Now comes something welcome and refreshing, long overdue: a scholarly, credible defense attorney’s vindication of poor Bathsheba in her affair with king David. No stone has been left unturned; every logical, reasonable, and linguistic detail has been uncovered: King David turns out to be guilty of what we call rape! She is declared innocent. (We are indebted to Dr. Richard Davidson, Journal, Adventist Theological Society, Autumn 2006):
She was upright and pure throughout the ordeal. We may have wondered what business she had in taking a bath out in the open in the privacy of her house in Jerusalem: she was engaged in Levitical ritual bathing following her monthly period (2 Sam 11:4; Lev 15:19, 28. This was duty).
We may have wondered whether there was some coquetry, some “come hither” attitude on her part that took advantage of a healthy man in his prime: David should have been with his army fighting, not relaxing, walking around ogling houses below the palace (vs 11).
We may have wondered if when the king “sent” for her she rejoiced at the prospect of an “affaire royale,” because honestly, many would have: she did not try to stay in the palace but went home to renew her lowly status as Uriah’s wife (vs 4).
We may have thought her husband Uriah the Hittite, being a convert to Israel and apparently over-zealous in fanatical devotion to the king and his many battles, was a strict-to -extreme legalist, unbending, severe, whose rigidity drove a healthy woman to desperation. We have assumed that when he died suddenly, her period of mourning was the minimum required after which she rushed into the arms of the king, her new lover: her mourning for her slain husband is described in Hebrew as “wails/laments with loud cries” (vs 26). She loved him and was loyal to him!
We may have thought that the king was suddenly overcome by an orchestrated exhibition of live pornography, more than any man should be expected to weather: the prophet Nathan’s rebuke targets the king alone in this affair for rape (12:1-4).
We may have thought that whatever was the nature of his moral lapse, David’s sin was forgiven by a sweet and indulgent heavenly Father who knows we can’t help being what we are: David came close to losing his soul eternally over this sin (Ps 51:4, 11). David gives no excuse for moral lapses today.
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