Another week of reflecting on women in the biblical text. This week, we focused on Bathsheba, and the sermon ws a shared sermon with Lisa, the Associate pastor, and me. I began the sermon, and Lisa interrupted me to join in the sermon. It was fun to do, and we worked hard to try and share how we might approach the text in similar and different ways, particularly given her female and my male perspective. The congregation seemed to enjoy hving both of us engaged in the sermon.
We had set up the sermon in the Time with Young Disciples. I had taken the boys and gone up the balcony, as if looking down from a king's perch on Lisa and the girls (this was Lisa's idea). It worked ok with the kids, and I think the visual worked even better for the adults, who would then heard the sermon.
1 Kings 1: 5-21 Now Adonijah son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king”; he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. 6 His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom. 7 He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they supported Adonijah. 8 But the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan, and Shimei, and Rei, and David’s own warriors did not side with Adonijah.
9 Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatted cattle by the stone Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah, 10 but he did not invite the prophet Nathan or Benaiah or the warriors or his brother Solomon.
11 Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king and our lord David does not know it? 12 Now therefore come, let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. 13 Go in at once to King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then is Adonijah king?’ 14 Then while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”
15 So Bathsheba went to the king in his room. The king was very old; Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king. 16 Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said, “What do you wish?” 17 She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne. 18 But now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not know it. 19 He has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the children of the king, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army; but your servant Solomon he has not invited. 20 But you, my lord the king—the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. 21 Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his ancestors, that my son Solomon and I will be counted offenders.”
“Looking at Bathsheba” February 17, 2019; Women series; I Kings 1: 5-21; Richard B. Culp and Lisa Patterson
Richard: We continue reflecting on various women mentioned in the biblical text.
This week, we meet Bathsheba, a woman in the Bible who is called by her name, and she is given voice in the stories, or at least the later stories…..
Lisa: Richard, excuse me, Richard.
Richard: What?
Lisa: You have been carefully telling us about women without names in the biblical stories, and how women often are not even given voice in the stories…
Richard: So you have been listening!
Lisa: Of course. . . you’ve been talking about women!
Maybe this week in recognition of Bathsheba being given voice in the biblical text, you might give a woman voice in your sermon.
Richard: And who would that woman be?
Lisa: Guess.
Richard: since you interrupted my sermon, I’m guessing you are the woman!
Lisa: Yep. I am the woman.
Richard: Okay, so I’ll include a woman’s voice in this sermon. Do you think it will make a difference in how we look at the biblical text or what gets said in the sermon?
Lisa: In some ways, maybe not. We both approach the text seriously, looking at the story in its context and what it has to tell us today. We even borrow and sometimes steal each other’s study books when we’re interested in a text.
On the other hand, I do think that my perspective as a woman might cause me to see things in the story or interpret things differently than you might.
Richard: You are probably right, although I have been brainwashed by my wife and three daughters over the last 25+ years!
Lisa – Wise women!
Richard: Well, let’s take a look at the first major story in which we meet Bathsheba - the one where King David notices Bathsheba, whom the text describes as “a beauty” bathing on her rooftop.
I think it’s fair to say that historically people have focused on Bathsheba’s beauty and David’s immediate attraction to her when he spies her bathing. Certainly artists through the years have painted the picture of the beautiful Bathsheba attracting David.
I also think people typically assume Bathsheba was sun-bathing, even though we know it was the custom to bath on the flat rooms of the homes in Jerusalem.
Sunbathing and beauty, sexy; bathing, not so much.
Lisa: All of which it true, and you point out how quickly people sometimes move to focus on Bathsheba’s beauty and bathing habits.
But we should also note what the physical description of the buildings tells us. King David can look down on Bathsheba because his roof was the highest roof in town. He was king. He had all the power.
Which reminds us of Bathsheba, in fact, most women’s plight in that time.
The man has power and control; the woman not so much. Which is, of course, magnified by the fact he was king. He could command or demand whatever he wanted from men or women.
Richard: I did notice that the text tells us king David “took” Bathsheba.
Lisa: Although I do not think it would have been thought of like this in David’s time, the idea that the king could “take” a woman, has the feel of “rape,” or at least a man doing whatever he wants and a woman having no choice in the matter.
Richard: It does seem like David had choices and power, and Bathsheba had none. Or is that demeaning to Bathsheba to suggest she had no power.
Lisa: It seems to me that to suggest she had no power is more a reflection of the reality, not an unfair interpretation.
Richard: In some ways, it seems to work in Bathsheba’s favor when it comes to who gets blamed for the adulterous affair she and King David had, and then King his plan to have her husband Uriah killed.
The text does tell us that God was displeased with David, which suggests a couple of things: one, the story still focuses on David and ignores Bathsheba; two, God does not like the way King David is treating people.
Lisa: A reminder of God’s call to gracious action rather than abusive power, and a clear reminder that what Bathsheba thinks or does is of little importance to the story, or at least at this point in the story.
Richard: Although I am not a woman, something similar jumps out at me from a later scene when Bathsheba and David’s first son dies.
We hear all about how David grieved and what David felt, but we hear nothing about Bathsheba, except David consoled her and they had another child, who would turn out to be Solomon.
As a parent, I cannot imagine only the father, or for that matter, the mother, being the only one who grieved.
Lisa: Welcome to the world of those who are not given voice!
Bathsheba’s situation is not unique. Like women before her and after, she learned that silence was the norm, and she had to develop other ways to survive and thrive.
Richard: Bathsheba seems to develop some skill at manipulating or using power.
Lisa: She takes to the role of queen very well. When the time is ripe, she puts those skills to work to make sure she and her son survive. Solomon becomes king and she becomes Queen Mother. The role of Queen Mother is powerful, but, again, her power is derived from the power of a man - this time, her son.
King David used his vast power to take Bathsheba, and in turn Bathsheba used her power as Queen to get her son made king.
Either way, there would have been a king after David, one of David’s sons, but God was working through these human actions of power and manipulation to get Solomon on the throne. At the end of the day, the covenant stands and the sovereign God will not be deterred or thwarted.
Richard: Bathsheba seems to have the power. When she hears that King David’s son Adonijah is going to become king, she goes to work.
She visits an old and weak King David and tells him that he had promised her their son Solomon would be the next king.
Lisa: Do not miss that we have no record of David making that promise to Bathsheba. It seems clear that she has learned how to manipulate King David, just like the prophet Nathan encouraged her to do.
(***Terence Freitham confirms this is true - it had not been mentioned prior to this point in the text.)
Richard: if we are going to talk about stereotypes, this part of the story does feel like a stereotypical story of a younger woman taking advantage of an older man.
Lisa: But the text makes sure we know it is not a sexual thing because we had already been told that King David no longer had interest in that.
And it should be noted that Bathsheba’s manipulation makes Solomon king, which seems to be God’s will for Israel.
Richard: So what is our take away from Bathsheba’s story?
I know it is important to the story of God’s people because much is made of Jesus’ lineage connecting back to David, and, of course, David’s line continues right through Solomon, the son of Bathsheba. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus explicitly notes that Solomon is her son.
So we know we need to pay attention to Bathsheba’s life.
Lisa: God pays attention to Bathsheba’s life and worked through both her role of being manipulated and her role as the manipulator to work out God’s purposes.
Unnamed women or named women, like Bathsheba, demonstrate that as the story unfolds God is working through our flawed human desires, like Bathsheba’s need to see her son made the king, in ways that bring God’s purposes to life.
Richard: Not just God working through flawed humans like Bathsheba and us. But God’s saving grace which saves flawed humans like us.
Lisa: And also uses flawed humans like us to save others
Richard: We also see the varied ways we approach the biblical text depending on our unique perspective, and how God speaks differently to each of us.
Lisa: But those differences do not limit God’s saving grace but reveal how expansive God’s grace is. . .
Richard: So God speaks to each of us through the unique story of Bathsheba, and the woman gets the last word.
Lisa: Yes! Absolutely, she does. Amen!
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