Did Bathsheba Sin with David?
00:00:00.000 | Well, did Bathsheba sin with David?
00:00:08.680 | Was she complicit in the sin, or was she simply taken advantage of?
00:00:13.520 | It's an important Bible question, one that I see pop up on social media every now and
00:00:17.640 | again.
00:00:18.640 | Of course, it's also a sensitive question, too, so a heads up to those of you who listen
00:00:22.060 | with kids around.
00:00:24.600 | The particular question this time arrived recently in the inbox from a listener named
00:00:27.800 | Micah, who lives in Toronto.
00:00:29.480 | Micah asks this, "Pastor John, hello.
00:00:32.560 | I have a delicate Bible question I have been thinking about for a long time about the misuse
00:00:36.680 | of a woman.
00:00:38.060 | Back in APJ 234, you came right out and said that Bathsheba was raped by King David, a
00:00:45.920 | violation that went against her will.
00:00:49.200 | Most Bible scholars I read today leave the situation more vague and simply say that David
00:00:53.120 | committed adultery with her, leaving her volition ambiguous, maybe even suggesting that she
00:00:59.360 | was a willing participant in the sin.
00:01:02.480 | Is there any evidence in the Bible text of whether Bathsheba was willing or unwilling?
00:01:08.080 | And from what I hear from feminists on the text, his power as a male king over her, a
00:01:14.040 | subject, would immediately classify this as a rape even if she put up no resistance herself.
00:01:20.120 | Are there any pointers for us in the text itself?"
00:01:23.560 | Yes, I think there are pointers that David exerted a kind of pressure on her to warrant
00:01:33.560 | the accusation of rape.
00:01:35.880 | And I don't say that because I think the act couldn't be consensual given the power dynamics
00:01:45.640 | at play.
00:01:46.640 | It is possible for a woman to be sinfully complicit in committing adultery with a very
00:01:55.160 | powerful man.
00:01:57.280 | I don't see any evidence for that in this text.
00:02:00.560 | On the contrary, I see two indications that David threw his weight around, threw his power,
00:02:06.960 | his influence, his position, threw it around in such a way as to force her, apart from
00:02:13.760 | and against her commitment to her husband, to have sex with him.
00:02:18.600 | So here's the first pointer that I see in the way the story itself is narrated, 2 Samuel
00:02:26.800 | 11, 2-4.
00:02:27.800 | Here's what it says.
00:02:30.080 | It happened late one afternoon when David rose from his couch and was walking on the
00:02:33.880 | roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing.
00:02:38.760 | And the woman was very beautiful.
00:02:40.640 | And David sent and inquired about the woman.
00:02:45.240 | And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
00:02:54.080 | So David sent messengers and took her.
00:02:58.080 | And she came to him, and he lay with her.
00:03:01.680 | He didn't invite her.
00:03:04.080 | He didn't woo her.
00:03:06.040 | He didn't lure her.
00:03:08.200 | He didn't trick her.
00:03:09.960 | He took her.
00:03:10.960 | That's what the text says.
00:03:11.960 | He took her.
00:03:12.960 | In other words, the description is of a completely one-sided, powerful exertion of his desire
00:03:21.480 | with no reckoning with hers.
00:03:25.120 | Now here's the other pointer, and I think it's even more significant.
00:03:29.520 | When the prophet Nathan is sent to rebuke David on behalf of God and confront him with
00:03:38.200 | his sin, you recall he did it by telling a parable to suck David in to giving his own
00:03:47.920 | self-condemnation, which he did.
00:03:51.200 | The picture he creates is telling.
00:03:53.760 | Here's what he said.
00:03:55.360 | The Lord sent Nathan to David.
00:03:57.980 | He came to him and said to him, "There were two men in a city, the rich one and the other
00:04:05.120 | poor one.
00:04:06.920 | The rich man had very many flocks and herds.
00:04:11.840 | The poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought, and he brought it
00:04:19.640 | up and it grew up with him and with his children.
00:04:24.720 | It used to eat his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a
00:04:32.560 | daughter to him.
00:04:35.120 | Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own
00:04:41.560 | flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's
00:04:49.960 | lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."
00:04:57.400 | Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the
00:05:02.840 | Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die."
00:05:06.600 | I love Nathan.
00:05:08.800 | Nathan did not have to create a parable in which there was a single harmless pet lamb
00:05:20.480 | who wasn't just taken, which it was, but was taken and killed and eaten.
00:05:28.680 | In other words, he really recreated the adultery in the categories of theft and killing.
00:05:38.840 | Not Uriah's killing.
00:05:40.120 | That's an added evil.
00:05:42.000 | But as it were, Bathsheba's killing, represented by the little helpless pet lambs being killed
00:05:49.440 | and served up as a meal.
00:05:52.320 | So I would say for these two reasons, we are not exaggerating to use the word "rape"
00:06:02.040 | for David's abuse of his power in the indulgence of his sinful lust in the way he took Bathsheba.
00:06:12.440 | But the Bible doesn't just leave us with pointers—and I think this just needs to
00:06:17.480 | be said before we stop—it doesn't just leave us with pointers to the reality and
00:06:23.160 | the danger and the sinfulness of the misuse of official authority or power in order to
00:06:31.760 | exploit or threaten or manipulate or mistreat or demean or destroy other people.
00:06:38.920 | The New Testament is replete with warnings against a worldly use of authority.
00:06:46.900 | It is replete with beautiful descriptions of what Christians who hold positions of influence
00:06:54.320 | and governance should be like.
00:06:57.380 | It starts with Jesus, it goes to Paul the Apostle, it goes to the elders of the churches,
00:07:02.580 | and it goes to husbands, and indeed it goes to all Christians because all Christians are
00:07:07.660 | influential one way or the other, and they can be influential in harmful ways or influential
00:07:13.800 | in helpful ways.
00:07:17.160 | So let's just take a brief look at each of those stages.
00:07:20.760 | Number one, not only did Jesus say that he came into the world not to be served but to
00:07:27.560 | serve and to give his life a ransom, he also taught about this issue of power and servanthood.
00:07:39.960 | For example, he said, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and
00:07:46.760 | those in authority over them are called benefactors.
00:07:52.140 | But not so with you," his disciples, "rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest
00:08:03.080 | and the leader as one who serves, for who is greater, the one who reclines at table
00:08:10.560 | or one who serves?
00:08:13.080 | Is it not the one who reclines at table, and yet I am among you as one who serves?"
00:08:19.480 | Second, the apostles.
00:08:23.140 | Jesus commissioned them to have foundational authority, tremendous authority in the church
00:08:31.700 | to teach, and if something that other people taught didn't conform to what the apostles
00:08:36.700 | taught, they were not acknowledged (1 Corinthians 14:38).
00:08:41.200 | And yet we get glimpse after glimpse into the way the apostle Paul and Peter and others
00:08:49.600 | used their authority by trying to set an example to the churches.
00:08:54.420 | For example, 1 Thessalonians 2.5, "We never came with words of flattery, as you know,
00:09:01.680 | nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness, nor did we seek glory from people, whether
00:09:08.000 | from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ, but we
00:09:14.960 | were gentle instead, we were gentle among you, like a nurse, a nursing mother taking
00:09:21.120 | care of her own children."
00:09:23.360 | He acted exactly that same way with his authority toward Philemon when he wrote to him in Philemon
00:09:29.720 | 1.8, he said, "Though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,
00:09:38.280 | yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you."
00:09:43.780 | So that's the apostles picking up on Jesus' example and teaching.
00:09:48.320 | And then comes elders.
00:09:49.960 | Peter says concerning the elders, the pastors who have rightful governing leadership roles
00:09:56.200 | in the church, and he says to them in 1 Peter 5, "So I exhort the elders among you as a
00:10:02.560 | fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ.
00:10:05.640 | Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, not domineering over those in your charge,
00:10:12.560 | but being examples to the flock."
00:10:15.800 | And then husbands.
00:10:17.560 | Paul applies the same principle to husbands in Ephesians 5.
00:10:21.800 | So after teaching that wives are to submit to husbands as their head in marriage, he
00:10:28.080 | tells the husbands how to use that headship, that authority, that leadership, and he says
00:10:33.200 | this, "As the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to
00:10:39.960 | their husbands.
00:10:41.760 | Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."
00:10:50.020 | So it starts with Jesus, it goes to the apostles, it goes to the pastors, it goes to the husbands,
00:10:54.880 | and now it lands finally on all Christians, because all of us can throw our weight around
00:11:02.020 | with somebody in order to exalt our egos and manipulate or abuse them.
00:11:09.600 | So Paul says to every Christian, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility
00:11:18.960 | count others more significant than yourselves.
00:11:24.720 | Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
00:11:31.640 | Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus."
00:11:37.420 | So there it is.
00:11:38.420 | It all circles back to Christ, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
00:11:42.780 | It all circles back to Christ.
00:11:45.360 | The only hope that David would ever have that he could be forgiven and be happily in heaven
00:11:54.520 | with Uriah and Bathsheba and a holy God is that Jesus Christ lived and served and died
00:12:04.600 | in a way radically different than David.
00:12:09.080 | All of us depend totally on the upside-down way that Jesus used his infinite power on
00:12:17.320 | the cross.
00:12:18.320 | Yeah, amen.
00:12:19.320 | And you can flip the genders on this whole topic too, with Potiphar's wife, a very powerful
00:12:23.160 | woman and predator.
00:12:24.160 | Yeah, that's right.
00:12:25.160 | That's right.
00:12:26.160 | Amazing.
00:12:27.160 | Yeah, thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:28.160 | And Micah, great question.
00:12:29.160 | Thank you for sending it in, and thank you all for joining us on the podcast today.
00:12:31.760 | You can ask a question of your own, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast,
00:12:35.720 | all at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:12:41.160 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:12:42.200 | We're back on Wednesday looking at technology.
00:12:44.400 | In fact, I may be back tomorrow with a little bonus Tuesday episode of the podcast.
00:12:49.080 | My new book on technology is scheduled to launch this week, and I can't wait to tell
00:12:52.660 | you more about it.
00:12:54.120 | And I may do so here on the podcast tomorrow.
00:12:56.320 | We'll see.
00:12:57.320 | Looking forward to it.
00:12:58.320 | In either case, Pastor John and I will see you shortly.
00:13:00.840 | [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:13:09.220 | You