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deng-li-xin32 — Bathsheba: O Child
Published: 2016-04-30 17:26:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 302; Favourites: 5; Downloads: 0
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It cannot be true.It cannot be real.
This is the end
of everything.
Gone my plans,
gone my future,
gone my marriage,
gone my life.
O child,
I wish I could accept you,
I wish I could love you
as a mother should,
not feel this horror
at your presence in me.
O child,
I wish I could rejoice
as a mother would
if things were as they should
- but they are not.
Sick with fear
as my future slips away,
as my life slowly crumbles
before my eyes,
as another blow
follows the one already dealt.
Was it not enough
to be taken by force
by a man I could not fight?
Was it not enough
to bear the pain and misery?
Must I now also bear his child
and the penalty of death
for a crime I never wanted to commit?
O child,
I wish I could give you
a better home,
a loving family,
complete, not torn,
not ruined by greed, by lust, by rape.
O child,
I wish I could bring you
into a better world
where things are as they should
- but they are not.
Soon they will see.
Soon they will know.
What should be joy
will be a brandmark of shame,
and I will hear derision
in place of congratulation.
(Why?)
And you,
o child,
will pay the price;
the brunt of it all
will fall upon you:
helpless and small,
pure and innocent,
sacrifice to another's sin
- and here I am,
sick with fear,
unable to save you,
unable to save myself.
O child,
I wish I could love you,
I wish I could give you
the welcome I should.
Instead
I bear you in fear, in sorrow and shame,
wishing you had never been.
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Comments: 7
You did an excellent job putting yourself into her shoes so that I could really feel what she may have experienced. You also make a very important tie-in to the modern church, which does in fact sometimes treat unmarried or even teen mothers like they should be ashamed and are barely tolerated in the church, especially if the father doesn't immediately marry them. And, if the father is liked by the congregation, like David, more often than not, the mother is seen as a seducer or harlot.But you're right that this is not a loving approach and probably pushes some women to consider abortion. There are of course many factors, but rather than add to them, we should take away from anything that makes someone feel their child would be better of not being born. We should welcome and support her, not as some vile sinner to be shunned, but as a human being with another human being in her, both in need of love, acceptance, and hope that things will be alright in the end, with God's help.
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Exactly
It's a sad fact that when people have questions or trouble of this kind, often they don't turn to the church or Christians because they expect judgement, they don't think they will be helped. We really need to work on how people view Christians and the church! Because Jesus came to help the broken, not to scare them away until they're "good enough" to come back.
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"Come just as you are." Yes, we definitely need to work on that image, because none of us are perfect and none of us earned forgiveness or grace. To exclude fellow sinners is the kind of hypocrisy Jesus warned against. I just wish more of us saw this...
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It's true I guess. The Bible isn't clear on whether Bathsheba was willing or not, which makes you wonder what she had to go through. I guess we always have to be kind and understanding to those who find themselves in terrible situations like this, whether they were willing participants or not (which would be heartbreaking). It reminds me of that saying, "Always be kind to everyone, because you don't know what battles they are currently facing.". We have to do this regardless of how we see things, or how we think things ought to be. Don't judge, just be kind, but I'm sure you know what I mean.
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It's been interpreted both ways, but I find the rape theory way more convincing. She is almost completely passive throughout the whole story, and when Nathan points out David's sin, he speaks only of David, not of Bathsheba having any fault in the matter. I admire Bathsheba for growing out of her victim status and becoming quite an influential person (e.g. helping Solomon become king, advising him). ^^
Yes I know what you mean. ^^ I think a lot of damage is done when we judge people, or even just cause them to fear being judged. If a Christian girl gets pregnant out of wedlock, and is not accepted in her church, then either her relationship with the church or her relationship with her child, or both, can be damaged. Whether or not she willingly had sex outside of marriage. I think the job of the church is first of all to support the girl in her situation (which is probably turning her life upside-down badly enough already, if it's unplanned and all), before talking about whether what she did was wrong / sin / whatever.
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That is true 
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True! 
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