My #MeToo story. I had a really
good husband and he was close friends with our King David, we even lived next
door to the palace. Uriah, my husband was in the military and one spring he
went off to lead his men against some of our enemies, but the king, his friend
stayed home for this campaign. Usually the king would lead his men, this is why
they admired him so much, but this time King David didn’t. No one thought much
of it, but one afternoon I went to bath on the roof of our home because it was
warm out and I had just finished my time of the month. An hour later a
messenger came from the king to come to the palace. Then I discovered that he
had watched me bath. I felt violated that he had disrespected me this way.
Then it became much worse, it took me into
his private chambers and told me to undress so he could see me unclothed again.
I began to cry, but he insisted and after I was undressed he took me to his bed
and began touching me all over, and then he slept with me. I felt so ashamed
and dirty because the only man who had ever touched me before was my husband,
and now the man that me husband admired and considered a close friend had just
violated me. But this isn’t the end of the story, I became pregnant because of
what the king had done to me and I’m not sure about everything that happened
next, but the story ends with my dear husband Uriah dead and the king claiming
me as another one of his wives after the official time of mourning was over.
What makes some men look at us as just things to use?
David and Bathsheba, a story of sex and
power, of
deep betrayal and callous disregard of other’s feelings and rights. This is a
story of the abuse of power and betrayal of the most intimate kind, a story of
David being a king just like the kings of the nations around him, focusing on
his wants and desires instead of his people and who God calls him to be. David creates
huge amounts of hurt and damage to Bathsheba and Uriah, but also severely
damages his position as king and in his relationship to God. We focus on
Bathsheba, because we’ve turned this story into some kind of a twisted love
story because Bathsheba becomes the mother of future King Solomon, because Jesus comes from the line of David and Bathsheba, but it’s no
love story, it’s a story about a king with deep flaws, with large cracks in who
he is. It’s about abusing trust, something that is way too common, even today.
Some people believe that they are so special that they can do whatever they
want to anyone they want and it’s alright because it’s all about them.
Jewish rabbis teach that this is a story that contrasts the
immoral and flawed King David with the moral and upright man of strong
character Uriah. David has slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife and now she is
pregnant and David is faced with a decision: what do I do now? David decides to try to hide what he’s done and
calls Uriah home from the battlefield. David hopes to get Uriah to sleep with
Bathsheba so that everything can be hidden. Now Uriah is no simple soldier, he
is one of David’s 30 mighty warriors, heroes who stuck with David even during
his time of exile and persecution by King Saul. These are the warriors who were
willing to risk their own lives so David could become king. Uriah is such a
trusted warrior and friend that his home is next to the king’s palace, a place
of honour and respect.
This is where the contrast comes: David betrayed
Uriah and now tries to hide his sin. He calls Uriah home to get a report on the
men and how the war is going, and then encourages Uriah to spend the night with
his wife. The expression, “wash your feet” meant sleeping with his wife, but Uriah
sleeps with the servants because of his loyalty to his men in the field. When
David asks him why he didn’t spend time with Bathsheba, Uriah says 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!” David
then gets Uriah drunk to weaken his loyalty to his men, but Uriah drunk still
has more principles and a better character than David and in the evening Uriah
sleeps again on his mat among the servants; he doesn’t go home. Now David
arranges with Joab, his field commander, to make sure that Uriah gets killed in
one of the battles because Uriah’s faithfulness to his men is too strong. This
is in contrast to David’s lack of loyalty to him. David’s response when Joab
lets him know that Uriah died in battle is basically, “Ah well, these things happen.” A callous cruel response. The
problem is that these things don’t just happen, David planned it all out.
This is one of those stories that echoes
forward to Jesus and one of the echoes is how he too was betrayed by someone close to him, one of his twelve disciples
Judas who also deliberately planned out a betrayal of Jesus because Jesus
wasn’t acting how Judas wanted him to, to claim the throne of David in
Jerusalem. This leads Jesus to the cross, where Jesus claims kingship over all
creation as he defeats death itself in order to bring healing and wholeness
into creation again. Jesus' kingship is one of justice and hope, of healing and faithfulness rather than betrayal and hurt. The cross brings forgiveness, even for betrayals such as
David’s and Judas’. But it’s not a cheap or easy forgiveness where we just say,
“Oops, sorry, won’t do that again.”
God sends the prophet Nathan to confront
David with
what he’s done and who he’s becoming. It’s not just the extreme wrong that
David has done, it’s about how what he did shows who David has become: a king
in the image of other earthly kings instead of becoming like the king of heaven
and earth who has called his followers to love him
above everything else, and to love his neighbour as himself, and to show mercy, fight for justice and to walk humbly with God.
When David’s confronted with who he’s become and how he’s destroyed the lives
of people he’s called to protect, David is changed, he confesses, and more
importantly, he repents, he changes and begins working on becoming who God has
called him to be.
The cross calls us to confession and
repentance,
to a searching of our souls and hearts to see how we might have also betrayed
others, hurt others because we want to be gods of our own lives, focusing on
our own wants and desires instead of Jesus’ call to follow him and partner with
him so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in
heaven. The cross confronts us and calls us to focus on our character,
on who we are and whether we allow what we say we believe about Jesus to
actually shape who we are as his followers. The cross also brings forgiveness and grace for the sinner and healing to the one sinned against.
Psalm 51 is David’s confession and reveals
his repentant heart. “Have mercy on
me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my
sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you,
you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; you are right in
your verdict and justified when you judge… you desired faithfulness even in the womb; taught
me wisdom in that secret place… Create
in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me… Then
I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you… My
sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God,
will not despise.”
Faith is
about our beliefs about Jesus actually being lived out. Faith is not just knowledge, it’s about how our knowledge of Jesus and
the relationship we have with Jesus shapes our character and our relationships;
ultimately it comes down to obedience in becoming who Jesus calls us to be as
his followers: people shaped by grace, mercy, forgiveness, desiring justice,
fighting against oppression within our cultures, creating communities of health
where people are able to flourish; all summed up in Jesus’ command to love God above everything and to love our neighbour as
ourselves. It's about humility and working towards reconciliation with those we've hurt, admitting our fault and asking for forgiveness. It may not come, depending on how much you have hurt, but the effort needs to be made and the person hurt is the one who sets the boundaries then.
It’s about loving our neighbours so much we want them to have
a relationship with Jesus too because we believe that they will be better off
knowing Jesus, that they can find healing and hope from Jesus. Jesus went to the cross so that one day when he returns there
will be no need for such a movement, but he has placed us here to begin to
create that place right now, right here where he has placed us as his church,
his bride.
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