Mothers of Jesus: Bathsheba
WARNING: This week’s text tells a story of rape, deception, manipulation and murder. These topics may be difficult for some individuals, including young children or victims of sexual assault or violence. Please listen with caution, or feel free to leave before the sermon if you need to.
For Meditation
We are nearing the end of our Advent sermon series on the mothers of Jesus. This week’s text tells a shocking and sordid story of rape, deception, manipulation and murder, a sad episode in the history of Israel. Typically, people look at this story from the perspective of David, but we’ll be looking at it from the perspective of Bathsheba. Matthew does not name her, he simply describes her as Solomon’s mother, who had been the wife of Uriah.
But there is much behind that simple description, and as we work through the text together on Sunday, I hope you’ll gain an appreciation for Bathsheba’s role in Israel’s history. We’ll be talking about some difficult things, but I don’t believe we should shy away from being honest about what happens in this story. If we are honest we will see that this story has power to deepen our appreciation for the hope that is the focus of this Advent season. We’ll deepen our understanding of why Jesus is the hope of Israel as they wait in lonely exile, and why Jesus is the hope of all the earth, whose second advent will usher in the kingdom of God on earth in all its fullness.
As you prepare for Sunday I would encourage you to also read where Bathsheba appears beyond our text: 2 Samuel 12: 1-24; 1 Kings 1: 5-40 and 1 Kings 2: 13-25.
Matthew 1:1-6b
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife...
2 Samuel 11:1–16, 26
1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were.
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.