Lesson Study # 10 - David and Bathsheba: Adultery and AFTER

An extra-biblical one?

David pronounced judgement on himself. 2 Sam 12: 5, 6.

This was fulfilled in the death of four of his sons.

Bathsheba lost the one child.

Not quite, is he?

I mean, he was not a canonical prophet (nothing he wrote was included in the biblical canon), but it's interesting that he brought a message of rebuke to a canonical prophet.

Yes I agree, that is interesting.

Apparently like some of the other OT prophets, Nathan didn't take up the pen and write, yet some of his spoken words were recorded in scripture.

Apparently like some of the other OT prophets, Nathan didn't take up the pen and write, yet some of his spoken words were recorded in scripture.

Does this mean that the sentence of death, in general, can be passed around?

We not only need to focus on what David, the king did, but also on what Bathsheba, the then wife of Uriah, did.

Why did she come in to him?

Wouldn't you say that it takes two to tangle?

His crime in the case of Uriah and Bath-sheba was heinous in the sight of God. A just and impartial God did not sanction or excuse these sins in David, but sends a reproof, and heavy denunciation by Nathan, his prophet, which portrays in living colors his grievous offense. David had been blinded to his wonderful departure from God. He had excused his own sinful course to himself, until his ways seemed passable in his own eyes. One wrong step had prepared the way for another, until his sins called for the rebuke from Jehovah through Nathan. David awakens as from a dream. He feels the sense of his sin. He does not seek to excuse his course, or palliate his sin, as did Saul; but with remorse and sincere grief, he bows his head before the prophet of God, and acknowledges his guilt. Nathan tells David that
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because of his repentance, and humble confession, God will forgive his sin, and avert a part of the threatened calamity, and spare his life. Yet he should be punished, because he had given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. This occasion has been improved by the enemies of God, from David's day until the present time. Skeptics have assailed christianity, and ridiculed the Bible, because David gave them occasion. They bring up to Christians the case of David, his sin in the case of Uriah and Bathsheba, his polygamy, and then assert that David is called a man after God's own heart, and if the Bible record is correct, God justified David in his crimes. Spiritual Gifts. Volume 4A (1864), page 86, paragraph 2

"Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom." Again David was forced to recognize in his calamities the results of his own sin. The defection of Ahithophel, the ablest and most wily of political leaders, was prompted by revenge for the family disgrace involved in the wrong to Bathsheba, who was his granddaughter. Patriarchs and Prophets (1890), page 735, paragraph 3

Does this mean that the sentence of death, in general, can be passed around?

This is a good question, Arnold. Did the young child become David´s savior? A substitute or a peace offering?

My observance of scripture as well as Ellen's writings; It is David's sin, that is the focus. I failed to find any condemnation toward Bathsheba.

The Narrative of David and Bathsheba in the Adventist Tradition

Seventh-day Adventist commentators, like many other Christians in the history of interpretation, have not been immune from placing at least part of the blame upon Bathsheba in the narrative of 2 Sam 11-12. For example, the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary states: “There is no indication that David’s messengers took Bath-sheba by force. Bath-sheba was beautiful, and she was not beyond temptation. Possibly she was flattered by the overtures made to her by the king, and yielded herself to David without resistance.”[35]

However, there is an exception to this line of Adventist interpretation implicating Bathsheba. Nineteenth-century Adventist interpreter Ellen White, standing over against the prevailing trend of mostly-male interpretations of the Bathsheba-David narrative in her generation, unequivocally points the finger of guilt solely at David, and not Bathsheba, as the one who committed great injustice and sinned against Bathsheba just as surely as he did against Uriah her husband. In her various references to this OT event, White consistently presents the grievous sin of David as toward Bathsheba, not with her. According to White, Bathsheba is wronged by David, and not one word of condemnation goes toward Bathsheba, who is presented as the victim of David’s great injustice against her. Furthermore, White describes Bathsheba in her later life as David’s wife and Solomon’s mother not as a sinister person, but as one of the faithful remnant in David’s kingdom.

Bathsheba had to forgive David. This must have been very difficult for her. David used her. David killed her husband. Interestingly, many Christians express their inability to forgive David.