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Matthew 1:6
"And Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,"
Oh David. We all have our skeletons in the closet, right?
One spring, "the time when kings go off to war," King David decided to stay in town. And oh how that little choice led to a big change in his life. One day David was taking a walk (on his palace's roof) and he just so happened to see somebody out on their own roof. Only she was not walking, she was in the tub. (Typical of someone named Bathsheba, haha, but I guess she could have been swimming, not bathing, I don't know) He thought she was very beautiful, and he needed to know more about her. I could do some speculation here on why David felt this 'love at first sight', but I'll refrain.
When he found out that she was married to Uriah the Hittite, you would think that he would think, 'oh shucks! She's already taken.' But no, it doesn't seem like there was much hesitation at all, he sent his people to fetch her. And when they brought her, he slept with her. Somebody had one thing on the brain. "When she purified herself from her uncleanness, she went back home." Which, makes me think she took another bath. Maybe she prayed for forgiveness? I'm not quite sure. But again, much like our last story with Tamar, this one night stand led to a bun in the oven!
So David sends for Uriah. At this point I like to think, oh good, he's stepping up. He's confessing! But no, instead he has a little chat with Uriah about how things are going on the war front. And things seem to be going well, so why not reward Uriah and send him home for a night. Why not let Uriah sleep with his wife and be tricked into thinking HE is the baby daddy?
Well, Uriah seems to be a pretty good and loyal guy. He didn't go home at all. He slept at the palace's front door! David was confused and asked Uriah why in the world did he not take advantage of his reward and go home to his wife. I'd be a little upset if I knew my husband was home from war for a night and chose to sleep down the block, outside, instead of coming home.
But, Uriah says that his men are out sleeping in tents and many don't even have that. He didn't feel right going home to luxury, knowing that "the lord's men are camped in open fields."
Well, you don't become a king by not thinking of alternative plans I guess. David did not see this as the end of his efforts. Uriah can't refuse to have some drinks with the King! So David decides to get him drunk, and he does. THEN he sends him home. But Uriah, even drunk, does not go home, but instead goes and sleeps with the servants.
So David must be thinking, I tried to be nice, but that didn't work. So he sends Uriah back, with a letter for Joab. What would you do if you were Joab and you received this letter from the king, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."
Yikes.
So Joab does as he is ordered. Alot of people died, including poor devoted Uriah. It's really very sad.
Joab sent a messenger to David. Joab had told the messenger that if David gets upset when hearing so many people died and if he asks "Why did you get so close to the wall?" Then the messenger is to say "Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead."
Well, Bathsheba was upset when she found out. I guess she was spared from ever having to confess her adultery. But moreso, I guess I'm glad Uriah never had to find out the evils of the people he trusted. I wonder if he figured anything out though? I mean, David is acting all weird when he sees him. Then as soon as he gets back to war with a letter from David to Joab, Joab puts him on the frontline.
After Bathsheba's time of mourning, David made her his wife. She gave birth to a son.
"But the thing David had done displeased the Lord."
More like thingsssss David had done.
Anyways, chapter 12. I'm not going to go into details on this one, so go ahead and read it when you have the chance. Basically, a prophet named Nathan tells David a story about a rich man taking a poor man's lamb and ate it. David finds this absurd and quickly orders that rich man to death! Aha David! The rich man in the story is you! Nathan tells David that the Lord is NOT happy with him and is going to punish him severly. I think David at this point finally realizes that despite how desperately he tried to cover up his sin, the Lord witnessed it all. Front row seat. Nathan tells him that the Lord forgives him, but that his son (the child conceived on that fateful night out of wedlock) will die. And 7 days later he did. David did everything he knew how to try to keep his son alive, but it did not work. After the boy died, David went to "comfort" Bathsheba and 9 months later there you have it. Solomon was born and "The Lord loved him." The Lord said to name him Jedidiah which means"loved by the Lord" which is another name for Solomon I guess.
Boy, that would be cool to be given your name by God and that name mean that you are loved by God! But I'll survive. I like my name and I know that God loves me, even if my name only means "from the linden tree." :)
Oh David. We all have our skeletons in the closet, right?
One spring, "the time when kings go off to war," King David decided to stay in town. And oh how that little choice led to a big change in his life. One day David was taking a walk (on his palace's roof) and he just so happened to see somebody out on their own roof. Only she was not walking, she was in the tub. (Typical of someone named Bathsheba, haha, but I guess she could have been swimming, not bathing, I don't know) He thought she was very beautiful, and he needed to know more about her. I could do some speculation here on why David felt this 'love at first sight', but I'll refrain.
When he found out that she was married to Uriah the Hittite, you would think that he would think, 'oh shucks! She's already taken.' But no, it doesn't seem like there was much hesitation at all, he sent his people to fetch her. And when they brought her, he slept with her. Somebody had one thing on the brain. "When she purified herself from her uncleanness, she went back home." Which, makes me think she took another bath. Maybe she prayed for forgiveness? I'm not quite sure. But again, much like our last story with Tamar, this one night stand led to a bun in the oven!
So David sends for Uriah. At this point I like to think, oh good, he's stepping up. He's confessing! But no, instead he has a little chat with Uriah about how things are going on the war front. And things seem to be going well, so why not reward Uriah and send him home for a night. Why not let Uriah sleep with his wife and be tricked into thinking HE is the baby daddy?
Well, Uriah seems to be a pretty good and loyal guy. He didn't go home at all. He slept at the palace's front door! David was confused and asked Uriah why in the world did he not take advantage of his reward and go home to his wife. I'd be a little upset if I knew my husband was home from war for a night and chose to sleep down the block, outside, instead of coming home.
But, Uriah says that his men are out sleeping in tents and many don't even have that. He didn't feel right going home to luxury, knowing that "the lord's men are camped in open fields."
Well, you don't become a king by not thinking of alternative plans I guess. David did not see this as the end of his efforts. Uriah can't refuse to have some drinks with the King! So David decides to get him drunk, and he does. THEN he sends him home. But Uriah, even drunk, does not go home, but instead goes and sleeps with the servants.
So David must be thinking, I tried to be nice, but that didn't work. So he sends Uriah back, with a letter for Joab. What would you do if you were Joab and you received this letter from the king, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."
Yikes.
So Joab does as he is ordered. Alot of people died, including poor devoted Uriah. It's really very sad.
Joab sent a messenger to David. Joab had told the messenger that if David gets upset when hearing so many people died and if he asks "Why did you get so close to the wall?" Then the messenger is to say "Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead."
Well, Bathsheba was upset when she found out. I guess she was spared from ever having to confess her adultery. But moreso, I guess I'm glad Uriah never had to find out the evils of the people he trusted. I wonder if he figured anything out though? I mean, David is acting all weird when he sees him. Then as soon as he gets back to war with a letter from David to Joab, Joab puts him on the frontline.
After Bathsheba's time of mourning, David made her his wife. She gave birth to a son.
"But the thing David had done displeased the Lord."
More like thingsssss David had done.
Anyways, chapter 12. I'm not going to go into details on this one, so go ahead and read it when you have the chance. Basically, a prophet named Nathan tells David a story about a rich man taking a poor man's lamb and ate it. David finds this absurd and quickly orders that rich man to death! Aha David! The rich man in the story is you! Nathan tells David that the Lord is NOT happy with him and is going to punish him severly. I think David at this point finally realizes that despite how desperately he tried to cover up his sin, the Lord witnessed it all. Front row seat. Nathan tells him that the Lord forgives him, but that his son (the child conceived on that fateful night out of wedlock) will die. And 7 days later he did. David did everything he knew how to try to keep his son alive, but it did not work. After the boy died, David went to "comfort" Bathsheba and 9 months later there you have it. Solomon was born and "The Lord loved him." The Lord said to name him Jedidiah which means"loved by the Lord" which is another name for Solomon I guess.
Boy, that would be cool to be given your name by God and that name mean that you are loved by God! But I'll survive. I like my name and I know that God loves me, even if my name only means "from the linden tree." :)
2 comments:
haha, you should really write Bible stories for a living in a modern story-telling way like this. So good. This story always disturbed me. Poor faithful Uriah. And then I didn't really understand how someone could be comforted with sex. I read the book about Bathsheba that the ABC sells and the writer made Uriah out to be some horrible, gross old man who took Bathsheba as a young girl to be one of many wives in his household, so then the sins of David don't seem so bad which I don't really like. Anyway, very entertaining Lyndsey.
Ya, I don't understand the whole comforted with sex thing either. That's really interesting though about that story portraying Uriah so bad. I wonder if there are some historical writings that elaborate more on Uriah, or if it was simply just an author twisting a story to make David out to be the knight in shining armor, in order to sell the book?
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