Think back to the last time you saw a movie with a friend.
Afterward, you were both buzzing and talking about what was cool and what wasn’t.
Maybe you were raving about one scene…
But she was obsessed with another.
Sure, there was some common ground.
But she caught things you totally missed.
And vice versa.
She loved moments that had you thinking big whoopee frickin’ deal.
Why does this happen?
Because we all see the world through our own values and assumptions.
We project them onto everything.
The movies…
The books we read…
And of course, onto Scripture.
Take the story of David and Bathsheba, for instance.
Your typical Christian holds up God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness as the primary and most important of all the Lord’s attributes.
Everything else, such as the God’s avenging justice, gets tossed in the trashcan.
That’s why when your average Christian reads the story of David and Bathsheba, they project all of this gooey, maple-syrupy sentimental nonsense onto the story.
It’s a soppy account of how a powerful, handsome king falls head over heels for a beautiful but married woman.
He enters into an illicit relationship with her.
After the sin, there’s confession and repentance.
Then, in the end, God forgives completely with no strings attached.
That’s pretty much the church’s superficial understanding of the story that can only be accomplished by ignoring a heck of a lot of the original Hebrew.
Now, how about traditional Judaism?
The ancient Rabbis placed David on a pedestal and viewed him as a man so righteous he was beyond sin.
Since that’s the assumption projected onto the story, in the end, after all the dust is cleared, David comes out looking even greater.
He’s held up as a man of high honor whereas Uriyah, Bathsheba’s husband, is seen as a traitor who got the justice he deserved.
And behind it all, it’s taught that God’s plan was already in motion.
Since David and Bathsheba were meant to be together and meant to have Solomon…
David’s behavior was ultimately righteous because it helped accomplish the Father’s divine Will.
So there you have it.
Gentile Christian translators tweak the Hebrew words to fit their assumptions…
While pastors and Bible teachers downplay David’s sins and God’s curse on him.
Instead, they overly focus on David’s repentance and God’s mercy to make everything line up with their doctrine.
On the other hand, the Rabbis insist David was almost perfect – Messiah-like.
So, they flip every divine punishment into praise and treat God’s consequences for David’s sins as just theory…
Never something he actually paid the price for.
Well, I think you know where I’m going with this.
There are some powerful God-principles in this chapter we’d be remiss to overlook.
But they can only be uncovered by going deep into the verses of this chapter one line at a time WITHOUT PROJECTING OUR PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS ONTO THE TEXT.
So stay tuned.
Whatever assumptions or understanding you’ve had about the story of David and Bathsheba…
They’re about to be turned upside down like Humpty Dumpty on a bad day.
You may never view this story the same way again after being exposed to what I’m about to share.
Stay frosty.
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