David and Bathsheba (Week 26, Part 3/5) 2 Samuel; 1 Kings | June 20-26 – powered by Happy Scribe
Have you ever speculated as an outsider.
Looking into others affairs, about who is.
The guilty party of an argument, a divorce or an adulterous relationship? It’s easy to judge others when we only only see the outward results of people’s actions rather than their hearts. In the Sermon on the Mount, the.
Savior taught us judge not that ye.
Be not judged for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you. Again, there has been significant speculation, judgment and debate as to whether Bathsheba seduced David or whether David raped Bathsheba. As you read this story, don’t be too quick to judge who was right or who was wrong.
Instead, look for principles in this story that the Lord wants us to understand. In ancient Middle Eastern law, adultery was.
Viewed as a public concern because it upset the basic order of the family.
Confused the right of inheritance, and disturbed a peaceful society.
The Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittite law viewed.
Adultery as an offense committed against a husband. The decision about how to punish an.
Adulterous wife and her lover was in.
The hands of the husband. Israelite law was distinctly different.
Israel did not treat adultery as an.
Offense against the husband, but an offense against God. The fear of God acted as an important deterrent against committing adultery.
In Deuteronomy 22 22 and Leviticus 2010, both the adulterous woman and her lover.
Were to be given the same punishment the death penalty.
The biblical scholar Anthony Phillips claimed that in earlier hebraic writings originally, this enactment of the death penalty only concerned the.
Man, the woman being added.
Later, the Lord’s law realized the punishment.
Of adultery was to be equal or.
Even more the man’s responsibility in this ancient patriarchal society. However, man’s judgment in these situations was.
Markedly different from what the Lord had prescribed.
In the Old Testament, we have the story of Tamar. When she was found to be adulterous, she was to be burned, yet Judah was not to be punished. Gratefully, Tamar was not burned, as she proved to be more righteous than Judah, and subsequently she had twin boys. Her son Ferres would be counted in.
The ancestral line of the Savior. Likewise, the adulterous Bashiba would give birth.
To King Solomon, who was given the.
Birthright and became a part of the Savior’s ancestral line as well as described by Matthew in the story of David and Bathsheba.
The biblical accounts described the scene in.
Which David walked upon the roof of his house and saw a woman washing herself.
And the woman was very beautiful to.
Look upon, and David sent messengers and took her.
Commentators have discussed Bathsheba’s bath in connection.
With the law of purification. Others have thought it was just an innocent bath.
The inequality of power between King David and Bashiba, a wife who was alone.
While her husband Uriah was fighting in the king’s army is startling.
When Bathsheba was summoned to King David. By law, she could not refuse. When Bathsheba found out she was pregnant.
David tried to hide their adultery by calling Uriah home from battle hoping he.
Would spend time with his wife instead. The loyal Uriah would not go home while his brothers in battle were living in tents. David then wrote a secret letter to the head of the army to have Urea put in the hottest part of.
The battle and have the soldiers retire from him so that he would be killed. After Uriah’s death, the prophet Nathan came.
To King David with an incriminating story.
Of a rich man with many flocks and herds who took the cherished lamb of a poor man.
David became angry about this rich man’s actions and said the man that hath.
Done this thing shall surely die.
Nathan answered the king, thou art the man. The Lord judge David for his treachery, murder and adultery.
Thus saith the Lord behold, I will.
Raise up evil against thee out of.
Thine own house and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, for thou didst it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel.
We can learn from the story of David and Bashiba that judgment is the.
Lord’s, for he is a righteous judge. The Lord is the only one who truly knows who is guilty and who is innocent. Bashiba tamar the woman at the well.
The woman taken in adultery and the.
Woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears were all women who experienced mistreatment, shaming and unrighteous judgment for men. The Savior’s example of how to treat imperfect people in difficult situations is clear.
He loved them for their faith.
He cared about their mistreatment and their lack of standing and power in society. He gave them hope.
He gave women hope that there would.
Be justice while calling men who exercise their power and dominion unrighteously an adulterous generation and condemning their wicked ways.
Shaming and judgment are not ours to give.
Instead, the Lord has asked us to first cast out the beam out of our own eye.
And then shall we see clearly to.
Cast out the moat out of our brother’s eye.
Mary, we find joy in the Lord.
This week as we see drive not to judge others but to treat them with true charity.
Guest Author
dyejo
