Abigail and Bathsheba – two women, one God
Elder Karen Collier – August 12, 2018
Thank you Missy, for giving me this opportunity to do something I never thought I would do. The church culture I grew up in limited women to teaching children, cooking food for pot lucks, and taking care of babies in the nursery. Right off the bat let me say that I am totally outside my comfort zone right now.
But when Missy told me this summer we would be studying women of the bible, I realized this was totally in my wheelhouse. So when she gave the opportunity for any of the elders to preach a sermon this summer, I said yes.
You see, I started going to church back when my mom was still playing host to me in her womb – I didn’t have much of a choice then, and that continued through my childhood. But into my adulthood I stayed in church and it has always been an important part of my life. I have met and befriended many wonderful people over the years. I consider them as part of my family.
I’ve always had a great love for the Bible and I am very grateful to have been brought up learning scripture. And since I started teaching the Bible while I was in my 20s I have taught on women of the Bible many times.
So let’s get to the subject of today’s sermon – Abigail and Bathsheba – two of the women in the life of King David.
Let’s start with Abigail since she is less familiar of a character. She comes on the scene relatively early in the story of David. She was the wife of a man named Nabal – whose name meant fool and senseless. So we’re off to a bad start already.
Before David had been made King of Israel, he was travelling with his soldiers and was in need of supplies. He sent his men to ask Nabal for help, since he was a wealthy landowner in the region. Nabal flatly turned them down and insulted David. David got angry and planned to go with his men and kill all the men who worked for Nabal.
Abigail heard about this from one of her servants and immediately gathered supplies and brought them to David and his men. She apologized for her husband and basically said his character matched the meaning of his name – a senseless fool.
David changed his mind as a result of her intervention. So Abigail went back to her husband. He was drunk, so she waited until morning to tell him what had happened.
According to the Bible, once he was told what happened, his heart died within him and he immediately turned to stone. He died about 10 days later.
So the story ends by David taking Abigail for his wife. A total happily ever after story, right?
So now we fast forward about 20 years or so and David has been king of Israel for a good period of time. His men are off fighting battles, and even though he should have been with them, he decided to stay home.
While he is lazing around the palace, he happens to notice Bathsheba bathing on the roof of a nearby house. He is immediately smitten with her and brings her to the palace so he can sleep with her.
In the meantime, Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, who is one of David’s soldiers, is out fighting battles, which is where David should be. He is a highly principled man. Very different from Nabal in the previous story.
Bathsheba becomes pregnant and when she informs David, he decides to bring Uriah home so he can sleep with Bathsheba, which would take care of the problem. Easy peasy, right?
But Uriah, being the principled soldier that he is, refuses to be intimate with his wife while his brothers in arms are still in battle. The plot thickens!
So David arranges to send Uriah into the worst part of the battleground in order for him to be killed. Once that happens, David brings Bathsheba into the palace and marries her. He thinks the problem is fixed.
Wow. Different stories, similar result. In the case of Abigail, her husband dies of natural causes and then David takes her for his wife.
David’s behavior with Bathsheba is a totally different matter. It starts out the wrong way. Idleness leads to adultery, which leads to an unplanned pregnancy, which eventually leads to the murder of a righteous man. Not to mention the death of an innocent baby.
The thing is, Abigail has always been presented as an honorable woman. Bathsheba has been blamed for the bad behavior of a king. Doesn’t seem very fair, does it? Bathsheba really had no choice in the matter at all.
The story of David and Bathsheba turns tragic. A prophet by the name of Nathan confronts David on his actions. He repents, but as many of us have experienced, even when we’re sorry for our actions, there still can be awful consequences.
The child Bathsheba gives birth to becomes ill and dies.
This is one of those Old Testament stories that doesn’t sit well with me. Why does an innocent baby die because of the bad behavior of his father? But that’s another discussion for another time.
So here we are with two stories. Two women. One God. What can we learn from them?
First of all, it doesn’t seem fair to judge people based on their circumstances. Women in the time of the Old Testament had little to no choices in life. Their worth was solely based on who they married and the children they gave birth to. Both Abigail and Bathsheba had husbands who died. One for being a fool, and the other for being an honorable man. As a result they both became wives of David.
Abigail was rewarded for intervening on behalf of her household.
But what about Bathsheba? Did she have any choice whether or not she slept with the King of Israel? Would she even have an option to refuse him? So why is she looked at in a bad light? And why did she have to lose her baby?
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel in the story of Bathsheba. She has other children, including Solomon, who becomes the next king of Israel and oversees the building of the temple, something that God didn’t allow David to do.
Not to mention, Bathsheba is named in the genealogy of Jesus. The only other women mentioned are Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, and Mary. All of these women have very questionable stories. Tamar slept with her father in law. We heard her story from Missy earlier this summer. Ruth was a Gentile and Rahab was a harlot, which is a Biblical name for a prostitute. Mary gave birth out of wedlock.
I love the fact that many of the stories that are in the Bible really make you reevaluate what you believe. It’s not always black and white. It really requires outside the box thinking. The actions of all these women is what made them worthy to be included in the genealogy of Jesus. They all displayed faith in God in the midst of difficult and sometimes impossible circumstances.
We’re always looking for a lesson in these stories. I’ve read and taught them many times. I think the lesson for us today is that we are all imperfect people living in an imperfect world. Like David, we have good times and bad times. Things we do that we would like to have shouted from the rooftops. Other things we do that we hope no one finds out about.
Abigail and Bathsheba were both swept into the story of King David. One is not any better than the other.
It is so important to look beyond someone’s outward appearance or their life history and see who they are on the inside. Everyone has something unique to offer to the world. Many times they have never been given the opportunity to cultivate and share those God given qualities. Or life circumstances have gotten in the way. While I am not always successful, I try to remember to ask God to help me see people through His eyes and not my own. When we can get past the surface, we can see the beauty of this person who was created by God.
This is one of the things I love most about this church. The people here look past labels and see the beautiful spirit within. Everyone is welcome here. I wish more congregations could follow this example. We are not perfect people, but that is the point. That’s why we need to have God in our lives as well as the people who love Him.
How nice it would be if we can all extend that kind of grace and understanding to each other. To realize we’re all on this journey together and all we are called to do is love God with all our hearts and love our neighbor as ourselves. If we can do that, then we can look back on our lives knowing we were good and faithful servants and one day we will hear God say “Well Done”.
Amen