128 Greatest Stories from the Bible by Dan Harmon

Author:Dan Harmon [Harmon, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-62029-460-4
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2005-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

2 Samuel 7:1–17; 12:1–15, 24–25; 1 Kings 1:10–45; 1 Chronicles 17:1–15; 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 29:25

bathsheba, mother of solomon

“What shall I do?” The distraught woman hugged her arms across her breast and rocked to and fro. Fear smote her, tasting metallic in her mouth. “I shall be stoned, even though the king himself be responsible for my plight.” The thought settled her whirling brain. Hope crept into her troubled face. Surely David would not allow such a thing to happen! Making haste, she sent a message by a trusted servant, four short words.

King David curiously opened the missive and read, “I am with child.” He laid it aside, remembering. After the year of peace that had been declared, he sent Joab, his servants, and all Israel forth to battle, but David tarried at Jerusalem. One evening, he arose from his bed to walk on the roof of his house. He looked down from his lofty domain and his blood ran hot, for a lovely woman washed herself. He must discover who she was.

“Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite,” came the reply.

Her married status could not quell the fire of David’s desire. He commanded that she be brought to him. Now she had conceived. What could he do? Even a king was not exempt from the punishment for adultery, which was death.

A scheme formed in his mind. He would bring Uriah back from fighting and send him to his wife so that the evil David had done might not be discovered.

David’s plan did not work. Uriah came but slept at the door of the king’s house with the servants. A conscientious soldier, he would not go to his home and wife while the ark of the covenant and his master Joab and fellow companions camped in the open fields.

David hastily sent him back to Joab, carrying a letter that ordered the commander to put Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and leave him there to be smitten and die. Joab obeyed, and it came to pass.

Bathsheba mourned for the husband she had lost, guilt-ridden, secretly glad he never knew that which had come upon her. When her mourning time ended, David took her as his wife. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

Fear again filled Bathsheba when Nathan posed a riddle to the king that showed clearly he knew on whose order Uriah had died. Nathan made a terrible pronouncement: Evil would rise against David out of his own house, and all Israel would know.

The child Bathsheba had born unto David fell ill and on the seventh day died. Her mother heart filled with anguish. This, then, was the price to be paid for sin. Not until David comforted her and she bore another son called Solomon did Bathsheba’s sad heart find joy again. Years later, when David was old, she fought for her son Solomon to be named king in place of Adonijah, who even then was taking over, for David was stricken in years and knew not what was happening.

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