The Controversy Continues

Stephen Terry

 

Commentary for the January 30, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson

 

“One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, ‘She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, ‘I am pregnant.’” 2 Samuel 11:2-5, NIV

With this week we continue with what appears to be the rather confused picture of God and His character that was presented in last week’s lesson. This confusion is perhaps a major reason why some have trouble equating the God of the Old Testament with the Jesus of the New Testament. It might be hard for some to find a link between the God of “Love your enemies,”[i] with the God who not only wiped every living thing from the face of the Earth except the inhabitants of the ark,[ii] but also commanded the genocide of the Canaanites and others.[iii] Some may be tempted to offer up as a defense the wickedness of the Canaanites, but most, if not all, genocides are founded on similar justifications by those perpetrating them, whether Turks versus Armenians or Nazis versus Jews and Gypsies. One might also be tempted to excuse the behavior based on historical context. However, these two examples are modern and not ancient, and the same God reigned then as now.[iv]

But how do we explain the contradictions? Some may choose to ignore contradictions and deny that they are even there, but this does not make them go away. It may even make the one who ignores the reality appear less than honest about their faith to someone else who may easily see those contradictions. But perhaps it may be instructive to see examples of what some of these events are that present contradictory points of view. Of course we have slightly different accounts of Creation in Genesis, chapters one and two, and also slight differences regarding how many animals Noah took on the ark. However, neither of these is egregious except to those to whom trivia matters a great deal. There are far more stark examples to be found involving flagrant disobedience and the resulting response apparently endorsed by God.

One example is the sparing of the prostitute Rahab by the Israelites in spite of the command to destroy all of the Canaanites.[v] While it is true that the spies gave an oath that she would not be harmed, that oath was apparently coerced by a threat of exposure to the enemy. However, not only did Joshua honor that oath and spare Rahab and her family, but Rahab married Salmon and contributed her DNA to the gene pool of the Messiah. She was King David’s great, great grandmother. Honoring the oath given by the spies may be seen as a human failing similar to the experience with the Gibeonites,[vi] but that the Davidic line producing the Messiah should come from that seems to imply that God is circumventing His own instructions regarding the Canaanites. One might be tempted to consider this a singular anomaly, but there are more.

Only one generation later, we have the story of Ruth the Moabitess. The instructions written by Moses and therefore presumed to be from God were that no Moabite could be joined to the congregation of Israel, even to the tenth generation.[vii] Yet, not only does Ruth marry Boaz, an Israelite, but in only three generations her great grandson, David is not only a part of the assembly of Israel, he is ruling over it. Once again, God appears to endorse this breach of obedience, even referring to David as a man after His own heart.[viii] One may wonder at God’s purposes in consistently being inconsistent, especially with the Messianic line.

We find yet another inconsistency in King David. Here is a man who seems to walk in God’s will, but walks straight into the arms of Bathsheba, another man’s wife. No doubt there were many beautiful women who were available to the King without the impediment of being already married. What could have transpired between David’s rooftop saunter and Bathsheba’s open-air toilet that created such a stir of desire in the King’s heart we can only wonder. Was David primarily at fault or Bathsheba? Today we would perhaps place the blame on the one in the position of power abusing that power to gain a sexual advantage, but that may not have been the perspective in the past. Matthew notably refuses to even name her in Christ’s genealogy, referring to her instead only as the wife of Uriah.[ix] He excludes her but does not hesitate to name Rahab and Ruth. Apparently all those centuries later, some still had a problem coming to grips with what had happened between David and Bathsheba.

Here again, God seems to have endorsed a divergent path from what was commanded. David had not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, but he murdered her husband to cover it up. The penalty for adultery and murder both was death. But in the Prophet Nathan’s pronounced judgment from God, both David and Bathsheba were spared. Sadly, instead, their son was to die. Nonetheless, God appears to have blessed their marriage. Another son, Solomon, was born and through him the Davidic line continued to the Messiah. This is in spite of not only David’s perfidy, but Solomon’s as well, and several other kings after him. It is hard to reconcile the professed need for obedience that Moses continually presented with the frequent flaunting of those same rules in the royal Messianic line. How can this God possibly be the same God shown to us by Jesus? Should we be tempted to view God as Satan portrays Him – a God who is ultimately unfair? Or is there more to this story?

Some have proposed a theology of progressive revelation as an explanation for all of this. They point out that the Jews were at their very lowest point when they were brought out of Egypt after 400 years of captivity. Surrounded by idolatry and pressed on every side by those who considered themselves racially and religiously superior, many appear to have lost faith in the ancient covenant with Abraham and his descendants. What a challenge it must have been for Moses as God’s spokesman to revive what little flagging faith remained. Perhaps like children, rules were necessary for those religiously immature Jews to help them find their way back to a proper understanding of God’s character. With that understanding, the Old Testament may be seen as a progressive climb back to the characterization of God shared by Jesus.

While some were eventually able to make that transition, many more preferred to remain under the tutelage of the rules meant to mature them and bring them to Christ.[x] Even today, many struggle over the role to be played by the Law and grace, far too often remaining under the impression that salvation comes through the Law. Therefore the progressive nature of revelation is still very much alive for those who may one day come fully under the banner of grace.

While all of this may provide a general framework for a theology intended to unify both the Old and New Testaments, there are other possibilities that con contribute to our understanding of what was going on. For instance, God’s inclusion of Canaanites and Moabites in the Messianic line may have been purposeful. The Messiah was to be Savior of all people, not only the children of Abraham. The privilege of being an ancestor of Christ was given to Abraham but his line was not to bear that privilege alone. Those that were far off[xi] were brought near not just theologically. They also contributed to the Messiah’s DNA. In a figurative sense, Christ was everyman’s seed. Even the loss of David and Bathsheba’s son may have prefigured the death of another innocent on Calvary, Who, though He knew no sin, died because of it.

From all of this, dear reader, I hope you are able to understand that yes there are contradictions in the Bible, but that is OK. They may be there for a far deeper reason than a simple literal reading of the text can reveal. The Bible is the living Word of God; therefore it has greater depth than any other tome. It has the power to change lives through the reading of its pages. There is treasure placed there by God Himself. It can be discovered by those who earnestly seek it.[xii] We only need to open its pages and search for it.



[i] Matthew 5:44

[ii] Genesis 6-8

[iii] Deuteronomy 20:17

[iv] Malachi 3:6

[v] Joshua 6:17, 22-23

[vi] Joshua 9

[vii] Deuteronomy 23:3

[viii] Acts 13:22

[ix] Matthew 1:6

[x] Galatians 3:23-25

[xi] Isaiah 57:19

[xii] Hebrews 11:6

 

 

 

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