2 Samuel 11:1-27 (ESV)
1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 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.”
6 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. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 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.” 16 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. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”
22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Many people have heard of this story, even if they’ve never read a Bible before. I think it’s so famous because it’s so scandalous, and people love scandals. King David, God’s chosen man, takes another man’s wife and has her husband killed so he can be with her. I’m sure this true story inspired the plotline of many novels. I think part of what makes it so famous is it tells the story of a hero of the Old Testament committing extremely sinful acts. It’s shocking. It’s salacious. How did this happen? Why did David make such horrible choices? How could someone so full of faith fall so far?
First, David was somewhere he shouldn’t have been. The text tells us this was the time when kings go to war, but David did not go. It says, “But David remained at Jerusalem.” In the Benson Commentary it says, “But David tarried still at Jerusalem — He committed the care of this war to Joab, and did not himself go out to fight, as he had done against Hadarezer: had he been now on his post, at the head of his forces, he had been out of the way of temptation.”
In other words, David was not where he should be. He should have been leading his army. There is disagreement about what time of day this took place. It could have been in the late afternoon, like the ESV says, when people took naps in order to escape the heat of the day. Or it could have been at night and he got out of bed. In the Hebrew language, the word is evening, which is the same word used in Genesis 1:5, which says, “And there was evening and there was morning.” Whenever this temptation and failure took place, it could have been avoided if he was where he should have been: out with his army.
Because he’s home and restless, he spies Bathsheba. He doesn’t recognize her, so he asks who she is. He finds out who she is, and we know that he knew who her family was, for David is told, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David should know who that is, for even her grandfather is Ahithophel the Gilonite, who is David’s chief counselor. This should have been the point when David should have said, “Ah, yes. Never mind,” and gone back to bed. Instead, David’s lack of honor is even more pronounced when we compare his actions with the actions of Bathsheba’s husband. He’s summoned, and yet he won’t go home because it’s not the right thing to do: it’s not fair to his fellow soldiers if he were to go home when they are still at battle. Uriah does what David failed to do. He acts honorably. Even when David gets him drunk, he still refuses to go home. This makes David’s crime against him all the worse. And as verse 14 tells us, unbeknown to Uriah, David cruelly makes him carry his own death-warrant.
If only David had been as honorable as Uriah. But he wasn’t. He ignored that information, then he made bad decision after bad decision. Really, he did the opposite of what Psalm 1 says to do. Do you remember that recent sermon? David is the perfect illustration, in this instance, in that he walked where he shouldn’t have, he stood and stared, and then he “sat down” in deliberate sin. David should have taken his own advice he gives in Psalm 4:4. Maybe he wrote this after this event, after he had learned his lesson. He says, “When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent” (NRSVA). If only David had stayed in bed, instead of idly walking around.
2 Samuel 12:1-14 tells us what happened next, after all this tragedy took place. It says, “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. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 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. 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.’ 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, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’
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. 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. 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. 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.” 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. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.”
David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’
And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.’”
Being as famous as it is, there are many different opinions of this story, and different commentaries that I read even blame Bathsheba for what happened. They say that she was bathing on the roof in order to attract attention, and so she was to blame. They say it was her fault David saw her and asked for her: she was trying to seduce him. Those people should be ashamed of themselves for trying to blame Bathsheba for David’s horrible behavior. Other commentaries rightfully point out that by bathing on her roof, she thought she had privacy. The only place higher than her roof would have been the roof of the palace. Why should she think anyone would be on the roof of the palace spying on her? I see no way in which this is Bathsheba’s fault. And in the prophet Nathan’s story to David, the little lamb is 100% innocent of wrongdoing. Everything wrong was done to the lamb. The lamb was without blame. The lamb was the victim.
Nathan doesn’t blame Bathsheba, and neither should we. For how could she be at fault? How could she resist the king? Whatever he says is law, and in that time and in that culture, a woman did not have any rights. What we know is because David was king, she couldn’t have resisted him even if she wanted to. But maybe she was flattered, but maybe she was terrified. How can we know since the text doesn’t tell us? Anything we conclude is just a guess. In that case, we should not bother to guess, but instead focus on what the text focuses on, which is David. It is David who is in the wrong. It is David who did this series of bad things and the Lord’s response is shown to us. The text says clearly: But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. The NASB has a better translation for this verse. It says, “But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.” Displeased makes it sound like the Lord was simply not pleased. No, it was much more than that. God considered David’s actions to be evil. That conveys a lot more emotion than the word displeased, don’t you think?
Nathan tells David, though, that he isn’t going to die, which, by the way, would have been his rightful punishment. Leviticus 20:10 tells us, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
It’s incredible that David didn’t die for this, for we see by reading the commandments in Deuteronomy 5, that David broke the commandment, “And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,” then he broke the commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” and then he broke the commandment, “You shall not murder.” David broke three commandments. He coveted another man’s wife, he committed adultery, and then he had Uriah killed.
How did David end up in this place? Looking back over his life, we can see that his sin started long before he coveted Bathsheba. He had taken other wives. This violated God’s law He gave in Deuteronomy 17:17 that kings should not take many wives.
Maybe you are wondering why God forgave David, but did not forgive King Saul, even though the text tells us that just like David, Saul, too, said, “I have sinned” (1 Samuel 15:24), but Saul was not forgiven, and David was. We can’t know the mind of God, but we can make an educated guess. As it tells us so at the beginning of the Psalm 51, David wrote Psalm 51 right after Nathan spoke to him. Just by reading the first four verses of that Psalm, we see David express his deep repentance. He says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.”
King Saul must not have been truly repentant. Whereas, God must have seen David’s heart, and must have seen that he was truly repentant, and so God forgave him.
But this leads me to a question we should ask ourselves. Even David, who loved the Lord and had seen His provision and guidance, was not above grave moral failure. Are we taking steps in our lives to prevent the same sort of thing from happening to us? If even David fell so far, should any of us think we are above such moral failing? We should be careful to follow all of God’s decrees so that sin doesn’t end up snowballing, becoming something that ruins our lives and God’s calling. David is a beautiful example of God’s great forgiveness, but David’s sin was not without consequence. He later is forbidden to build the temple. God tells him he is a man of violence and cannot build it. It makes me recall what happened with Moses. He was forbidden from entering the promised land because he disobeyed God’s instruction to him. Even though the Lord forgives us, sometimes our sinful actions have lasting consequences.
I also think we could be in danger of doing something similar to what King Saul apparently did. Saul said the words, “I have sinned,” but he must not have actually been repentant. I’m worried that there are Christians who do things they know are wrong, but they think in their heart: ‘It’s okay, because I will repent and ask the Lord to forgive me.’ I think that’s a mighty dangerous road to walk, and I don’t know that we should think forgiveness works that way. Saul was even distraught, and he admitted he sinned. Saul said the same words as David, yet God only forgave the sins of David. God said he regretted making Saul a king. God must have looked into their hearts and He rejected Saul and pardoned David. If we cavalierly think we can do what we want because God will forgive us, I think we are deceiving ourselves. God sees into our heart. If we think we can pull a fast one on Him, we are sorely mistaken.
David’s extreme moral failure with Bathsheba and his orchestrating her husband’s death should stand as a clear warning to all Christians. David, God’s chosen king for Israel, let his guard down, was where he shouldn’t be, made one bad decision and it snowballed into a terrible crisis. If you read this story and think, “In the end, it all worked out. God forgave him.” Then you’ve missed the forest for the trees. The consequence of David’s sin is astoundingly bad. David’s child dies. David is not allowed to build the tabernacle. His sons follow in his footsteps and are immoral and violent. One rapes his own sister, another son murders that brother for what he did and then tries to overthrow David so he can be king. Another son has 700 wives and 300 concubines. David failed to lead his children in righteousness, and they followed him in his sin.
We know David sinned when he stopped and looked at Bathsheba taking a bath, but I wonder if his first sin, though, was that he wasn’t where he should be. He wasn’t leading his army. He let someone else go for him. Maybe he was tired of the fighting. Can you relate to him? It’s tiring to fight all the time. Yet, if we want to follow Jesus, we can’t let our guard down. We are told throughout the Bible to be on guard against sin. Jesus tells us to guard against the “yeast of the Pharisees.” We are to guard against the devil’s attacks. We are to guard our hearts, and guard our minds against false doctrines. As 2 Timothy 1:13-14 says, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” If we let our guard down, and give ourselves opportunities to sin, I’m afraid we will find ourselves overcome by temptation. If that happens, then like King David, we will wreak havoc in our lives and in the lives of others.
Which, by the way, harming others is one of the consequences of our sin. In Nathan’s prophecy to David, he says in verse 14, “Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” The NASB1995 translation says, “by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” The ERV says, “you did things that made the Lord’s enemies lose their respect for him.” Not only was the child going to die, but David’s actions brought contempt for the Lord. The Lord’s enemies lost respect for the Lord. That means that David was a horrible witness to all the other nations of what it means to be a follower of God.
Have you ever stopped to think about how our actions as Christians reflect on God’s character? As His representatives, how we behave or misbehave can bring honor or disgrace to God. The hypocritical behavior of so many Christians is one reason why so many people today are not receptive to Christianity. By our immoral actions, we have brought utter contempt on Jesus. That should cause us to cry out to God to have mercy on us.
David’s story of sin is profound and famous for many reasons, but hopefully, the reason it is so well known is because it shows us the overwhelming mercy of the Lord. To a heart that is truly repentant, the Lord extends grace and mercy. This story offers us this hope: if God could forgive David, then God could forgive us. This is a story of forgiveness. For at the end of the day, we must look at ourselves and conclude that we, too, are sinners. We are not perfect like Jesus. Though we strive to be like Him, we fail. Let us not throw off caution and let our guard down, though. Let us not end up in places we ought not be. Let us cling all the more to our Savior and His Word. Let us rejoice that our sins are forgiven and let us pray for strength to resist temptation. 1 Corinthians 6:11 tells us this Gospel of Good News. It says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” The message is, all people, no matter the manner of depravity, may be washed clean of their sins and receive forgiveness, being changed by the blood of Christ. If you have found that grace and forgiveness, then strive to follow Jesus in such a way that you bring honor to His name and not contempt. Let us pray.
Pray: Heavenly Father, please convict our hearts when we think we can get away with sin. Please help us to truly repent and turn from sin. Thank You for washing us clean and forgiving us when we fail to be perfect. Thank You for sending Jesus to die on the cross for us, so we can be called Your children. Help us to respond to Your Spirit’s leading so we go where You lead us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
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