Bathsheba’s first son, before being named, had died. The death of the child was because of the crimes of his ‘father’ David, which God attributed to be sinful – rather sin unto death, which even according to the Mosaic law was punishable with death.

The child’s mother was not merely complicit but an active participant. Bathsheba had no option but to inform David of the unwanted pregnancy, as that would show up in time and she may have to use much imagination to not only explain her pregnancy but also name the adulterer. So she informed David, David thereafter tried to legitimise the child to pass it off as Uriah caused pregnancy – though there might have been a full term baby again passed off as a premature one.

David causes not only the mistake of wanting to get Uriah killed in the battle – which is against all norms of brotherhood- but gives instructions in writing to Joab. The carrier of the letter is Uriah Himself. What a heartless blackguard, Adultery had made out of David. A death warrant is delivered for execution through the hands of the person who is to be executed. And Uriah is still unaware of the happenings in the capital, while he was busy besieging the Ammonite frontiers in all sincerity and innocence. The Hittite had married a woman, who was not merely beautiful but a sharp one too.

The wretch refuses to go to his house to share the conjugal bed, who would have otherwise been welcomed to his conjugal bed with another man’s child already there in the same bed! The reason for his refusal is noble, though incredible. David probably for the first time in his life wanted a woman, with whom he had had a relationship, to sleep with his full consent. In fact David was eager that the sojourning nuptials took place, worse still he was disappointed that it didn’t happen.

David’s name would be revealed if Bathsheba’s pregnancy came to light, what were the options before David?

David could have got Bathsheba eliminated, Could have tried to eliminate the child or could have eliminated Uriah. Thank God that David didn’t Report to the first option!

The next question is, even if Uriah died in the battle, How would Bathsheba explain the pregnancy without exposing herself and her seducer/paramour to the charges of adultery. Death of Uriah cannot cause the pregnancy, and tongues would wag. But why didn’t they wag- when the child was born?

I am at loss to understand that. But David had played the role of a defender of Israel for so long that people would have connived at the sacrifice of a Hittite in the altar of David’s adultery! Probably! After all when God promised the land of the Hittites to the Israelites, David along with the other Israelites must have imagined that Hittite women went along with their lands!

That the first child of Bathsheba could not have been Uriah’s must have been a fact. A fact which came to the ears of Nathan the prophet, who confronted David. Thereafter it is through the same Nathan that the commutation of the sentence is conveyed – in which one of the commuted sentence was the most convenient one. Their symbol of adultery would die! Never was a choice of sentence so convenient!

I think David made a great show to impress Bathsheba inside the palace, but was relieved that the child of adultery had died . Even his natural reaction was beautifully romanticised – “i can go to him but he cannot come to me”. I wish David has shown this understanding when Absalom died.

But there the purpose was different, he had to show the people that Absalom’s death was because of the highhandedness and disobedience of Joab, which made David attractive to the people so that he could be welcomed back.

The nameless child was dead. Bathsheba legitimately produces another son and named him Solomon. Solomon’s uterine Elder Brother had exited in haste, all because Prophet Nathan told David: you shall not die, but the child shall.

Now we all know from the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus that there was a possibility of communication between Abraham’s blossom and hell.

So let us for a minute imagine that David, Uriah, Bathsheba, and their first son had identified each other from whichever part of the hell or heaven these four were..

Let me stop here and take a guess as to who might have been where?

Uriah the dutiful cuckold, would have been granted Abraham’s bosom as a compensation for all the ignominy suffered at the hands of David and Bathsheba!
David, though had committed sins into death, as he had regularly sought God’s forgiveness and Grace, as a pardoned sinner might have to be, as he himself had prayed, granted at least a doorkeeper’s place in the Lord’s house.
The innocent child who paid for the crimes and sins of his father and mother has to be in Abraham’s bosom.

That leaves us with Bathsheba, i am yet to discover s single reason for her to gain paradise. But as we know from the parable, they all can see each other, recognise each other, and remember their relationships back in the earth.

Applying that formula, if David had met Uriah, what would have been Uriah’s reaction?

Uriah would have probably said, My Lord why didn’t you order me to go to my home and stay that night. And the second night when you got me drunk you could have me force-lifted and dropped me in my house- but why did you get me killed by the Ammonites?

I wonder what answer David could have made, especially if Bathsheba has been within the earshot of their conversation!

What would have been the conversation between Bathsheba and Uriah?

Probably Bathsheba would have told him: when you were happy even taking orders from David’s servant Joab, why would i not be happy serving the King?

Uriah could have retorted: when you had no qualms to go to the King’s house, why didn’t you come to the Kings courtyard and intimate me that you had built a bond with the King, in my absence, and that you were laden with the consequences thereof in your womb?

Bathsheba’s silence must have been deafening or Bathsheba would have said, in the last count i was David’s wife and I had seen more life with David and you have no right to take up the past which was the last for you, but for me that was just the beginning of Life! See there, he was my son Solomon, whom i made him the king. I was bestowed by God to bear princes and Kings, and i used it. You were merely a person who had to build a house close to the palace so that when i bathed, the King could see me from his palace top. You did your job and departed, when you had to.

David was amused.

The innocent child asked Bathsheba: Mom would i have been made the King had i survived?

Bathsheba said, i don’t know, but had you lived long enough to be there at the time of the death of David, i would have played as sharp as i had played for Solomon. In all probability you would have been the King instead of Solomon. But i should warn you that Joab, though a dedicated servant of your father David, would have played dirty, as i believe he had preserved that letter which David had written to get my then husband Uriah killed.

Peter came and saw them all and told them: I have told you all never to meet up as that would destroy the history which had been propagated. You people have created the biggest scandal in the history of Israel. I don’t want to see any two of you together again.

Shun these meetings of review of history, let history remain the way it has been written.

Get back to your respective mansion and be happy.