What About Bathsheba?
Bathsheba’s voice is largely silent in the text yet her story is a theological battlefield where questions of sin, power, fear, sorrow, victimhood, and redemption all collide.
What About Bathsheba?
We’ve spent a couple of weeks looking at the prayer of King David, in Psalms 51, after his sinful relationship with Bathsheba. What an incredible prayer and amazing insight into forgiveness and restoration. But something seems to be missing. We have to step back ask ourselves: What about Bathsheba?
Bathsheba’s voice is largely silent in the text yet her story is a theological battlefield where questions of sin, power, fear, sorrow, victimhood, and redemption all collide. Theologians and historians have tried to make sense of her place in salvation history—sometimes defending her, sometimes blaming her, but certainly recognizing her importance. Though her story is not the primary focus of the biblical account, her journey might be the most interesting and compelling part of the whole ordeal.
David’s journey through repentance and forgiveness is the point of this narrative but if we look closely at the details and read them with a thoughtful lens, we can learn quite a lot about Bathsheba. It turns out she was quite an amazing woman.
Over the next couple of days, let’s look at Bathsheba and glean some insight from what the Bible does - and doesn’t - say. We’ll look at what Scripture tells us and what we can reasonably infer. The biblical narrative gives us limited but meaningful glimpses into Bathsheba’s experience.
Let’s start with this: Though drawn into a web of adultery and murder and her voice is silent through much of the story, God includes her in the lineage of Jesus Christ, a subtle but powerful nod to her significance and God’s redemption.
Tomorrow: what, exactly, is Bathsheba’s story? Who was she and what role did she play in David’s life?
