2 Samuel 11:1–12:25
My desire this evening is to show you that God is a strict and, at the same time, a loving Father. He forgives iniquity, but He does not turn a blind eye to sin. He pardons, but He does not leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18). He never glosses over sins, nor does He underestimate them. He does not make light of them. And He will not allow His children to walk in them. Like a good and responsible father, God disciplines us. He does not want us to grow up spoiled and pampered. My aim is that the fear of God in us would increase, so that we would not need to taste the fruit of our sin in order to hate it. To that end we will examine David’s sin against Uriah and God’s responses to David’s sin and repentance. The Old Testament stories were written for our instruction. Therefore we must read them and not repeat the mistakes of the Bible’s heroes (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Corinthians 10:11-12)
The eleventh and twelfth chapters of 2 Samuel are a vivid lesson on James 1:14-15:
14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15)
EACH ONE IS DRAGGED AWAY AND ENTICED BY HIS OWN DESIRE
Here is how it all began:
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 Samuel 11:1)
What time was it? A time for war. Where should David have been at that time? At the head of his army. And where was he? In Jerusalem.
Whenever our spiritual clock runs slow, whenever we step outside of God’s timing, whenever we relax and begin to rest on old laurels, we expose ourselves to temptation. All the fighting men were at the front, while David had stayed home together with the women of all Israel.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. (2 Samuel 11:2)
David had let himself go. He had spent the whole day in idleness. It was as if he had grown tired of everything, and he decided to go out for some fresh air.
From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, (2 Samuel 11:2)
By this time David was already about fifty years old. He was not some hot-blooded youth. Even so, on seeing Bathsheba, he was aroused and desired to have her. Here we see a man who is caught off guard, lured, and taken captive by the devil at a moment when he was unarmed. This also speaks to us about our own spiritual battle with the powers of darkness. As long as we do not stop fighting, we are safe. But the moment we take off the armor of God and stop watching, we expose ourselves to danger.
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.” (2 Samuel 11:3)
David did not know who the woman was that he had seen. But he described the location of her house very carefully and quickly managed to find out who she was. Notice, however, the precise information that David’s servant gives. Bathsheba is “the daughter of Eliam,” granddaughter of David’s counselor Ahithophel (2 Samuel 23:34), and “the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” The fact that Bathsheba was another man’s wife should have warned the king about the sinful direction he was taking. In that moment, however, David decided that he could have Bathsheba without any lasting consequences. This is exactly the deceit of sin – that you can taste the forbidden pleasure without being caught. We must not forget, though, that we do not stand before people, but before God. And God is omnipresent and omniscient. Moreover, He does not let sin go unpunished.
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. (2 Samuel 11:4)
Why did Bathsheba not resist? Could she have done so? Another woman did. When, at the sheep-shearing feast, Nabal insulted David and repaid his good with evil, David resolved to kill him. Then Abigail stopped him, saying: “My lord, to this very day the Lord has restrained you from taking vengeance and from shedding innocent blood. So stop! Do not carry out the bloodshed you have planned, for in time it would be a shameful stain upon your life. If you listen to me now, in time this crime will not weigh on your conscience, and you will be glad that you have remained pure before the Lord.” David valued Abigail’s advice and thanked her for it, because he perceived that these were in fact God’s words to him (1 Samuel 25:20-35).
Could Bathsheba not have done the same? She could have said: “My king, I am married; my husband is at the front. Do not permit this madness, for it will bring you no honor to the end of your life…” Had she resisted him, David would hardly have forced her. What held her back? Unfulfilled, unsatisfied desires. Perhaps Bathsheba had unmet longings, perhaps she felt lonely, perhaps she liked David, perhaps she was flattered by the thought of being with the king of Israel…
We love Jesus. But sometimes the unsatisfied desires within us keep us from doing His will and from being people of influence. Unsatisfied desires – to have, to feel, and to be something more – often lead us to “sow to the flesh.” And the deceit of sin is that nothing will happen to us, that we can sin freely and go unpunished. But it is not so!
DESIRE CONCEIVES AND GIVES BIRTH TO SIN
5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” (2 Samuel 11:5)
The fact that Bathsheba had “purified herself from her monthly uncleanness” (v.4) after her husband had gone to the front meant that her monthly cycle had ended, and that the child she was carrying in her womb was not Uriah’s, but David’s. When David realized he would be caught in adultery, he decided to cover up his sin.
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” (2 Samuel 11:6)
Uriah was no random man. He was one of David’s thirty-seven “mighty men” (2 Samuel 23:39).
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. (2 Samuel 11:6-7)
Instead of throwing himself at Uriah’s feet and begging his forgiveness, David – acting as if he had nothing to do with it – struck up an innocent conversation with Uriah. His cunning scheme, however, was to get Uriah to go home and sleep with his wife, so that Bathsheba could claim the child was her husband’s.
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!” (2 Samuel 11:8-11)
How pure, faithful, and innocent Uriah was. In this moment he is the complete opposite of David.
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. (2 Samuel 11:12-13)
Perhaps David hoped that once Uriah had a drink he would loosen up and his mind would grow foggy. But unlike David, Uriah could not allow himself to relax before the war was over. In that moment the Hittite Uriah had more morality drunk than the king of Israel had sober…
But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home. (2 Samuel 11:13)
Then David changed his original plan and took drastic measures. Here we have an example of how one sin leads to another – coveting to adultery, adultery to hypocrisy, and then to murder. David did not begin his fall with murder in his heart. But he set out on the path that leads to death. After he gave in to the lust of the flesh, the pride of life awoke in him. He did not want to bear the consequences of his deed; he wanted to keep his reputation and his position. And so he went as far as deciding that Uriah’s lips must be sealed forever, so that he could never deny being the father of Bathsheba’s child.
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.” (2 Samuel 11:14-15)
This was especially cunning and cruel. With his own hand David wrote and signed Uriah’s death sentence and gave it to him to carry to his own executioner.
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When 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. 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. (2 Samuel 11:16-17, 26-27)
Uriah was buried, perhaps with honors; the wedding went off normally; David’s baby was born safe and sound. It seemed that everything had worked out very well. But in Numbers 32:23 it says:
…and you may be sure that your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23)
BE SURE THAT YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT!
In Psalm 50:21 God speaks and says:
21 When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you. (Psalm 50:21)
God does not leave things as they are. If we sin in secret, He will repay us openly. God is love, but He is also “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24)! The eleventh chapter ends with God’s assessment of David’s actions.
But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. (2 Samuel 11:27)
This sounds to me like the writing on the wall in the palace of the Babylonian king (Daniel 5:27):
You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. (Daniel 5:27)
A more careful reading of chapters 11 and 12 of 2 Samuel will help us see that the structure of the whole section is chiastic.
A. David sends Joab to besiege Rabbah (11:1). B. David sleeps with Bathsheba and she becomes pregnant (11:2-5). C. David arranges the murder of Uriah (11:6-17). D. Joab sends a messenger to David (11:18-26). E. God’s assessment of David’s actions (11:27). D’. The Lord sends a messenger to David (12:1-14). C’. The Lord strikes David’s infant and it dies (12:15-23). B’. David comforts Bathsheba and she bears him Solomon (12:24-25). A’. Joab summons David to capture Rabbah (12:26-31). This shows that the last sentence of chapter 11 is the key to the whole section.
But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. (2 Samuel 11:27)
Everything we do is “before the Lord.” Is it good, or is it evil? May God keep us from a fall that would mark our whole life. Later, when the prophets gave their assessment of King David’s reign, they said (1 Kings 15:5):
For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. (1 Kings 15:5)
This sin is singled out as the one and only cause of God’s displeasure with David’s life.
2 Samuel, Chapter 12
1 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” (2 Samuel 12:1-4)
David’s crime was not that he had sex with a woman. As an Oriental king he had a harem and a wide choice of beautiful women who competed to please him and who were at his disposal at any time. David’s crime was that he coveted another man’s wife, committed adultery with her, and treacherously killed her husband.
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” (2 Samuel 12:5-6)
Often we too are quick to see the faults of others, but not our own. As he listened to Nathan’s story, David did not realize at all that the rich man portrayed in it was himself.
7 You are the man! (2 Samuel 12:7)
Through this short parable the prophet Nathan helped David to see himself through God’s eyes. It was a humbling experience for the king of Israel. What followed was God’s accusation and God’s sentence.
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.” (2 Samuel 12:7-9)
SIN, WHEN IT IS FULL-GROWN, GIVES BIRTH TO DEATH
David did not appreciate all the blessings he had from God, and he abused the power and the social standing he held. As he slipped further and further down into his temptation, one after another he broke three of the Ten Commandments of God: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exodus 20:17); “You shall not commit adultery!” (Exodus 20:14); and “You shall not murder!” (Exodus 20:13). And so God’s sentence corresponded to the grace that had been despised toward David.
10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. 11 This is what the Lord says: “Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.” (2 Samuel 12:10-12)
This prophecy was fulfilled in 2 Samuel 16:21-22. During Absalom’s rebellion David left behind ten of his concubines to look after his house (2 Samuel 15:16). But here is what happened to them:
21 Ahithophel answered, “Sleep with your father’s concubines whom he left to take care of the palace. Then all Israel will hear that you have made yourself obnoxious to your father, and the hands of everyone with you will be more resolute.” 22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. (2 Samuel 16:21-22)
Because David committed adultery with his neighbor’s wife, his own son committed adultery with his wives. David did it secretly, while Absalom did it publicly. Of course, after this David never went in to them again. He provided for them, but they were condemned to live as widows to the end of their lives (2 Samuel 20:3).
It is terrible to think that when we sin, we sow seeds of sin in our descendants as well. It so happened that three of David’s sons repeated their father’s sin. Just as David unlawfully took Bathsheba for himself (2 Samuel 11:2-4), so Amnon raped Tamar (2 Samuel 13:8-14), Absalom went in to the royal harem (2 Samuel 16:22), and Adonijah, after his father’s death, tried to take his father’s concubine (1 Kings 2:13-21). Throughout the Bible we see that whatever a person sows, that he will also reap. Jacob deceived his father with a goat’s skin, and his own sons deceived him by dipping Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood. Pharaoh ordered, in the cruelest way, that all the firstborn boys of the Israelites be drowned; later the fighting men of Egypt were drowned in the Red Sea. Haman raised a gallows for Mordecai, but he himself hung on it.
How many times over did David say the man who had stolen the poor man’s lamb must repay? Four times over. When he said this, David was perhaps pleased with his own answer, because this is what the law also said (Exodus 22:1):
1 Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. (Exodus 22:1)
By saying these words, however, David pronounced his own sentence – and not for theft, but for murder. Later in the books of Kings we read how he lost three of his sons. Amnon was killed by the servants of his half-brother Absalom for raping his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:28-29); Absalom was killed by Joab for rebelling against his father David (2 Samuel 18:14-15); and Adonijah was killed by Benaiah for asking, after David’s death, for Abishag the Shunammite as his wife (1 Kings 2:25). With so much death and loss of sons, David can hardly have been a super-happy man.
This would happen in the future, but God’s judgment began at once.
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” (2 Samuel 12:13)
The law was very specific concerning adultery. In Leviticus 20:10 Moses wrote:
10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)
According to God’s law David, though he was king of Israel, should quite justly have been stoned to death. Nevertheless, when David repented, the prophet Nathan conveyed to him God’s words: “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.”
14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die. (2 Samuel 12:14)
FORGIVEN, BUT PUNISHED
David’s sin was above all a sin against God, and it was not going to be passed over lightly. So it is with our sins. Therefore we must have the fear of the Lord and be exceedingly careful! God forgives His children, but He makes it clear that He hates sin. And He teaches us to hate sin by letting us taste its bitter fruit.
15 After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. (2 Samuel 12:15-17)
David humbled himself. He was afraid. David had witnessed what happened to Saul when he became proud and transgressed God’s command. What happened then (1 Samuel 16:14)?
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. (1 Samuel 16:14)
This is what sin ultimately leads to – to the Lord withdrawing from us. That is exactly why we must be very quick to confess our sins and to repent of them! On this occasion David wrote Psalm 51:1-4, 11:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;… 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalm 51:1-4, 11)
God forgave David and did not take his life, nor did He take His Holy Spirit from him. In Proverbs 28:13 it says:
13 Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,
but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)
David found mercy. Nevertheless, he still had to be punished, because “God cannot be mocked!”
18 On the seventh day the child died. (2 Samuel 12:18)
The child conceived in passion – that child had no chance. On what day are Jewish children circumcised? On the eighth. The day of circumcision was a day of covenant, a day of new beginning, a day on which the little one became a citizen of Israel (Luke 1:59; 2:21). The son of David and Bathsheba, however, did not live to the eighth day. He died one day before. Perhaps that is why his name is not mentioned in the books of Kings. What thoughts does all this lead us to? In Psalm 4:4 it says:
Tremble and do not sin. (Psalm 4:4)
PUNISHED, BUT NOT FORSAKEN
24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; 25 and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. (2 Samuel 12:24-25)
The naming of Solomon “Jedidiah” (that is, “loved by the Lord”) is an indication of God’s complete forgiveness toward David and a clear testimony of God’s mercy. The name Solomon means “peace and forgiveness.” He was loved by the Lord. What was the purpose of Solomon’s birth? To build the temple. Glory to God for His providence, and for the fact that, despite all the evil, He has this ability to turn evil into good and our failures into blessings! In this case we see, on the one hand, God’s severity, and on the other, God’s grace, since the lesson God gave His child was received.
In Psalm 89 God says:
20 I have found David my servant;
with my sacred oil I have anointed him.
21 My hand will sustain him;
surely my arm will strengthen him.
30 If his sons forsake my law
and do not follow my statutes,
31 if they violate my decrees
and fail to keep my commands,
32 I will punish their sin with the rod,
their iniquity with flogging;
33 but I will not take my love from him,
nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. (Psalm 89:20-21, 30-33)
Despite his sin, God did not stop loving David! And this is an enormous encouragement for us. God is strict, but at the same time a loving Father. And His aim in all of this is redemption and change!
Perhaps we think that what happened to David will never happen to us. But let us not be so sure. God will keep us – but only if we surrender to Him completely, if we walk daily in fellowship with Him. Let us remember that Satan still prowls around us and, “like a roaring lion,” is looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He is looking for believers who have fallen asleep at their post. Let us resist him, standing firm in the faith and fleeing from sin!