Friday, September 7, 2012

More on Bathsheba

If you're interested in digging into the story of Bathsheba and the exact nature of David's sin you should really read this article by James Jordan. According to him, Bathsheba grew up in and around the palace. David was something of an uncle or godfather to her. Her father and grandfather served him personally, and her husband likely converted because of David and looked up to him as a pastor. When David took Bathsheba he betrayed a long chain of trust with people who had served him faithfully his entire reign and he led astray a young woman who had likely looked up to him her entire life as the next thing to God Himself. For such a man (who spoke for God and already had numerous wives and concubines) it probably wasn't hard to coerce a girl who had been taught respect, trust, and admiration of him by every male relative in her life - a young woman who probably couldn't read the Torah herself and who looked to David as one of God's prophets and His anointed one. Thus David sinned not merely in adultery but in murdering one of his spiritual disciple, turning a young woman's trust to sin, and in general betraying the priestly position he held between God and Israel.

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