Silver Lining

The five women in Matthew’s genealogy: Bathsheba
A Series on Advent
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
2 Samuel 11; Matthew 1:1-17 

[In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, there are five women mentioned. All of them were in some sense outsiders. In this Advent series we will be looking at these five women to gain a better understanding of “the word who became flesh and made his dwelling among us”.]

  

The 2012 movie, “Silver Linings Playbook”, is about a young man who is bipolar and was recently released from a mental institution into the care of his parents. While his main goal is to win back his ex-wife, he meets a young widow who offers to help him if he will enter a dance competition with her.

 

It’s a heartwarming story about relationships and the struggles that people face who have a mental illness. The title of the movie comes from a line spoken by the young man to his father.

 

“This is what I believe to be true. You have to do everything you can and if you stay positive, you have a chance at a silver lining.”

 

The story about Bathsheba has a silver lining but with a much darker side. It started with David who was the King of Israel. While Israel’s army went off to war, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

 

One evening he couldn’t sleep, so he got up and walked around the roof of the palace. It was there that he saw a “very beautiful woman” taking a bath. Instead of turning away, he had someone inquire as to who she was.

 

Upon learning that she was “the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite”, David sent messengers to bring her to the palace where he slept with her. Soon afterwards, she sent David a message that she was pregnant.

 

In an effort to cover up what he had done, he had Uriah return from the battlefield. Then David personally instructed him to go home to be with his wife. But Uriah wouldn’t do it because the other fighting men weren’t able to do the same.

 

So, the next day, David tried again. This time he had Uriah eat and drink with him in the palace. He even got Uriah drunk. But once again, Uriah would not sleep with his wife, Bathsheba.

 

Desperate, David had Uriah return to the battle with written instructions for Joab, the head of the army. The letter told him to “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” Despite Uriah’s good character, he was murdered.

 

For her part, the only thing that Bathsheba did wrong was to be “very beautiful”. But this was a culture where men had all the power and King David was the most powerful man of all. To refuse him could have resulted in severe punishment.

 

How could anything redemptive come from this? David knowingly slept with another man’s wife and then had her husband killed. And yet, God is sovereign and somehow all of this mess fit into His plan of redemption.

 

Included in Matthew’s genealogy of “Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham”, is the following silver lining verse.

 

⁶ Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah).             Matthew 1    NLT

 

Like Bathsheba, God provides a silver lining for you and me. Even though we are sinful people, and our sin can result in terrible consequences – God can still bring about redemption through his son Jesus.

 

¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.                   Colossians 1                    NIV

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

A Series on Living in the Wilderness
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
2 Samuel 11:1-5; Psalm 32:1-11

 [In this series, we will be looking at people in the Bible who lived in the wilderness. Not necessarily a wilderness of natural creation, but the metaphorical wilderness of life. In fact, there are times when we all feel like we are living in the wilderness. During those times, it’s important to remember that the Lord is always with you.]

  

Regrets! We all have them. Sometimes they’re small, like when I sold my vintage record
collection for pennies on the dollar; or when I threw away my 1974-76 collection of Michigan State football programs that I had saved for 30 years. Man I wish I wouldn’t have done that! I still regret it!

 

Some regrets though, are more serious. Like acting out on an addiction which results in hurting those you love the most, as well as yourself. You wish you could take it back, but it’s in the past, and you can’t change the past. Not only can you not change it, but the consequences can be life changing.

 

Regrets lead to guilt and shame. They can eat you up on the inside leading into more self-destructive behavior. Regrets can stay with you for years, if not for the rest of your life. David was intimately familiar with regrets.

 

He had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba. Then, to make matters worse, he had her husband Uriah, killed in battle. Even though David recognized his sin and confessed it, there were life changing consequences.

 

The son that David and Bathsheba conceived together… died; David’s son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar; in retaliation, Absalom, who was Tamar’s brother, killed Amnon; eventually Absalom conspired to overthrow David. On and on it went like ripples in the water. David lived in a wilderness of his own creation.

 

Here’s what David wrote about living in the wilderness, and how the Lord healed him.

 

³ When I kept it all inside,
    my bones turned to powder,
    my words became daylong groans.

⁴ The pressure never let up;
    all the juices of my life dried up.

⁵ Then I let it all out;
    I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God.”

Suddenly the pressure was gone—
    my guilt dissolved,
    my sin disappeared.        MSG

 

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. We all feel that way sometimes; like we’re living in a wilderness of our own making. Thankfully, the Lord forgives; the Lord heals; the Lord makes us whole again.

 

Copyright 2021 Joseph B Williams