27 David and Bathsheba [2 Samuel 11]
The Bible passage: [2 Samuel 11]
The Story:
Kings usually marched out to war in the spring. One year, David sent the army of Israel out with Joab, their commander, and his officers. They destroyed the Ammonites and began a siege of the city of Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.
One evening David was strolling around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing – a very beautiful woman.
David sent someone to find out who she was, and he reported, “This is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he had sex with her. Afterwards, she returned home.
Bathsheba sent word to inform David: “I am pregnant.”
David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So, Joab sent Uriah to David.
When Uriah came to David, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going.
Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and clean up and spend the night there.” David was hoping that Uriah would sleep with his wife and cover up what David had done.
But Uriah didn’t go home. Instead, he slept at the door of the palace with all of David’s servants.
When David was told, “Uriah didn’t go home,” David questioned Uriah. “Haven’t you just come from a journey? Why didn’t you go home?”
Uriah answered David, “The army is living in tents, and my commander Joab and his soldiers are camping in the open field. How can I go into my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? I will not do this!”
“Stay here today,” David told Uriah, “And tomorrow I will send you back.” So, Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. He went out in the evening to lie down on his cot with David’s servants, but he still did not go home.
The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest fighting, then pull back from him so that he will be struck down and die.”
When Joab was besieging the city, he put Uriah in the area where he knew the best enemy soldiers were. The men of the city came out and attacked Joab, and some of David’s soldiers fell in battle; Uriah the Hittite also died.
Joab sent someone to report all the details of the battle to David. He told the messenger, “When you’ve finished telling the king all the details of the battle, tell him that Uriah the Hittite died.”
The messenger reported to David, “The men of the city gained the advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we counterattacked right up to the entrance of the gate. However, the archers shot down on your soldiers from the top of the wall, and some of the king’s soldiers died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”
David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this matter upset you. War devours all alike. Intensify the fight against the city and destroy it.’ Encourage him.”
When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah had died, she mourned for him. When the time of mourning ended, David had her move into his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. However, the Lord considered what David had done to be evil.
The Lessons:
- If David had gone out to war with the army, which was the standard practice, this event would have never happened. Sometimes we make choices that seem harmless, but they can lead us onto a road that can cause us to stray from God.
- David sinned, then he sinned again to try and hide it. When that didn’t work out, he sinned again and again. Sin sometimes does that to us, once we get started, it’s hard to break out of the cycle.
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