“King David: Part One: Bathsheba!”
Grace Note #99
By Gary L. Clendenon, May 3, 2023
(All Bible verses quoted from The Message Bible)
This is “Part One” in a series of three essays on the story of King David’s sinful encounter with Bathsheba. I’m starting this with the assumption that you know the story of David and Bathsheba found in 2nd Samuel chapter 11. If you don’t, or you need a refresher, I recommend you read it there first.
First of all, I love wordplay and cannot pass up pointing out the irony in this woman’s name: “Bath” sheba? Wow. David saw her taking a bath, then asked and found out her name. It’s also interesting that Bathsheba’s later son through David, Solomon, had a relationship with the Queen of Sheba! (“Hey, that’s like my Mom’s name!”) The name “Sheba” in Hebrew means “Promise”. Jesus was a descendant of Bathsheba. Coincidence?
Now, back to the story. David’s men and army—including Bathsheba’s husband—were off fighting a war for him. The actions David took in this story were SO WRONG on so many levels! Ideally, you would think that he would have been fasting and praying for his army’s victory instead of watching a naked woman bathe. Christian author, Ellen White, says that David’s “success” as a King caused him to become lazy and arrogant in the reliance on GOD he had had in his younger years.
It WAS the custom of worldly kings to do whatever they wanted to and get away with it as “Entitled Royalty” (much like the entitled elites of today). But, obviously, the Kingdom of GOD, as represented by Israel and King David, was to be intentionally and thoughtfully different. In David’s actions, we see the thinking of a man whose thinking has been co-opted by the thinking of the world. THIS—through the subtle working of Satan’s guidance over time—was David’s downfall: Bad thinking led to bad actions.
This is one danger of a life of wealth and/or ease! Slowly, over time, our minds become accustomed to what should NOT be taken for granted. We lose awareness over the on-going, always-present, battle for our hearts and minds until one day we find—when faced with a temptation we never would have given into before—we find ourselves not even thinking twice before quickly giving in to the temptation as if it were a completely natural thing to do!
The level of darkness this story continues to sink down to is shown when David brings Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, back from the front to “sleep with his wife” and Uriah refuses saying, “The Ark [of the Covenant] is out there with the fighting men of Israel and Judah—in tents. [They] are roughing it out in the fields. So, how can I go home and enjoy my wife?”
As I stated earlier, THIS thinking of Uriah’s, in great contrast to David’s thinking, shows what the thinking of David ought to have been from the start. But, David’s focus on the “problem”—that he created with his original bad thinking, instead, seems to keep him from ANOTHER, seemingly obvious, missed opportunity to do the right thing. Instead, as we’ll see in Part Two of this series, he ignores the opportunity, taking another, further step down into darkness.
My takeaways: I must always guard my thoughts against any idea of entitlement thinking and/or thinking I am above or better than anyone else. To do this, I will continue my practice that anything I have, own, or get is a gift from GOD for which I will continue to express my gratitude for daily, if not more often. Conversely, anything GOD hasn’t given me is not currently meant for me, so I will strive to be “content” (Philippians 4:11,12) and grateful for whatever I do have. May it be so.
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