David and Bathsheba – ⚠️ This May Challenge You!

I love to teach this story and set the record straight about Bathsheba. This whole hot mess of a relationship was instigated by King David’s lusts. 

If you read the story, ignoring what you have heard about Bathsheba, you will see:

1. David was in the wrong place at the wrong time. David was on the roof, she was not.

2. David saw, summoned, and took what was not his. It was David’s lust that caused this atrocious act. Bathsheba was not seductively bathing on the roof. She was fulfilling the law with a regular performed purification act. 

3. David murdered.

We have blamed Bathsheba far too long. This is important because we still continue to blame women when they are sexually abused. 

But if you notice God’s rebuke of David, He did not mention Bathsheba. God did not consider Bathsheba complicit in this. The fault lay solely with David. (Read II Samual 12:1-12).

Two lessons learned:

1. It’s not the woman’s fault.

My dear sisters, if you were the victim of sexual abuse, please know it was not your fault. Like Bathsheba, God does not consider you complicit regardless to what you were wearing, what you were drinking, where you were located, what you were doing preceding the attack. You weren’t asking for it. You didn’t deserve it. 

It’s like a man walking into a store and seeing shiny tools and taking them. When he is caught his defense is: “Well, they were sitting there in the case enticing me. If the store didn’t want me  to have them, they would have covered them up and had better security. Everyone knows, men are visual. It’s the store’s fault.” We do not accept this as a defense for stealing property why on earth do we allow it as a defense when someone steals the dignity, the innocence, the honor of a woman?  

It was not the tools fault and neither is it your fault. The blame lies solely on the person who violated your personal space.

2. There is power in repentance.

When David was confronted his immediately reply was: “I have sinned against the Lord.” David didn’t blame Bathsheba. He didn’t try to justify his actions. He didn’t make any excuses. He simply admitted he was wrong and took full responsibility for his actions. (Read Psalms 51).

Because of David’s quick repentance, God relented his punishment.

Repentance simply means to change your mind. 

The church needs to repent on how we have told the story of Bathsheba. We have not made the church a safe place for women to tell their stories of abuse. We have partnered with the spirit of shame, making women fell complicit and guilty about being victimized. 

We have put the burden of sexual purity on women. We have told young women they were “asking for trouble” when their clothing was too short or too tight. We have excused young men for their bad behavior. As a teacher, I must repent for participating in this body shaming as well. 

Thank God, we serve a forgiving and restorative God! 

My sisters, allow Bathsheba’s story to give you hope. God restored Bathsheba beautifully. She became the King’s mother. Her boys, Nathan and Solomon, are on both sides of Jesus’ lineage! You can’t get to Jesus without going through Bathsheba’s seed. 

God forgave David. Yes, David was completely and totally wrong. But God is more gracious than our worse sin. Don’t allow what has happened to you to become your identity. Forgive your abuser and let living your best life be your revenge.

“The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.”

Psalms 51:17 CSB