Did you know? Mishpatim

Hi Crystal, that is a great question!

The Bible is very different from other ancient Near Eastern literature. Rather than create heroes who we can idealize, it tells the story of humans who fail time and time again. The “heroes” are the ones who turn in repentance back to God and maintain relationship with Him while the villains often try to cover up their mistakes (like King Saul) and do not maintain relationship with God. Reading the Bible from a literature perspective is a field of study that is under-utilized. When we read the story of King David’s adultery with Bathsheba from a literary perspective, it reveals that this episode is part of an ongoing critique of kingship in the Bible. God had made it very clear that He did not wish for Israel to have a king because human kings abuse power. David becomes a prime example; because of his position as king he is able to commit adultery with Bathsheba and then order his soldiers to have her husband killed and apparently nobody questions him. Only the prophet of God confronts him on the issue and being a prophet, he has no legal jurisdiction to mandate a death penalty for David. From the literary perspective, this episode is being used to highlight the problem with human kings…who will judge the king? Who will make him accountable to Torah? No one! It is only the eschatological king, the Messiah, who is ensured accountability to the law.
In addition to the critique on kingship, there are two other lessons learned here. First, God forgives! The fact that even with the horrible acts that David committed, because he repented and accepted responsibility for his crimes (unlike Saul who constantly blamed others for his own failures), he was forgiven and enjoyed relationship with God. This story is meant to give other sinners hope that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. This leads to the second lesson: He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins but this does not mean that we escape the consequences of our sins necessarily. In the case of King David, he escaped the death penalty since there was no human being willing to prosecute him, but even though he was forgiven by God, he still suffered the consequences of the loss of a child and chaos in his family for the rest of his life. God will forgive us our sins, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t face the consequences here in this lifetime. David’s story serves as a warning that even if you escape judgment from human beings, there is a Heavenly Judge who sees and will not let the guilty go unpunished, even if that punishment differs from the ones required by Torah.

Shalom!