In the spring of the year, farmers go to their fields to plant and kings would go out to the battle field. This particular year, King David sent General Joab out to do battle with the Ammonites and they ravaged them and besieged Rabba their capital city. This was situated in a mountainous tract of Gilead. There are extensive ruins of that city remaining today. So the army of Israel, under Joab went to war, but David remained in Jerusalem.
One day, David was on his terrace that overlooked the rooftops beyond his palatial residence and as he surveyed the city, he could see a most beautiful woman, from across the way who was bathing. All was perfectly innocent, until David sent his servants to acquire about who she was. That was the first step, one small degree off course. He was told that she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his lieutenants in the army. In fact, Uriah was a very good friend of the king. When David captured Jerusalem away from the Hittites and Jebusites, he allowed only a handful of the captive people to remain and Uriah was one. Joab, of all people, would not have made him an officer in David’s army, except that he was the Kings personal good friend.
At the point of finding out that the woman was married and the wife of his good friend and loyal officer of the army, David should have prayed a blessing upon Uriah and sent a command to give Uriah a furlough for a week or two to spend with his wife. But David had been surveying his great city, The LORD had given him all and in a moment of vain weakness, he felt entitled to partake of the forbidden because he was the king. Bathsheba was brought to the palace where David entertains her and fulfills his sexual lust upon her and she becomes pregnant.
2 Samuel 11:2-5 ESV It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. (3) And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" (4) So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. (5) And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."
In order to cover up their sin, David sends word to Joab to have Uriah sent back with a battle report. He then does what he should have done before he turned his innocent thought into sin. He sends Uriah home and gives him a furlough to spend time with his wife; but now it was not innocent. David’s sin has now hatched a conspiracy to cover up his adultery. “Surely Uriah, coming off the battle field, after months of war, would be anxious to be intimate with his wife and then nine months later; he would think that the baby was his.” David said to himself. So David sends Uriah home and gives him a furlough to spend time with his wife and be refreshed from the battle; but Uriah was not only loyal to his king, but he was dedicated to his men. He could not enjoy the comfort of his wife while his men were in the heat of the battle, so he refuses to go home. Instead, Uriah slept that night at the palace gate with the king’s guard. Then David invited Uriah to dinner and got him drunk, but still Uriah would not go home to his wife.
2 Samuel 11:6-9 ESV So David sent word to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent Uriah to David. (7) When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. (8) Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. (9) But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
The conspiracy to cover up the adulterous affair now turned into a plot of murder. David sends Uriah back to Joab with a dispatch, a written decree sealed with the royal stamp. In the dispatch were instructions to send Uriah into the hottest part of the battle, to put him in the front lines so that he would be killed. Uriah carried his own death warrant to the general. Joab sent Uriah to the front where he was quickly killed.
2 Samuel 11:13-15 ESV And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. (14) In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. (15) In the letter he wrote, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die."
Word was sent back to David. Now, after waiting a respectable time, David could marry Bathsheba and carry on his adultery openly and claim the child as his. No one would be the wiser. But David forgot that there was a God in Israel and no king is exempt from the law and its penalty. David goes on, business as usual. His conspiracy worked and his sin was covered up.
2 Samuel 11:16-17 ESV And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. (17) And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.
Then Nathan comes to David with a problem that needs the intervention of the king. It seems that there were two men in Israel, one exceedingly rich with a great many sheep and cattle, the other was extremely poor and had only one little ewe lamb that he raised. It had become his children’s pet lamb and even the man had the lamb eat from his own plate and drink from his own cup. He held this lamb close to his bosom as one of his children. Then one day the rich man had wanted to entertain a guest and serve him a roast leg of lamb dinner. Not wanting to take one of his many fine lambs, he steals and slaughters the poor man’s family pet and serves it to his guest. David is enraged! “As surely as I live, that man shall die!” shouted David.
Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man!
2 Samuel 12:1-7 ESV And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. (2) The rich man had very many flocks and herds, (3) but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. (4) Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him." (5) Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, (6) and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." (7) Nathan said to David, "You are the man! “
The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I took you from the sheepfold and ordained you the anointed shepherd of my people, taking the kingdom away from Saul and establishing for you an everlasting dynasty. I gave you everything and if that wasn’t enough, I would have given you much, much more. Why have you disgraced my word and committed this great atrocity by murdering Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites and then stole his wife? There fore the sword will never leave your house. There will be bloodshed within your family and your wives will openly commit adultery against you in public. What you did in secret I will cause to happen to you in full public view. The child of this sinful deed will die” David repented and fasted for seven days pleading for the life of his child, but on the seventh day, the child died as Nathan had said; but, the LORD spared David’s life. Then David comforted Bathsheba and slept with her and she conceived and gave birth to a son; they named him Solomon.
2 Samuel 12:7-12 ESV Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. (8) And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. (9) Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. (10) Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' (11) Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. (12) For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.'"
2 Samuel 12:15-18 ESV Then Nathan went to his house. And the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. (16) David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. (17) And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. (18) On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm."
2 Samuel 12:24 ESV Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him.
Prayer: Most Merciful Heavenly Father, help us to learn from the stories of the Bible. Let them live in our hearts and direct our paths into your righteousness, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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