2 Samuel 12:24 - Summer of Scripture

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Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we're releasing a short daily devotional for your marriage. Over these 66 days, we'll be sharing one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talking about how it applies to your life and marriage. Listen to all 66 episodes of these and you'll have a better understanding of God's word and his perfect plan for your marriage. Let's dive in to today's scripture. Hello and welcome back to the Summer of Scripture on the Naked Marriage Podcast. We are on day 10, and you guys, this one's kind of a doozy, but we feel like it's really important to address and it gives hope to all of us.

Yeah, it does.

It's 2 Samuel 12:24. It says this. Then David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and slept with her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And David named him Solomon. The Lord loved this child. And I love this because, you know, you heard the name Bathsheba and you hear it associated with David and you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute. It said his wife. Didn't David have an affair with Bathsheba? Yes, he did.

I mean, like, really messy circumstances. Yes, it was that their relationship started out and.

Exactly. So he has this affair with Bathsheba. She literally was taking a bath, you guys, like. And he saw it and he was like, man.

And some would even argue it started. The relationship started, even as a sexual assault.

Oh, I know that's right.

Because, you know, Bathsheba, just because of the power dynamic, wasn't in a place to truly give consent. And, like, you know, a lot of people will look at this story and argue, like, was it. Was it an affair? But regardless of exactly what it was, we know it was wrong. It was certainly wrong on David's part. We don't know all the details, but yes, it started. There was sin in the beginning of this relationship, and it was messy. She was married. I mean, it was just so messy. And it created. And then David ultimately had her husband killed. I mean, yeah, this is like a Lifetime movie on steroids. Like, how this played out.

Well, he put Uriah on The front lines hoping for him to die, he dies. So here they have this affair, Bathsheba loses her husband and then ultimately he marries Bathsheba again. We don't know if this was forced or not. We don't fully know all the details, but we know they marry and then they get pregnant. But that first son dies.

Well, the first son was the result of the affair.

Of the affair. That's right. Before they were married. That's right.

I know God took that child. And they might be thinking like, there's just no hope for our relationship. God's never going to bless this. And while there was turmoil in a lot of ways in David's house, from that kind of point on, the hope and the redemption that we see is that this marriage and the child that came from it, Solomon ended up being something God blessed. He blessed this union, he blessed their child. Solomon grew to become the king. Even though he wasn't in line to be king, he became the king. God's chosen. He's the one who ultimately built the long awaited temple. He's the one that was behind the book of Proverbs, the Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, this wisdom, literature and scripture. He had more wisdom, God given wisdom other than Jesus himself, any person who's ever lived. And all this was a result of this relationship that started out in such a broken way. And I think the hope that we have there is that so many of us are in messy situations. So many of us feel like our own relationship started in some kind of set of circumstances that wasn't, wasn't ideal. It wasn't ideal. Maybe, gosh, it could be anything. Maybe it did start out in complete brokenness.

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But that doesn't mean that you're doomed your whole life to live as a second class couple. You can commit to Jesus right where you are right now and allow his grace to bring redemption and healing and he can write a beautiful story through you. You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and you can change the ending and you can make it something. Something beautiful. There's such hope in that.

Absolutely. And I want to say this too. I think that, you know, if we could talk to David and Bathsheba, which I hope we do one day, like, I hope we can talk to these people we learned about in the Bible one day. I'm believing we can. I think if we sat down with them and were like, tell me all about that, they would say, yeah, that was, you know, that was really interesting, like having to navigate all these different things, going on this hard time. You know, it wasn't. It was very hard. And we weren't, you know, I'm sure that she wasn't treated very well in the beginning, you know, of this relationship and this marriage and things like that. And I'm sure that there was a lot of fighting. And I'm sure, like you said, there was a lot of turmoil in his house. And there's a lot of just natural consequences whenever we step out of God's design. And they certainly did in that respect. But I love how it so clearly in the scripture says that the Lord, Lord loved this child. That the child that came out of what ultimately started as an adulterous affair was a child that God still loved. And I just think that we need to remember that, that, that God, you know, loves us in the midst of our messy circumstances and he can still bless our life. And I love how you use the term a second class couple, because I do think that there's a lot of couples, they would never verbalize it, but they come to church on Sunday and they sit in those pews or those seats or whatever auditorium you have, take in the message and they may volunteer and they do all these things, but deep in your heart, deep in their heart, they just feel like they're never gonna be quite good enough. And I would just wanna tell you that, you know, all of us are messy. All of us have stuff. There's various degrees of hardship in our life, but we still have a God that loves us and can do something beautiful with our life. And I just think that this story of David and Bathsheba and Solomon is one of the many stories that shows this, because I can't imagine. I mean, my favorite verses, which will pro. End up sharing with you in Proverbs, you know, came from Solomon. And I just think, I mean, if we didn't have Proverbs, my gosh, where would we be with all that wisdom, literature, and just so much more the richness that came out of Something that started really messy. I just take a lot of comfort in knowing that God is bigger than our messiest circumstances.

And I'm so thankful for that. And like you said, I am so thankful for what Solomon went on to do. And the book of Proverbs in particular has been life changing for me. I've got a whole devotion through XO called Think Like Jesus, which is awesome. All about the book of Proverbs. And yeah, I mean, I'm so thankful. God's redemptive story that he tells through every page of scripture just so encourages me and reminds me, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, God loves you. He has a plan for you. It's a plan to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. And you don't have to settle for anything less. You don't have to let your own past sin or your own circumstances or what you know, your family's past circumstances define you. You're defined by Jesus and what he has done for you on the cross. And that you've been adopted into God's family, made new. You're a new creation in him. And never forget that. Never let your spouse forget that, that they are a new creation. And so lift each other up, encourage each other with the words of scripture and comfort each other. You know, one thing I love in this verse is David said he comforted his wife and slept with her. So I wanna commit to comforting you more.

Yes, I love it. Well, and I just wanna point out we were saying we don't know the circumstances, but we know from these verses this was a loving comfort. I mean, comfort when you're comforting someone that's out of love, regardless.

Yeah, I don't know how that exactly started. I don't know how it started, but clearly it got. There was. There was comfort.

There was comfort.

Right.

For both of them. And so there's so much hope in that.

There is.

So, guys, thank you. God's bigger than our messes. Hope that encourages you today. Tune in tomorrow, day 11, we'll be in the book of first kings.