Broken Vessels: Solomon, Part I

Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba

 
Bathsheba did not get her name from her habit of taking baths.  Her name Bathsheba means “the daughter of an oath”.  Her father’s name was Eliam meaning “people of God”.  Her grandfather’s name was Ahithophel the Gilonite. It is believed that this is the same Ahithophel the Gilonite from the city of Giloh mentioned in II Samuel 15:12. Giloh was one of the cities allotted to the tribe of Judah by Joshua in Joshua 15:51.  For this reason, I believe that she was from the tribe of Judah.

We have no record of how she met and married Uriah the Hittite.  We don’t know that she even knew of David’s scheme to have her husband murdered by the Ammonites.  Furthermore, we have no evidence that would suggest that the Lord would not have worked things out righteously to have David eventually marry this Bathsheba or have some other woman bear David a son that would have resulted in the line of David that would eventually lead to the birth of Jesus Christ so that he could be called son of David. We do know that Jacob (who was later named Israel) prophesied when he blessed Judah before he died saying, “the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes.”

In Numbers 36:6-7 women were instructed to marry within their tribe. ….‘Let them marry whom they wish; only they must marry within the family of the tribe of their father.’ “Thus no inheritance of the sons of Israel shall be transferred from tribe to tribe, for the sons of Israel shall each hold to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers."

 
So it appears based on her family line that Bathsheba was from the tribe of Judah. However, since she is married to a Hittite, her inheritance in the tribe of Judah is forfeited.
 

Solomon’s mother’s first husband, Uriah the Hittite

 
Bathsheba’s first husband’s was named Uriah. His name means “God is Light” or “YAWEH is my light” However he was a Hittite, a people whom God told the Israelites to destroy.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you." --Deuteronomy 7:1-4

The fact that Uriah the Hittite got away with marrying Bathsheba in the first place is still a mystery. The Hittites should have been totally destroyed when the Israelites took possession of the land as God had commanded them and Bathsheba should not have been allowed to marry outside the clan of Judah.  The fact that David had him killed to cover up the sin of adultery is a case of the right actions but wrong motives. How often we are guilty of this. Remember one of God’s names is El Roi (the God who sees me), so we may fool others (and we may even try to fool ourselves), but God knows and sees the motives of our heart.

We know that Uriah was one of the thirty mighty men that traveled with David but what sort of men were these that traveled with David?

So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all of his father’s household heard of it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.--I Samuel 22:1-2

So was Uriah distressed, or in debt, or discontent? We don’t know. We do know that he was loyal to David or he would not have been counted among the 30. The fact that he was counted among the 30 seems to indicate that he was brave and fearless. When David asked him in II Samuel 11:10 “why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David:

 “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents in temporary shelters and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul I will not do this thing.”

So it appears that Uriah was loyal not only to David but also to the ark, Israel, Judah, Joab and David’s servants.
 

Solomon’s father David the king

Then it happened in the springs at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel and they besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.--II Samuel 11:1 (& I Chronicles 20:1)

 
The question is, “Why did David stay in Jerusalem?”  There may be a clue in II Samuel 21:

Now when the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David went down and his servants with him; and as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary.

Now Ishbi-benob was a giant and he intended to kill David but Abishai one of the thirty mighty men helped David. (Abishai was one of Joab’s brothers.) Then the men of David swore to him saying, “You shall not go out again with us to battle, that you may not extinguish the lamp of Israel. --II Samuel 21:15-17

 
David may have been just getting too old to fight, so he stays back. This may explain what takes place in II Samuel 11:1-27 when he sees Bathsheba and is tempted to sin.

Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

There is no indication here of Bathsheba’s complicity in this crime. You might think that because she was bathing near the Kings house at night she was trying to entrap him. I don’t read that into the text. Besides if she was trying to entrap him she would have been bathing in the day instead of at night when the King was supposed to be asleep or in the field with his troops. I think more than likely she was bathing at night to avoid unwanted attention.

Bathsheba sends a message to the King: “I’m pregnant.”  When David finds out that he has gotten her pregnant, he sends for her husband Uriah the Hittite (note without consulting Bathsheba), so that Uriah could come home and lay with her and when the baby was born in nine months no one would be the wiser except him and Bathsheba, and the servants that he sent to take her.

This is an interesting plan. The question begs to be asked. What was David's plan before he received this news? Had he ordered Bathsheba and his servants to be silent about his sin before he left her go home or else he would have them all killed? His servants had probably watched him kill men women and children of the Philistines when he was running from Saul.

However, David’s new plan does not work out. When Uriah refuses to go home and lay with his wife for moral reason, David immediately (without consulting Bathsheba) orders Joab to let the Ammonites kill him in battle.  It appears that Bathsheba did not have a say in this last act of premeditated murder.

Solomon’s older brother the dead prince 

 
When the time of mourning for Uriah was over, David sent for Bathsheba and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.--II Samuel 11:27

Notice that it does not say that this thing that David and Bathsheba had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.  Now the Lord sees all, including the lust that led to coveting that led to adultery and finally to the premeditated murder that David has committed since one of the Lord’s names is El Roi (Genesis 16:13) and the Lord orders Nathan to confront David on these sins. It is interesting that there is no mention of Bathsheba being a part of sin in Nathan’s parable/riddle to David.  When David confesses he says “I have sinned against the Lord” not “We have sinned against the Lord.”

 
The Lord asked David “”Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight?

The Lord said “ The sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.”

The Lord says “Behold I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all of Israel and under the sun”.--II Samuel 12:9-12

David must realize at this time that his confession means death because he has been accused by God of murder and the punishment for murder is death. He could have argued with the people that the man was a Hittite, and he was authorized to destroy all of the Hittites. However, he could not argue with God who sees the heart motive for every action. As a side note, David did this to a loyal friend and therefore would have done this to anyone regardless of whether they were a Hittite, a Girgashite, an Amorite, a Canaanite, a Perizzite, a Hivite, a Jebusite, or even a Hebrew from one of the 12 tribes of Jacob.

David may have been able to sooth his own conscience because of the fact that Uriah was a Hittite, but he could not sooth the conscience of the "God who sees me". 

Leviticus 24:17 If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.

Nathan then tells David that “the Lord has taken away your sin; you shall not die”.  Nathan does not say that “the Lord has taken away the consequences of your sin,” nor does he say that the Lord takes back what he said about the sword never departing from David’s house nor the part about raising up an evil against David from his own house nor does it say that he takes back what He said about taking David’s wives before his own eyes and giving them to his companion to lie with in broad day light.

Nathan goes on to tell David “because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die”.

David does his best to change God’s mind on this last punishment by fasting and praying for a week but God does not change His mind on this (nor the other things as we shall see next week) and the child dies as the Lord had said through Nathan the Prophet.  Interestingly, this child appears to have been so young that he does not even get a recorded name to be remembered by.  Had David not been so impatient to have his own will be done instead of having God’s will be done things may have turned out a lot differently both for him and his children.

We know that right before Jacob died in Egypt had given Judah a blessing that said “the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes.” Some of the meanings that I found for the name Shiloh are “His gift”, “God’s gift”, “God’s gift of peace”, “His sent one”. So David being from the tribe of Judah and Bathsheba apparently being from the tribe of Judah could have easily fit into this prophetic blessing.

Had Bathsheba been part of God’s plan for David from the very beginning? If so, God could have worked things out righteously like he did with Abigail’s husband Nabal who just died suddenly. God could have caused Uriah the Hittite to suddenly die and could have had David marry Bathsheba in an honorable way after Uriah’s death. Bathsheba could have then given birth to their first son and named him Solomon. This could have been done in Holy Royal Way that would still have eventually lead to the birth of Jesus Christ. His family tree still would have appeared much the same as it does to today. He would still be called son of David as God had planned. But that did not happen as we know, and this first son was not named Solomon. He was conceived in sin and he appears to have died before he even got a name.

Romans 8:28 says "God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose."  This is not to say that all things that work out to the good have worked out to our best or God’s best. It is just that God can take us with our faults and our sins and our failures and still have our lives work out to something that is good. If we are patient and don’t try to get ahead of God he will cause all things to worked together for our best. It is the Royal Way. It is His Way. It is what He is about.

It is interesting that the Lord had taken away David’s sin even before he confessed it or repented.  It is also interesting that this innocent young prince had to die to for sins that he did not commit.  This reminds me of the millions of innocent young babies that aborted each year for the sins of their parents.  It also reminds me of another not so young Prince but just as innocent of a Prince that had to die for sins that He did not commit (I am speaking now of your sins and my sins).
 

Solomon's birth 

 
After the death of the boy, David comforts his wife Bathsheba and she later gives birth to another son. This one they named Solomon which actually means “Peace” He was a foreshadow for the real Prince of Peace that was to come. The Word of God says that the Lord loved him and sent word through Nathan the prophet and Nathan named him Jedidiah which means “beloved of the Lord”.  We don’t have time to go any further into the story of Solomon so we will pick up next week where we left off here. 

Let’s pray and ask the Lord to use what we have learned today to honor Him with our obedience to His Word.