2 Samuel 11

1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him.9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.

18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”

22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”

25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”

26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.

Points of Interest

• ‘when kings go off to war, David sent Joab’--we skipped a few chapters in which David himself leads the army in a stunning series of victories over pretty much all of the surrounding nations. It’s getting to the point where other armies are wondering why they should even bother trying to resist David, since he’ll clearly come out on top anyway. Constant success is becoming humdrum for David as well. While all of the other kings go off to war as usual, David plays hooky, sending Joab in his place.
• ‘walked around on the roof of the palace’--in a warm climate, at the top of a hill where there might be a nice breeze, the roof would be a good place to get some fresh air.
• ‘From the roof he saw a woman bathing’--like not pulling down the shades in an apartment, Bathsheba bathing in full view of David could be a purposely seductive act, or it could just as likely be simple absent-mindedness. She might not be aware that anyone else is around or can see her or is even awake. Then again, if it’s an accident, they do end up sleeping together rather quickly.
• ‘the wife of Uriah the Hittite’--Uriah is another of David’s famous Thirty. He’s not just a soldier in David’s army, but part of David’s elite unit, and most likely someone who lived in close quarters with David during the difficult times when they were on the run from Saul. I don’t know whether or not it’s at all relevant, but Uriah is one of David’s non-Israelite men.
• ‘She came to him, and he slept with her’--it’s hard to believe David would do such a thing. The same man who twice refused to save his own life, saying, ‘Far be it from me to touch the LORD’s anointed,’ without giving it a second thought sleeps with the wife of another man--and not just any other man, but an old army buddy. David reminds me of rock stars who, upon finally hitting the big time, go into a self-indulgent phase. They suddenly think it’s their right to trash hotel room after hotel room, abandon their wives and children, drive their fancy cars through other peoples’ backyards, stage Bed-Ins, and release drivel like Revolution 9 and Zooropa. Not only can they afford it; they think they deserve it. Even more, they often think they deserve people applauding them for it. David seems to have that same sense of entitlement here: ‘I’ve worked hard and been good my entire life. Why shouldn’t I enjoy just one night with this beautiful woman?’
• ‘Go down to your house’--they have a bit of a timing problem. Uriah has been away at war long enough that the baby could not be his. So, David, hoping to cover his tracks, finds an excuse to bring Uriah home, hoping to get Uriah and Bathsheba in bed together.
• ‘Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants’--even drunk, Uriah is an honorable man. As a soldier on duty, he sleeps in the barracks with the rest of the men, instead of taking advantage of his privileges by spending a night at home.
• ‘Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down’--David out-Sauls Saul. Saul tried to kill David, and now David is trying to kill Uriah, for being too good a soldier. Even worse, David is punishing Uriah for David’s own mistake. And, chillingly, he’s making Uriah carry his own death warrant; he knows that Uriah is too reliable and honorable to fail to deliver it or to read it himself.
• ‘Why did you get so close to the wall?’--David’s order to get Uriah killed in battle necessitates what would usually be bad strategy on Joab’s part. He has to put the whole battle and many other men at risk in order to make sure Uriah dies. This is, to say the least, a significant breach of military ethics. Joab is reminding David that he’s following David’s own direct orders. It’s David’s fault that the battle went badly.
• ‘But the thing David had done displeased the LORD’--Only David, Bathsheba, and Joab know what has happened. A scandal has been averted. Everything looks okay on the outside, but that most definitely does not mean that everything is okay.

Taking It Home

• For you: So maybe it goes without saying that impregnating your friend’s wife probably isn’t the best idea; and in case you were thinking of also killing your friend, that mostly likely will only complicate matters and not get you what you’re looking for. While David’s outer indulgent, adulterous, murderous act is terrible in its own right, it even more makes me wonder what’s going on in his heart that could lead to such things. If only he could have been aware of and do something to address his heart’s state before joining the list of baby daddies and murderers! Take some time today examining your heart. What might your actions and behavior lately be telling you about your internal state? Have you been indulging yourself, like David did? Are you saying and thinking and doing things that just don’t seem like you, in a bad way? Spend some time focusing not on the acts themselves, but on what’s happening for you beneath the surface. Pray some of David’s prayer:

Psalm 139: 23-24

Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting

Psalm 51: 10-12; 17

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and make me willing to obey you...

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.

You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

• For your six: A few weeks ago, when David was helplessly fleeing through the hill country of Judea it was hard to picture him ever doing anything half as bad as what Saul was doing, and yet here we see him committing even worse versions of the very sins that were done to him. Ask God to protect your six from following David’s pattern of repeating sins that were done to them. It seems to be a pattern to which we are all so easily susceptible. Ask God to break in and transform any pain inflicted on them, and pray that they wouldn’t unconsciously transmit the pain they experienced to others.
• For our church: Ask God to protect us from the complacency that got David into such trouble. Ask God to increase our focus, passion and commitment to follow God.
• For families: Discuss any situation in which you’ve tried to cover up something that you weren’t particularly proud of. What happened as a result of trying to cover it up? Often, situations like these can result in more and more covering up, trapping us in layers of lies. Discuss the benefits of being honest about a situation up front, instead of hiding it or letting it get out of control. Pray that God would point out to you when you are trying to cover something up and give you courage to tell the truth.