When David learned that his fourth-born son, Adonijah, had acted against his will and made himself king, David immediately gave orders to make Solomon king. He promised queen Bathsheba and he kept that promise (28-30). Bathseba showed David great respect and honor (31). She bowed low and called him lord.
Here is displayed good marriage practices. The husband exhibits love to his wife by making promises for her benefit and keeping them. The wife exhibits respect to her husband.
Some will bulk at these practices because modern culture teaches the opposite. Yet, no one can ignore basic human impulses. Men need and respond to respect. Women need and respond to love. Men also need and respond to love and women also need and respond to respect.
Fundamentally, we were created in the image of God. Love and respect are basic to God’s essence. God the Father loves his Son, and the Son respects and honors the Father. These are two of the seven spirits emanating in and from the Holy Spirit. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself… However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” (Eph 5:25-33).
“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” (Eph 5:22-24) Love and respect are selfless, not selfish. Love and respect are sacrificial and trust. Love and respect are more pleasant than any self-gaining life.
