The Seed of the Woman: Narratives That Point to JesusSample

In the spring (the time when kings went out to battle), David sent his military commander and troops to war but remained at his house in Jerusalem. Homes in ancient Israel were built with stairs leading up to a flat roof, which provided a cool area for storage or sleeping. In this case,

David’s elevated roof afforded a view of the homes below and his attention was drawn to a particular scene—a woman bathing (2 Sam. 11:1–2). The narrator will later explain that this was not a bath of luxury but of ceremony.

The Mosaic law declared a woman unclean for seven days during her menstrual cycle. Afterwards, she was to cleanse herself by washing. Scripture tells us that the bathing woman, Bathsheba, “had been purifying herself from her uncleanness” (2 Sam. 11:4). Perhaps the same spring weather that sent David to the roof also led Bathsheba to conduct her ritual cleansing in some airy corner of her courtyard. We can only speculate since the passage doesn’t specify her exact location. But we do know this: the king of Israel stood atop watching a ceremony intended for the Lord alone.

David inquired about the woman, and she was identified as Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. 11:3). The narrator paints the next scene with quick verbs that avoid graphic details yet convey a clear picture: “So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her” (2 Sam. 11:4). Weeks later, Bathsheba sent a three-word message: “I am pregnant” (2 Sam. 11:5). Each day her period was late must have brought Bathsheba more anxiety. Yet the narrator doesn’t share her personal thoughts. Apart from her short note, the woman doesn’t speak in this narrative

Seeking a way out of the situation, David plotted the murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to cover up her pregnancy (1 Sam. 25:33; 2 Sam. 11:6–17). After a period of mourning, Bathsheba was brought to David’s house, “and she became his wife and bore him a son” (2 Sam. 11:26–27). We’re left to wonder how she managed the stages of grief and transition from Uriah’s only wife to one of David’s many, since Bathsheba maintained her silence… but God spoke.

He sent a prophet to the king (2 Sam. 12:1) to pronounce a curse, because “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Sam. 11:27). David had tossed aside at least three of God’s Ten Commandments: he coveted his neighbor’s wife, he committed adultery, and he committed murder. According to the Mosaic law, David deserved death, yet the phophet Nathan says, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Sam. 12:13).

Why? After all, God doesn’t hide our sins under a rug or in some dark filing cabinet. He deals with sin. So why does David live?

David admitted his sin (2 Sam. 12:13).

God heard the repentant David and put his sin onto Another. Jesus is the Son who ultimately dies in his place, taking on the punishment demanded by the law. And who is listed as an ancestral mother of this great Son? Bathsheba (Mt. 1:6). In mercy, Bathsheba continues the line that ends with King Jesus. The shed blood of Bathsheba’s distant Son cleanses everyone who admits their sins to him, no matter how filthy those sins may be.