Was Bathsheba just Collateral Damage?

As I listened to my pastor talk about King David and Bathsheba’s story, a question rose up in me that I couldn’t shake: Was Bathsheba just collateral damage in King David's story?

In 2 Samuel, David saw Bathsheba bathing from his rooftop and summoned her. She was taken by a king who held all the power and ended up pregnant. David tried to cover it up by bringing her husband, Uriah, home from battle. When that didn’t work, he arranged for Uriah to be killed. After Uriah’s death, David took Bathsheba as his wife, and their first child died as a consequence of David’s sin.

The weight of David’s sin fell squarely on Bathsheba's life. 

The Bible doesn't sanitize the fallout of sin. Instead, it exposes the deep impact sinful choices have on others. Bathsheba was used, her husband was killed, she was forced to marry the king, and on top of it all, she lost her child, all because of choices she didn’t make. 

The Bible never blames her. It never even hints that she was at fault. Instead, Scripture places the responsibility entirely on David. Bathsheba suffered tremendously because of someone else’s sin, not her own.

And yet, God did something breathtaking.

He refused to let her story end in the shadows of someone else’s wrongdoing. Bathsheba later gave birth to another son named Solomon. She was woven into the lineage of Jesus Himself. And when Matthew wrote her name into the genealogy, he called her “the wife of Uriah," not referring to her as King David's wife. This is a quiet, holy reminder that God sees every injustice and never confuses the guilty with the innocent.

Bathsheba was wounded by a king but honored by the King of Kings.

Some wounds in life don’t come from our own choices. They come from someone else’s. A betrayal we didn’t see coming. A decision we didn’t make. A sin we didn’t commit. And suddenly we’re buried the fallout, wondering how we became collateral damage in a story we never asked to be part of. 

This is definitely something I can relate to. As I have pondered and prayed over this, these truths have settled in my heart...

If you’ve ever felt like the aftermath of someone else’s choices landed on your life,

If you’ve carried consequences you didn’t cause,

If you’ve wondered whether God sees the pain you didn’t choose, 

Bathsheba’s story is a reminder that...

We are not forgotten.

We are not to blame.

We are not just collateral damage in someone else's mess-ups. 

And God is not finished with our stories.

He is the God who restores dignity, rewrites endings, and lifts the overlooked into places of honor. What someone else broke, He is more than able to redeem.

Tori