No sin’s too nice for His love to beat or too magnified for His mercy to wipe away. This lesson is about David’s grievous sins, the results, after which God’s redemption and restoration. If God forgave him after breaking three of His Ten Commandments and nonetheless name him a person after His personal coronary heart, He can certainly forgive us for all we’ve achieved.
David Commits Adultery – 2 Samuel 11:1-5
Though the Ammonites ran away when the Syrians fled from Israel in battle, David had not forgotten what King Hanun did to the servants he despatched to pay respects after his dad’s dying. So, within the spring, when the climate was nicer, David despatched Joab 20 miles east of the Jordan River, reverse Jericho, to battle the Ammonites of their capital metropolis of Rabbah.
Whereas they are saying this was the time when kings went out to battle, David didn’t go together with the remainder of the troopers. Due to this, he discovered himself at residence with the ladies whereas the remainder of the able-bodied males have been gone. This turned out to be a recipe for catastrophe. Someday, whereas he was strolling round on the roof, he noticed an exquisite lady bathing, both on her roof or within the enclosed courtyard of her residence. The girl wasn’t doing something unsuitable. She was hidden from the sight of everybody however the king, whose excessive place additionally simply occurred to supply a excessive place from which to look out throughout the land.
However David was drawn to her, and he requested round till he came upon who she was. Her title was Bathsheba. She was Eliam’s daughter and Uriah’s spouse, two of David’s Mighty Males who have been away at conflict (2 Samuel 23:8-39 [34, 39]). So, David known as for her and slept together with her. Quickly, she despatched phrase to him that she was pregnant. The infant didn’t belong to her husband Uriah as a result of when David noticed her bathing that day, she had been purifying herself from her month-to-month interval.
David Commits Homicide – 2 Samuel 11:6-27
Not solely had David slept with one other man’s spouse whereas he was away at conflict, however now he had been caught – or so it appeared. David determined to ship for Uriah. If he got here residence and slept along with his spouse, then everybody would suppose the child was his and David can be off the hook.
So, when David met with Uriah, he performed it off like he had simply needed to know the way the conflict was going. As soon as the king acquired all the small print, he advised Uriah to go residence and wash his toes. Afterall, he had traveled a good distance, and there was no motive he couldn’t take a while to get cleaned up and loosen up a bit earlier than he went again to battle. David even despatched him some meals so he may have a pleasant meal along with his spouse earlier than he left. However Uriah thought it might be unsuitable for him to take pleasure in a night at residence along with his spouse when his fellow troopers had no such alternative. So, he spent the evening with David’s servants as a substitute of going residence.
When David noticed that his plan had failed, he known as Uriah again to him and requested why he hadn’t taken benefit of the provide to go residence and be along with his spouse. Uriah advised the king that he couldn’t go residence, eat a meal, and sleep along with his spouse whereas his fellow troopers, and even the ark of the Lord, have been residing in non permanent shelters away from residence. That might be unsuitable!
So, David modified his technique and requested Uriah to remain that evening and eat and drink with him earlier than he returned to battle the subsequent day. David thought possibly he may make Uriah drunk sufficient that he would give in to his needs to go residence and sleep along with his spouse. However Uriah spent the evening on the sofa with David’s servants once more.
David had not counted on Uriah to be such an honorable man. So, the subsequent morning, he wrote a letter to Joab asking him to place Uriah on the frontlines, then to withdraw the remainder of the troops so Uriah can be killed. It’s beautiful that he so blatantly revealed his plan to the commander of his military. It’s one factor for him to secretly work behind the scenes to cowl his sin. However it’s fairly one other to repeat it out loud to another person. Then, to make issues worse, David despatched the letter by the use of Uriah himself.
It so occurred that Joab was in the course of besieging town when he obtained David’s orders, so he assigned Uriah to the place the place he can be met with the Ammonite’s finest warriors. When the enemy got here out in opposition to them, they did kill Uriah, however he was not the one one. Joab knew David would ask why they went all the best way as much as the wall, as a result of Abimelech had been killed years in the past by a girl who threw a rock from the wall at Thebez (Judges 9:50-55). His dying had develop into a cautionary story and Joab ought to know higher. So, when he despatched the messenger to inform the king how the conflict was going, he mentioned so as to add that Uriah had additionally died within the mission.
The messenger did as Joab mentioned. He advised David that the enemy had gained a bonus over them within the subject, however they managed to push them again to the doorway of town gate. However the archers shot down at them from the wall and a few of David’s males had died. Uriah was considered one of them.
Instantly David advised the person to inform Joab to not be upset or let it deter him from the mission. This was the best way of conflict. Typically their males die and generally yours are killed. Joab simply wanted to be robust and press ahead in his assault. David had religion that they might overthrow town as they continued to battle. It’s unclear whether or not David was encouraging Joab to not be upset about what that they had achieved to Uriah or if he was really speaking about dropping among the males within the course of as a result of he needed to seem like he was speaking concerning the lack of troopers to the messenger.
Additionally, Joab had not achieved it precisely like David advised him to, presumably as a result of ordering the remainder of the troopers away from Uriah would have raised questions and been a lot too apparent. David had already revealed to Joab that he needed Uriah useless. However it might positively be onerous to elucidate this to his troopers. So, David might have been letting Joab know that he understood why he put different males in hurt’s approach dying and that he condoned it offering that it facilitated Uriah’s dying. Not solely had David order the dying of a loyal, harmless soldier to cowl up his personal sin, however he inadvertently brought on the dying of many others within the course of. Many males paid the value for David’s sin whereas David seemingly acquired away with it.
Not solely that, however after Bathsheba’s time of mourning for her husband was full, (more than likely a few week later) David took her in as his personal spouse. However David would quickly discover out that simply because he had efficiently hidden his sin from everybody else, he had not hidden it from the Lord, and God was not proud of him.
