SCRIPTURE: 2 SAMUEL 11
DAVID AND BATHSEHEBA (vs. 1-27)
David sent Joab with Israel army to war while he remained in Jerusalem. One evening, David jot up from his bed and walked around on the roof of palace. He saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba bathing. Then David sent message to get her and he slept with her. The woman conceived and sent word to David. David then told Joab to send Uriah to him. He asked Uriah how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David told Uriah to go to his house but Uriah did not go home. David asked him why he did not go home. He answered: “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open tents. How could I go to my house and eat and drink and be with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing” (v. 11). Then David invited him to eat and drink. He was drunk but he did not go home.
In the morning, David sent letter to Joab telling him to put Uriah in the front line when fighting was fiercest so that he will be struck down and die. Joab sent David a full account of the battle with the news that Uriah, the Hittite was dead. When Bathsheba knew that her husband died, she mourned for him. After the mourning period had passed, David brought her to become his wife.
THOUGHTS:
Instead of being in the battlefield with his army, David was in Jerusalem committing adultery. He schemed a plan for the death of Uriah and became a murderer. The scheme succeeded but God was displeased. Do not yield to temptation. Always remember that the wages of sin is death.
David was trying to cover his sin by tricking Uriah into going home. But Uriah was a discipline man. David’s first plan failed. So he find a new scheme to make Uriah drunk. But even under the influence of wine, Uriah remain disciplined. David’s last resort was to have Uriah killed in the battlefield so that he could take his wife. The plan worked and Uriah was killed. But David’s sin can never hid it from God.
David grieved deeply for Saul and Abner, his rivals but the showed no grief for Uriah, a good man with strong spiritual character. David had become callous to his own sin. He did not feel guilty for what he had done. Deliberate repeated sinning had dulled David’s sensitivity to God’s laws and other’s rights. Beware of falling into temptation. Confess your wrong doings to the Lord and seek forgiveness.