As Shiromi, Pastor Neil, and their two-year-old son returned from visiting friends, they saw security officers riding toward them. Angered by his wife’s conversion, a local businessman hired the officers to kill the couple. A bullet to the heart killed Neil instantly. The toddler fell from his mother’s arms as the bullets pierced her arm and stomach. The wounds he sustained were more emotional than physical. Shiromi fell unconscious, but not before looking into the eyes of the man who killed her husband and wounded her. She regained consciousness three weeks later to discover Neil was dead. Shiromi’s body, heart, and life were broken. Another person’s decision can break our lives apart in an instant. Both Shiromi and Bathsheba suffered brokenness because of someone else’s choices. Yet both picked up the pieces, putting life back together.

Wrong Choices Lead to Broken Lives

2 Samuel 11 explains that although it was spring and time for war, King David stayed home, sending his army to fight without him. The narrator sets up the story by emphasizing that David failed to assume his rightful and honorable position as head of his army.

One evening, David took a walk on the roof of his palace. As he surveyed his kingdom, he spied a beautiful woman taking a ritual bath after her monthly cycle. Not only did the king see but continued to watch. Overcome by lust, he sent a messenger to inquire about her. With that move, the palace gossip mill would have sprung into action. When the messenger returned, he answered David’s question by naming Bathsheba’s father and husband. Her identity and honor came from her relationships. From then on, she’s referred to as “the wife of Uriah,” emphasizing her status as property. However, the author accentuates David and Uriah’s battle for honor.

Messengers brought Bathsheba to the king, and he slept with her. Although scholars debate whether she was the victim or villain, could she have refused? After David finished, he sent Bathsheba away, heaping shame on her. Whereas he could have paid Uriah for her, he didn’t want her either as a wife or a concubine. Most likely, he didn’t think about her again until…

Bathsheba Found Her Voice

Bathsheba sent a message to the king informing him of her pregnancy. (11:5) For the first time, we see Bathsheba initiating action. If the adultery were a secret, David could’ve ignored her message. Instead, he sent for Uriah, hoping the soldier would rescue the king’s honor by making it appear the baby was his. But Uriah refused to play along, defending his honor and shaming David. With Uriah dead, David could marry Bathsheba, save face, and restore his honor.

After David’s death, Bathsheba’s son Solomon became king, and she became the honored queen mother. Tradition says she is the author of Proverbs 31, given to Solomon when he married Pharaoh’s daughter. 

Picking up the Pieces of a Broken Life

How did Bathsheba and Shiromi pick up the pieces of a broken life? How can we? Proverbs 31 shows us how.

1. Respond with prayer. “Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers!” (31:2) Bathsheba responded to her heartache with prayer. Shiromi called out to Jesus as soon as she heard the shots.
2. Resolve to forgive. “Her husband has full confidence in her… She brings him good, not harm.” (31:11, 12) Healthy relationships require forgiveness. When I asked Shiromi how she was teaching her son to forgive, she replied, “I show him.” The murderers escaped prosecution because of political maneuvering. Shiromi encountered the hitman each day as she took her son to school—an opportunity to show her son the face of forgiveness.
3. Reach out to serve. “She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.” (31:20) Refusing to surrender to fear and self-pity, Shiromi returned to pastor the South Asian church her husband had pastored.
4. Rely on God’s power. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (31:30) None of the above is possible without depending on the Lord’s strength.

God can turn broken pieces into masterpieces. Will you trust him with the broken pieces of your life?