheba did was wrong, it's interesting that Bathsheba went on to be the mother of Solomon, and Solomon credited his success to his mother. She is also listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ as "the wife of Uriah the Hittite", and only four women are mentioned in the lineage. What an honor. So in the end I think it's safe to say that Bathsheba, though viewed as an adulterer, true enough, but good people make mistakes. Good people sin, all day every day, but then they raise kings...and that's how God works sometimes, He takes people you'd never suspect and He uses them for His glory, but that's another story. 

I know I use the phrase "I think", a lot, but that's because these are just my own personal thoughts and feelings inspired by reading or sermons and what I have gleaned. My opinions and thoughts only, with the hopes that there's some knowledge received that somebody desperately needs to read.