We’re continuing in our sermon, our Advent sermon series looking at the mothers of Jesus found in Matthew chapter one and as a reminder, that is the genealogy. It’s sort of like the resume of Jesus. It’s who his people are and where he came from and that genealogy is not like a lot of genealogies that you would have read in the Old Testament listening all the best and the brightest.
It’s kind of like a resume where you would put those things that you really didn’t do well in. And so in that genealogy, you have people who did terrible things, sometimes on purpose. And the inclusion of women in that genealogy is something that was unheard of at the time.
And this morning we’re coming to Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah and we’ll look at that passage in a second. I will say up front that this is a hard sermon. This is difficult. It’s difficult because we look at abuse of power. We’ll look at rape. We’ll look at what has gone horribly wrong particularly with the treatment of women not just 3,000 years ago, but even today.
So why pay attention? I mean, I think that gives you a reason to pay attention for the next 30 minutes or so, but the nature of abuse… it’s like we prayed in the confession. It leaves us feeling powerless. It’s whether we’re the abused or we witness abuse. And few have the courage to stand up to abuse, and to know how to move on from abuse.
The other thing that this text will begin to get at, not fully, but begin to, is the problem of how a good God could allow evil and suffering. So with those things in mind, let’s look together at the passages found in 2 Samuel, starting in chapter 11, verse one.
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabah, but David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, and he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman, and said, and, and, And one said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Oleum, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
So David sent messengers and took her. And she came to him and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness, then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived and sent and told David, I am pregnant.
So David sent word to Joab, send Uriah the Hittite, and Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet.
And Uriah went out of the king’s house and there followed him, a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house.
And when they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David, the Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field.
Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and your souls lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow I will send you back.
So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day in the next. And David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. And then in the evening he went out to lie on his couch and the servants of the lord, but he did not go down to his house.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, send Uriah into the front of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die.
The next few verses describe how that all happened at the front line and how Uriah was killed. And then picking up in verse 26. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband.
And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. This next section tells the story of how Nathan confronted David by telling him the story.
It was a story of a rich man who had many resources, but took the single you lamb of a poor man for his own. And David got angry when he heard this story. And then Nathan said to David, verse 7, You are the man, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.
I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I delivered you out of the hand of David, and I delivered you out of the hand of David, and I delivered you out of the hand of David, and I delivered you out of the hand of David, And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives and your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.
And if this were too little, I would have add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in a sight? You have struck down your eye the Hittite with the sword and taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
And now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and taken the wife of your eye the Hittite to be your wife. Let’s pray again together as we look more closely at God’s word.
God, this is your word and you promised to teach us through it and so please do that. Come Holy Spirit, move in hearts and minds. Lead us to Jesus, clearly our only hope. And it’s in his name we pray, amen.
So a little bit of levity. His name was Robert Paulson. Anyone get that reference? A couple of people shaking their heads. So in the movie Fight Club, which I cannot recommend particularly for anyone under the age of like 35.
But in the movie Fight Club, it was sort of this antisocial experiment where men got together and they were trying to overthrow our cultural norms, particularly around money and other things and they had what was called Project Mayhem. And in Project Mayhem, they didn’t have a name. They were all nameless in service of this project, this project to overthrow the banking industry and credit cards, et cetera. But one of them, Robert Paulson, played by Meatloaf, he was killed in it. And so this mantra started up after his death. His name was Robert Paulson. They gave him a name.
So it’s interesting in lots of places throughout scripture that we don’t see Bathsheba, the name Bathsheba very often. In fact, it’s just one time in the story that I told you, and then there’s a story later on about Bathsheba advocating for her son Solomon to be king. But other than that, there’s just one mention of Bathsheba’s name.
And then when we read in the genealogy, it doesn’t say like the other mothers of Jesus are named. We have Tamar. We have Ruth. We have Mary. And we and what? And Rahab, thank you. I forgot Rahab. So all of them are named, but…
For Bathsheba, it just says the wife of Uriah, why? One of you challenged me after my Tamar sermon and said, I thought this was gonna be a sermon about the mothers of Jesus, and you just talked about Judah.
And that was a good and welcome challenge. And so how do I preach a sermon on a woman who’s barely named, a woman who’s named the wife of Uriah? In this passage, she just gets mentioned one time, four times she’s referred to as woman, six times she’s referred to as wife, one time as daughter, and of course lots of pronouns identifying her, but only one time her name.
And the reason why we don’t have Bathsheba’s name in this passage very much, the reason that she’s referred to as wife and woman more often is because this is a story about an abuser. This is a story about David who abused his power.
He abused his physical power, his spiritual power, his social power. He abused his power that he was given to rule and reign righteously. It is a story about an abuser.
Now, perhaps before when you’ve heard the story of David and Bathsheba, there’s some amount of blame laid on Bathsheba. There’s no way, scripturally, to defend that position. In fact, the story itself lends itself to say that this is not about what Bathsheba did wrong. In fact, in this case, we see that she wasn’t done, hasn’t done anything wrong.
In the times where you’ve heard that it has been said that Bathsheba did something inappropriate in this, This fits this pattern of blaming the victim, of blaming the person who was abused. But because I do want to talk about Bathsheba, who was Bathsheba?
Bathsheba, it says, when David asked about her, he saw her, he thought she was beautiful, so he inquired about the woman. And one of them said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Elium, the wife of Uri the Hittite?
Now those names are important, they’re important because they are two of David’s mighty men. Have you heard the story about David’s mighty men? David’s mighty men were his elite warriors. The men that he drew to himself to fight with him, to fight battles, they were renowned for their military expertise. There are only 30 of them, roughly. There are only 30 of them. These are people that David was close to, people that David knew that he fought beside. He knew Uri the Hittite well. He knew Bathsheba’s father well, but David didn’t care.
David did not care who she was. What he cared about was what he wanted. David saw, David sent, David took, David killed. So, this isn’t a Christmas sermon. It’s an Advent sermon. You know the difference?
A Christmas sermon reminds us that Jesus has come, that we can rejoice, that there is peace because of what Jesus has done. An Advent sermon reminds us that we are in desperate need of a savior. An Advent sermon doesn’t shy away from what’s broken, what’s wrong, what’s not right in this world, what’s not right in our own hearts.
An Advent sermon leads us to a place of longing, a longing for a savior to come, a longing for someone to come and make everything right. What do you long for? Do you have a deep yearning inside for something?
You know, I mean, we all want things, right? I mean, particularly Christmas, we want things, you know? I’d like to get a new snowboard, but I don’t long for that. I don’t yearn for things like that. No, and my guess is that you know, you know in your heart that thing that you are yearning for, that you long for.
Maybe it’s a spouse, a husband and a wife, maybe it’s justice. There’s some injustice in your life and you just long for it to be made right. Maybe you’re yearning, longing for children. That longing, that desire that has yet to be met.
Maybe it’s recognition. You wish you could be seen. You wish people could see what it is that you are about, who you are. Maybe it’s your longing for a voice to be heard. It’s sort of like recognition, but it’s perhaps even deeper. You want to be heard. You don’t want to be set aside. You don’t want to be dismissed.
Bathsheba had these and they were taken from her. And that’s what a beast does. It strips of everything. It strips us down and removes those things that are near and dear to us.
Now, those of you who are familiar with the David and Bathsheba story also are probably familiar with David’s repentance that he has outlined that he prays beautifully in Psalm chapter 51. And it is a remarkable turn for David. And we see this in the story, too. After being confronted by Nathan, he sees his sin. He understands his sin. And he does find redemption, but that’s not this story.
That’s not this story.
It is a story that is for those who are abusers or who have abused power in some way.
And there’s lots of different forms of power that can be abused. Physical, emotional, spiritual. There’s lots of ways that you may have abused power in your life at some point. And there is hope for redemption, even for abusers.
But that doesn’t erase what was done. A lot of times we have a very shallow view of repentance and it means that we can say, OK, yes, I acknowledge what I did was wrong. I have apologized or confessed what I did is wrong. And therefore, I can be forgiven. But it doesn’t acknowledge the consequence of that sin. It doesn’t take into account the things that we have done that are wrong in a deep way. A way that would lead you to, in some way, make amends to find someone else, of reparation, some way to begin to give back that which you stole by the abuse of your power. But that still doesn’t ease what was done. You know, forgiveness is the only path forward, the only healthy path forward for someone who has suffered some type of abuse, who has suffered at someone’s hands.
It’s the only path forward, but it doesn’t negate the pain. It doesn’t negate the horror. It doesn’t negate the deep sadness. That pain, that horror, that deep sadness, it has to be addressed. It can’t be ignored.
You can’t ignore what was done to you. You have to engage it. And you have to pursue forgiveness. Sometimes it takes a lifetime. But it’s the pursuit of forgiveness that can begin to bring healing.
In fact, a lot of times in forgiveness, we can offer it. And then find that we have to offer it again. And we have to offer it again. And it’s that pursuit of forgiveness that can begin to lead us to a place of health. But you can’t do that.
You can’t do that without knowing the end of the story.
Because then it’s just something that you are going to do. It’s something that you are going to work out. You have to know the end of the story. And you have to know the Savior of the story. You have to know the One who has come to fulfill all of our longings.
The One who has come to give us peace, even in the midst of all that’s broken. In Revelation chapter 21 at the end of the story, the author John, he says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more, and I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. And then it says this, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall be nor more. there be mourning or crying or pain anymore for four other things have passed away.
To understand Revelation you have to understand apocalyptic Jewish literature and I’m not going to take the time to explain all that but it is important to understand that here we see a picture.
It paints a picture of what is to come. It paints a picture of the hope that we will have and and I think it’s notable here that it says he will wipe away every tear from their eyes after the city comes down because we will not forget our scars.
In fact Jesus still bears his scars to this day. We will not forget the sin that we experienced. There will still be tears and Jesus is the one who will wipe them away. Jesus is the one who will wipe away Bathsheba’s tears. Jesus is the one who will help her understand who he is, what he did, the role that she played.
You ever notice in the stories of Jesus, particularly with his disciples, is that he gives them a new name.
He’s like, I know your name is Simon, but I’m gonna call you Peter, right? You know, it’s like, and of course that name means something. I mean, for Peter, it’s the rock, yeah. So he gives them a new name, and Jesus promises to do the same thing for us.
Revelation chapter two, verse 17, he says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name, written on the stone that no one knows, except the one who receives it.
This idea of a name is important. It’s key, it’s central. If you have kids, you’ve spent time, you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what should we name this child? What are we going to give as a name?
What does that name mean? I bet you every single person in this room has at one time Googled their name to figure out to see what it means. If you haven’t, go do it. The name is so central to who we are.
It often can define us, but we don’t understand fully. I mean, so much of our angst and our culture today is about who am I? Who am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do? If I could only know that, then I could be satisfied.
And what Jesus said is that in those last days, at the end, He’s gonna give you a new name. He’s gonna call you by that name. And when He calls you by that name, everything is gonna make sense. He’s gonna call you by that name and He’s, and you’ll know, you’ll know who you are.
You’ll know by that new name, everything that came to pass. And who God has made you to be. And Jesus is gonna do that for Bathsheba. Can you picture that meeting? Where Jesus goes up to one of His mothers, His great, great, great, great, great grandmother. And He goes up to her and He embraces her. And He says, I know. I know who you are. I know what you’ve been through. I know the abuse you’ve suffered. I know. And your mind. I love you. I always have. I know.
That’s the same that Jesus does for us.
Let’s pray together. Thank you. Jesus, we long to be known and loved. It takes us down so many paths, some of them very dark. We long to be known and loved and remind us that we are in You.
Remind us that You are the God who came into this world to give life and hope and peace even in the midst of abuse, betrayal. Remind us that You are the one who can bring life even where things are darkest.
Remind us that the redemption that You promise to make us whole again is far more beautiful than any other option. Show us more of Jesus’ beauty even right now and it’s in His name we pray. Amen.
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Asking For Me 
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