Will the Real Bathsheba Please Stand Up

You can call this a twofer...two blogs in one week. Can't beat that with a stick! I realize that this is highly unusual, but I just can't seem to get the story of Bathsheba off my mind. I think that all these years I've had the 'ole girl all wrong. You see every time I heard the story of Bathsheba, she was portrayed as a seductress who used her feminine wiles to attract the attention of a very popular king (ultimately causing his downfall). Bathing naked on the rooftop? Please...like she didn't know she had a peeping Tom. She knew exactly what she was doing...or so I had been led to believe. After reading about Bathsheba in Jen's book, I became intrigued by this woman and her story. I started doing some background research and through the course of this reading, I began to see Bathsheba in a new light. Not as the conniving seductress I always believed her to be, but as a woman of real strength and character. Ok...so now I'm really confused. Who was the woman anyway? Will the real Bathsheba please stand up?!

We are first introduced to Bathsheba during an unfortunate encounter with Kind David. King David was the golden boy who had way too much time on his hands and ended up getting himself caught up in heck of a mess. This is where the blame began to fall on Bathsheba. Surely it was easier for everyone to point fingers at this woman they knew very little about then to admit that their BMOC (Big Man on Campus) was human and messed up. I mean woman are the root of all evil aren't they? The funny thing is that when it was all said and done, David didn't blame Bathsheba for any of it. I found this commentary written by Daniel F. Case
(http://www.case-studies.com/biblestudies/david3.htm)
"David didn't try to shift the blame for his sin. This Psalm doesn't contain one single word of self-justification. David didn't try to blame Bathsheba for his downfall, or talk about the enormous stresses and responsibilities in the life of a great leader. He faced his sin head-on, and called it what it was: his sin. "
In Psalms David says...
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.


So I guess my (rhetorical) question is this....If David didn't blame Bathsheba for his sin....why have we?

This is pretty much where my knowledge of Bathsheba stopped...at this one, not so flattering encounter with David. Besides being the mother of King Solomon I don't remember ever hearing another Bible story about her. What a shame, because the more I read about Bathsheba the more interesting I find her. She was far from perfect, and made plenty of mistakes, but yet God used this woman to do his work.