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2 Samuel Chapter 11
David and Bathsheba
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2Samuel 11:1 And it came to
pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go
forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with
him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon,
and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
Perhaps this is where we get the
saying, "Idleness is the devil's playground." Perhaps David is just
weary in battle from being at war so much. Although it might sound
good though, one can be tempted when too busy also. We can get too
busy with the Lord's work that we forget to have one on one
fellowship with the Lord in the process.
These wars are from the time David's
servants were badly treated by the people of Ammon. It continued
being the third of those wars.
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2Samuel 11:2 And it came to
pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and
walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he
saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to
look upon.
He should have turned and walked away
right then and there. This account of sin in the life of David shows
us the severity of the Lord but also His divine mercy. One may
wonder why she was bathing in sight of the place where the king
dwelt. The roofs were flat and maybe she assumed no one would see
her.
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2Samuel 11:3 And David sent
and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this
Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?
Again once he found out she was a
married woman, he should have stopped. He was inviting trouble in
his own household because of this one temptation.
- 2Samuel 11:4 And
David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him,
and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness:
and she returned unto her house.
5 And the woman
conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
Women had no say in dealings with
kings. Some had no say in the dealings of their own husbands if that
husband was a cruel person. We saw previously in the case of
Abigail's husband, that she disagreed with what her husband did
because he was an evil person, and intervened to save her whole
household from being killed by David and his men when they took
vengeance. This account is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 25.
God warned Israel through the prophet
Samuel when they first wanted a king instead of the judges; what
would happen to them if they had a king over them like other
nations. They were not rejecting Samuel, they were rejecting God.
Here is Samuel's warning to Israel when
they desired a king:
- 1 Samuel 8:5 And
said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in
thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
- 6 But the thing
displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us.
And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
- 7 And the LORD
said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all
that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but
they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
- 8 According to
all the works which they have done since the day that I brought
them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have
forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
- 9 Now therefore
hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto
them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over
them.
- 10 And Samuel
told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him
a king.
- 11 And he said,
This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:
He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his
chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his
chariots.
- 12 And he will
appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties;
and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest,
and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his
chariots.
- 13 And he will
take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and
to be bakers.
- 14 And he will
take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even
the best of them, and give them to his servants.
- 15 And he will
take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to
his officers, and to his servants.
In other words, they had no say in how
they lived their own lives. Kings would become dictators, doing as
they pleased.
- 2 Samuel 11:6 And
David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab
sent Uriah to David.
- 7 And when Uriah was
come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the
people did, and how the war prospered.
- 8 And David said to
Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah
departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess
of meat from the king.
David tried to cover up his sin by
getting Uriah to go be with his wife so he would assume the baby was
his when the child was born.
- 2Samuel 11:9 But
Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the
servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
- 10 And when they had
told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David
said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then
didst thou not go down unto thine house?
- 11 And Uriah said
unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and
my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the
open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to
drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul
liveth, I will not do this thing.
Uriah seemed to be an honorable man who
didn't think he deserved to enjoy time with his wife when other
soldiers were out in the fields awaiting their return to battle.
- 2Samuel 11:12 And
David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I
will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and
the morrow.
- 13 And when David
had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him
drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the
servants of his lord, but went not down to his house.
David further tries to get he man drunk
so he would go to his wife. It seems though that Uriah was
determined to not take advantage of the privileges the other men did
not have at the time. David's plan was not working. His sin will be
exposed for all Israel to see.
- 2Samuel11:14 And it
came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab,
and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
- 15 And he wrote in
the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest
battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and
die.
- 16 And it came to
pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a
place where he knew that valiant men were.
- 17 And the men of
the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of
the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died
also.
- 18 Then Joab sent
and told David all the things concerning the war;
I'm wondering what Joab thought of all
these events. This was not good. Under the law though if a woman
cheated on his wife she could be stoned as an adultress. In this
case though, David was the guilty party since he was king and she
had to submit to his authority. I'm wondering why she didn't try to
stop him though. Perhaps she feared for her own life or she
purposely bathed in the open to attract him in the first place. We
just do not know but the blame still is on David more than any
other.
One sin if not repented of will lead to
many others as we shall see further in this chapter. He should have
repented the very first evening he sinned and made things right. Yet
the consequinces of sin will still cause us heartache even if we do
make it right with God.
- 2Samuel 11:19 And
charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of
telling the matters of the war unto the king,
- 20 And if so be that
the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore
approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye
not that they would shoot from the wall?
- 21 Who smote
Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece
of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez?
why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the
Hittite is dead also.
- 22 So the messenger
went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for.
- 23 And the messenger
said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came
out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the
entering of the gate.
- 24 And the shooters
shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king's
servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead
also.
- 25 Then David said
unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this
thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as
another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and
overthrow it: and encourage thou him.
David assured Joab that he would not be
blamed for anyone's death for coming to close to the city and the
wall. In fact David was relieved that Uriah was dead.
- 2Samuel 11:26 And
when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead,
she mourned for her husband.
- 27 And when the
mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and
she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that
David had done displeased the LORD.
God was very displeased
and David is soon to discover that sin will find us out and it
does have consequences.
In our own day and age we might wonder
why God was more severe with Saul than with David. He removed the
kingdom from Saul giving it to David after the sins of Saul. To us
it would seem David's sin was greater than the disobedience of Saul.
I will have to give my own speculation here since we don't exactly
know why.
Saul's disobedience was a direct
violation of God's orders at the time given through Samuel. His
greed outweighed his desire to obey God. The first time he sinned
was the time he didn't wait on Samuel to offer sacrifices showing
that he was impatient and thought in himself that he could offer
sacrifices contrary to the law of God which required the presence of
a priest. That account is in 1 Samuel 13.
Another time was when God commanded
Saul to wipe out all the Amalekites who previously went up against
Israel when they came first came into the promised land. That time
when Amalek came against Israel is recorded in Exodus 17.
Israel was instructed by God in the book of
Deuteronomy to wipe out Amalek.
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Deuteronomy 25:17 Remember
what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth
out of Egypt;
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18 How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee,
even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and
weary; and he feared not God.
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19 Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee
rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the
LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that
thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven;
thou shalt not forget it.
Samuel instructed Saul to wipe out all of
Amalek including the cattle but Saul kept the best cattle for
himself and couldn't find it in himself to destroy them. This
account is in 1 Samuel chapter 15. We in this modern age will not
understand that much but they were to be wiped out and their memory
wiped out. I'm assuming that the people were very evil. God didn't
always command that the spoils of evil nations be destroyed but in
the case of Amalek, all was to be destroyed. Saul was not obedient
and thought he could do as he pleased. It was a direct violation of
an order. It is strange also that it was an Amalekite that killed
Saul in battle at the end of Saul's life. At least the Amalekite
took credit for killing Saul thinking David would reward him. Had
Saul completely wiped all of them out, that would not have happened.
The account of that young Amalekite is in 2 Samuel chapter 1.
Also Saul repented of his actions against David
when David spared his life but it was only temporary and the spirit
of jealousy would keep returning. He never got victory over that
jealousy but it kept coming back. His repentance was not genuine or
else it just didn't last long. He was not determined enough to keep
the sin from coming back within him.
David on other hand was a man who hated
his sin when it was pointed out to him. His repentance was genuine
and he paid the price for this act when the child he had by
Bathsheba died, when his own son later rebelled against him, when
lust caused one of his son's to rape his own sister and many other
things resulted from David's sin. He was able though to get right with
God. His repentance was genuine. God's grace is powerful when the
repentance is genuine. God sees our very motives and knows who is
for real and who is pretending. DC
2 Samuel Chapter 12
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