I love Israel and the Jewish people.
When I visited the Holy Land about five years ago for a two-week vacation, it changed my life for all time and forever.
So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…
To all my Jewish brothers and sisters out there…
Whether you’ve accepted Yeshua as the Messiah or not…
Please don’t take offense at what I’m about to say in this article…
However, it needs to be said because truth is truth.
So here’s the thing.
I find it amazing the old-time Rabbis were so eager to hold David up as a perfectly righteous man that they made up every excuse in the book to justify his sins.
Heck, they actually flip the facts around to portray David as a hero in this tragic chapter.
Since we all know the story pretty well, let’s pause for a sec to see how Rabbinical Judaism interprets this sad chapter.
For starters, the Rabbis say David didn’t sin at all.
Why?
Because before the foundations of the world, they claim he was destined to marry Bathsheba and have Solomon.
To them, the final outcome was all that mattered.
On top of that…
And I think you’re going to find this amazing…
They say David was the hero of the story, NOT Uriyah.
They claim Uriyah was a rebellious man with devious intentions.
So he deserved whatever misfortune befell him.
The Rabbis say because Uriyah disobeyed David by refusing to go home when ordered, David had every right to send Uriyah to his death.
Their take is that a disobedient soldier deserves the death penalty.
So essentially, David was just carrying out God’s justice.
Another Rabbi takes it even further.
He claims the Lord planned for David’s evil behavior because it would eventually lead to his repentance that would lead to him eventually composing the great Psalm 51.
The final result is we would have a perfect model of repentance to follow.
So the Rabbis, instead of blaming David, say everything he did was to his credit.
Well, all I can say about this is what the Prophet Isaiah said:
“Woe unto them that call evil good,
and good evil;
that put darkness for light,
and light for darkness;
that put bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter!”
-Isaiah 5:20
So here’s the takeaway I’m getting from all of this, and pay attention because it applies to all you too.
To me, this demonstrates the extent to which we are willing to twist the plain reading of Scripture to suit our doctrinal bias.
We are all guilty of this.
Christianity with its trinitarian theology and anti-Torah bias is just as guilty.
And I’m just as guilty.
This simply shows just how evil our hearts are which leads to another takeaway.
Given that our hearts are so wicked and mired in sin…
At the end of the day, it is only the Holy Spirit of God that can rescue and save us from our desperate condition.
I’ll leave you with that today.
We’ll pick up this topic again tomorrow.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this
body that is subject to death?
Thanks be to God, who delivers
me through Messiah Yeshua,
our Lord.”
-Romans 7:24-25
Are you getting these story lines from the Talmud?
I agree that within Judaism, as with all religions, there is a tendancy to not define things by what they wre, but to start with the desired end result, and then manipulate the facts to fit it.
Hi Steven,
Not directly from the Talmud, but from what I heard about how Rabbinic Judaism interprets these stories of David.
I haven’t heard from you regarding my last question. Please don’t take this as an insult, but the scripture you close with about being “a wretched man…” Is that also out of context? Paul is making a closing comment that being a Jew and following the Torah was not enough to deliver him from such as a person. He needed to agree to a New Covenant that he was already crucified with Christ, who gave him the New Man.
Much earlier in that same chapter, Paul claimed that the wretched Man was from the past when we” WAS IN THE FLESH!” And now, thanks be to God, we are transformed to the New Creation through Christ Jesus. Dr. Tony Tudela
727-421-7699
Sorry, Anthony. What was your last question?