I am She...Women with the Alabaster Box Pt. 5

Bathsheba. She is the final woman listed in Jesus’ genealogy. Her story can be found in 2 Samuel 11. Bathsheba was married to Uriah the Hittite who was a soldier in King David’s army.  Obviously if her husband was a soldier Bathsheba was left at home whilst her husband performed his duties in the army. During the time of war, Bathsheba was bathing which is perfectly normal. Whilst she was bathing, King David was on his roof watching her bathe. She was so beautiful or as the New Living Translation states she had “unusual beauty”. He was blown away at how beautiful she was so he asked someone who she was. So he sent for her and slept with her. I think something needs to be said about Bathsheba. She was a woman living in a patriarchal society. She couldn’t refuse the king! How could she? Her life could have ended or she could have ruined her husband’s career in the military.

After David slept with her she found out that she was pregnant. *How Messy!* David sent for her husband Uriah to come home from war in an effort to cover up the fact that he impregnated his wife Bathsheba. When Uriah comes home, David wines and dines him. David suggests that he go home to his wife. Hopefully they will sleep together and no one will know that David is the father of her unborn child. Uriah being an upstanding man that he sleeps not with his wife but at the palace with the guards! Uriah says that “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.” (verse 11) What an honorable man! Uriah decides that he can’t go home because the men in his unit and the Ark of the Covenant aren’t home. This is a great act of integrity.

 David finds out that Uriah sleeps at the palace and tries yet again to get him home to his wife. 

The second attempt is an utter failure. Even with all the drinks David tries to give him he still doesn’t go home to Bathsheba. David feels as if he has no choice in the matter and plots to kill Uriah. He sends Uriah to the heart of the battle which ultimately gets him killed. Bathsheba hears of what happens and mourns for her husband. After her mourning period is over she becomes one of David’s wives. 

One would think that wow now she’s the wife of a king. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. I’d like to put myself in her shoes. If I was Bathsheba, I’m not sure that all of the things that happened to her in a relatively short amount of time would have been a good thing. I am summoned to satisfy the lust of the king. I become pregnant, my husband is killed and then I become a wife of the man who started this chain of events. I’d like to have a bit of liberty to say that Bathsheba was probably happy in her marriage to a man of such honor and integrity. She most likely wanted to start a family with the man she married. He died and she didn’t have at least a piece of him in the form of a child.

The timeline of David and Bathsheba is relatively short. Perhaps maybe two months? I think this is important because Bathsheba’s life changed so dramatically. I can say that I would be living in a state of shock. A state of trauma. A state of unbelief. But from all accounts of Bathsheba she handled the situation very well. 

As we stop at this point in Bathsheba’s story, I think its wholly important that we remember that Jesus had to be aware of her story as well as the stories of Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. These women birthed his forefathers not without a bit of drama. These women each had unique stories of their own that helped create him. Jesus was not unsympathetic to their stories as well as the woman with the alabaster box. 

*join me for the conclusion of the series

I look up, He looks down. 

Evelyn Denise