2nd Samuel Chapters 11-12 – John Karmelich

1. Now we come to the second most famous sin in the bible: David and Bathsheba.

2. For the three people out there who don’t know this story, let’s summarize it first:

a) David is home at his palace and spots a very good looking woman from his balcony.

b) He finds out she is married. He sends for her anyway and has consensual sex.

c) He finds out before the sexual act that her husband is off fighting the war.

d) To cover the sin, David sends a message to General-Joab to put Bathsheba’s husband in the front of the battle lines. He gets killed. David is guilty of murder.

e) Chapter 12 is about the prophet Nathan using a parable to illustrate the sins that David has committed. Nathan then predicts the problems David will have the rest of his life. Those troubles are described in the remainder of 2^nd Samuel.

f) The chapter also has some epilogue war verses that are not directly related to David and Bathsheba. The main lesson of those verses is to show that God still unconditionally blesses Israel because of God’s promises and not because of David’s behavior.

g) There, all done. Time to call it a week. ☺

3. I can preach a wonderful sermon on the evils of adultery. I can preach an equally wonderful sermon on the effects of murder. What’s more important is to personalize these chapters.

a) The bible goes out its way to tell the negative aspects of its heroes as well as their accomplishments. The bible does this so we can relate to these people as fellow human beings with weaknesses like our own. It is a mistake to think we can’t ever be as used like a David and it is an equal mistake to think we can’t fall like David did at his peak.

4. Most older people have regrets in life. I suspect they (ok, we) have all had a fantasy as follows: “I wish I had a time machine. I would go back to when I was a teenager or in my twenties. I would go find “that kid” and tell them not to do what they are about to do. It is going to mess up their lives forever. I was an arrogant kid who didn’t think about the long-term consequences. I want to tell that young kid, look at what you’re about to do and watch how it will affect your life for years to come”.

a) I call this the “ripple effect”. The mistakes we make in our lives often have consequences for years to come. Yes, we learn from our mistakes. Yes, God forgives us of our mistakes when we ask for that forgiveness. Still, we have to live with the consequences of those actions. We still carry the scars for the rest of our lives.

b) Getting back to David, the mistakes of these chapters ripple through the rest of his life. The same way the sins and mistakes we make will have consequences the rest of our life. For the remainder of David’s life, he will have trouble and pain that you wouldn’t wish on your worse enemy. God raised up David. To whom God gives a lot of power, God also holds accountable.

5. One of the questions I wrestled with this week was, “Why didn’t God kill David, or why didn’t the Israelites put David on trial for murder?”

a) God calls for capital punishment for murder. It is the only law that is either alluded to, or stated directly in all five books written by Moses (i.e., the first five bible books).

i) For example, the bible says, “‘If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death.” (Leviticus 24:17).

b) In this chapter, David commits murder. There is no getting around that fact.

c) So why didn’t God “zap” David with a lightening bolt? ☺

i) Part of the answer is the text says, “You (that’s us, not God) shall not a murderer to live”. God places capital punishment under the responsibility of society. It is up to society to obey God’s laws. God does not “force” obedience upon us.

d) So why didn’t the Israelites put David on trial for murder?

i) Part of the answer may be that they didn’t know at the time.

ii) “General Joab” knew of this, yet he went along out of loyalty to David.

iii) Even if the Israelites knew, David was the one who led the country to becoming a great empire. They may have been too intimidated to “take on” David. The rest of Second Samuel will show how the country suffered the consequences of not dealing with this sin.

6. With that in mind, let’s get back to the fact that God called David, “a man after his own heart”.

a) I take the premise that God knows all things. If God is perfect, then God cannot learn. Therefore, God knew before David was born that: 1) He would be on the run from Saul for years, 2) He would be king and lead a great empire, 3) God would pick him as part of the lineage leading to the Messiah and 4) God knew in advance that David committed adultery and murder.

b) My point is God was aware of David’s sins when God “picked” David.

c) That is something for us to take comfort in. When God calls us to salvation, He is aware of all the sins we will ever commit for the rest of our life. God is well aware of all the mistakes and willful sins we will commit in the future the moment we commit our lives to serve Him. God still picked us despite those sins.

d) Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t excuse any sin. We still have to pay the consequences of those sins. Know that God loves us and choose us despite whatever we do after that moment in time. God is willing to love us despite our faults and failures. We as human beings tend to be a lot tougher on ourselves than God is. After we have confessed our sins to God, our ego’s think, “I should have been a better person”. God says in effect, “I know you’re sinned. I’ve forgiven you. Why won’t you forgive yourself?”

e) OK, let’s begin the tragedy. ☺

7. Chapter 11, Verse 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.

a) First, notice the editorial comment, “At the time when kings go off to war”.

i) Whoever wrote this knew that David should have been off leading the army.

ii) In the last part of Chapter 10, General Joab won some battles, but when King David was leading the army, the victory was all that much greater.

iii) It is as if the author is saying, “If David was out leading the army, none of this would have happened!”

iv) What is interesting is that despite the fact that David was not there, the Israelites still won. Despite David’s sin coming up, the Israelites still won.

v) In fact, you can read this two-chapter section as sandwiched between battle victories over Israel’s enemies. It shows God’s grace and His unconditional blessings despite the circumstances.

b) The verse also says that “springtime” is the time that kings go off to war. The reason battles often were fought this time of the year were due to good weather conditions and the fact that armies could walk through farm lands and live off of the crops.

8. Verse 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, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"

a) First, let’s summarize these two verses: David woke up from a nap and was walking around his rooftop patio. David spotted a beautiful women bathing. David inquired who she was. David discovered she was married. The text says she is the daughter of Eliam. This guy is mentioned in Chapter 23 of this book as among David’s “mighty men”.

b) In the introduction, I talked about mistakes one makes when one is young in life and how it ripples through the remainder of their life. In David’s case, he made the mistake of marrying more than one woman. He started a harem despite the fact that bible teaches that kings are not to multiply wives. (Reference: Deuteronomy 17:17).

i) You would think that having a stable full of wives would be enough. I’m sure some, if not all of David’s wives were beautiful to behold. To state it crudely, if David was horny, he could have looked around his harem and “somebody” would have cooperated. ☺

ii) A point to learn from these lessons is that lust is never satisfied with “enough”.

iii) The only way to kill a sinful desire is to “crucify it to death”. What I mean by that is you must isolate it, and then run away from it.

iv) David was a man who sought God. Most of the Psalms were written by David. David’s weakness was a lust for women. Having a bunch of wives didn’t satisfy that appetite, it only made David hungry for more. Being “religious” doesn’t magically make a lustful desire go away. The only way to kill a desire is to isolate it and run away from it!

v) The best illustration on this principal is charcoal briquettes. To keep them hot they have to be clumped together. If you isolate one briquette, it goes cold. That is the only way to kill a sinful desire: to isolate it and let that desire “grow cold”.

c) David at this point in his life was middle aged. Most commentators believe David was about 50 when this happened.

i) One thing you learn as a Christian is that temptation does not die when you get older. The temptations of youth still exist as one gets older.

ii) One of the great dangers as a Christian is times of “boredom”. Here was David, successful as a king, leader of a great empire, great religious accomplishments, a respectful leader, and now, home and I suspect, bored out of his mind.

a) I’m convinced part of the motivation for David doing this deed is just for the “thrill” of the danger. David was used to being on the run most of his early life and being in war most of his latter life. This is a guy accustomed to having adrenaline rushes! Now that he was home, “bored”, the idea of trying to get away with this sin had a rush of excitement to it.

b) I’m also convinced that Satan does his best work when we achieve our goals, have success in life, and then, get bored with the day-to-day routines. Our human nature craves excitement and fresh things.

iii) In the last lesson, I talked about the fact that since God announced that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. Satan now knew where to “best focus his attack”. Satan couldn’t defeat David on the warfront, so he attacks him after success kicks in and at a moment of boredom. You can almost hear Satan tell one of his demons, “Quick, Bathsheba is out there bathing naked! Quick, David has a weakness for women! Wake up him! Make him sleepless! Suggest that he go out his window and take a look!”

iv) So what’s the remedy for dealing with “temptation over boredom?”

a) First, stay daily in prayer. We can’t overcome sin based on our own strength. Pray for God’s help to overcome temptation.

b) Second, daily read God’s Word. One of my favorite proverbs is, “This book will keep you from sin and sin will keep you from this book”. It’s hard to commit sin thinking about the fact that God is watching you and knowing you are accountable to Him.

c) Third, be accountable to other people. I have seen people who know their bible backwards fall into sin. I usually find those people are in situations where there is no other person to which they are accountable.

(1) Christian men especially need accountability to other Christian men or a small group. Because God is invisible to the eye, there is something more fearful about the embarrassment of having to tell your Christian friends of your mistakes. It is a great motivation tool to avoid temptation.

d) Finally, when it does happen, run! The bible teaches that in every tempting situation, God does provide an escape rout. (See 1^st Corinthians 10:13). When you see that escape route, take it!

9. Verse 4: Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. ⁵ The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."

a) Boy does this one verse pack a punch! In one verse, we read that Bathsheba came to David, they had consensual sex, she went home and soon found out she was pregnant.

b) The verse says, “She had purified herself from her uncleanness”. The book of Leviticus lays out a monthly ritual for women and their menstrual period. The point of mentioning that fact here is to know that Bathsheba just had her period and therefore, Bathsheba was “definitely” pregnant from David. Remember her husband Uriah was off at war.

c) I should also comment a little on Bathsheba here.

i) The guilt of this adulterous act falls primarily on David. We will read of God punishing David, but not Bathsheba, other than the death of the baby itself.

ii) Still, “it takes two to tango”. ☺ We don’t read of David raping Bathsheba.

iii) You have to wonder what was she doing bathing naked outdoors where others can see her. I’m not saying it’s just her fault for what David did. I’m saying that a married woman has no business “publicly bathing”. Sometimes we have to go the extra mile to do things so that we can avoid tempting situations.

iv) I have seen my share of women exhibitionist. You can usually spot them at sporting events. They like to parade down front of the grandstands. Their ego’s enjoy it when lots of guys are staring at them. The problem is they don’t realize the danger they put themselves in. There are lots of creeps out there and they don’t know the danger they are inviting for themselves.

d) You can almost hear the words “I am pregnant” ring in David’s head.

i) David probably thought, “I can get away with this. Her husband and her father are both away fighting the war. Nobody is looking. Besides, I’m the king and I can do whatever I want. Nobody will ever know”. David is now dealing with the stress of trying to keep his sin a secret.

ii) As a Christian, if you learn one thing in life, it is as follows: We don’t get away with anything”. God holds Christians to a higher standard than He does non-believers as we are His “witnesses” to the world. I guarantee that whatever sin we commit, eventually gets “found out”, or we pay the consequences. God will not stand for any of His “chosen people” to be bad witnesses for him.

10. Verse 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.

a) David now has a problem. David cook ups a scheme to cover his sin. He sends for Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to come home from the war front. He does “small talk” with Uriah about the war and then tells Uriah to go home to his wife for the night. The king even sends a gift to Bathsheba’s home for Uriah. I don’t know what the gift included, but I can bet it didn’t include contraceptives. ☺ Uriah chooses not to go home to his wife, but instead spends the night at the entrance to the kings’ home with the palace guards.

b) It is interesting to think about this from the point of view of the different characters.

i) I can hear General Joab getting the message, “Send me Uriah the Hittite”. I can hear Joab thinking, “Why would David want that guy? If he wants a battle progress, why didn't he ask me? Oh well, “Hey Uriah, get over here. The king wants to talk to you back home. No, I don’t know what he wants!”

ii) I wonder if Bathsheba knew of David’s plot. I wonder if he told her to expect him home for a visit. If word got out she was pregnant and her husband was out to war, it could be a death sentence for her for adultery.

iii) The hero of these verses turns out to be Uriah the Hittite.

a) A “Hittite” was one of the pagan nations that the Israelites were supposed to conquer. Apparently, Uriah was a converted Jew.

b) The guy had a lot of zeal for Israel and for King David.

c) You have to think that Uriah was puzzled by this conversation. He probably thought, “David called me back here to talk about the war? Why me? What’s really going on here?”

c) Notice any lack of intervention by God at this point. Let’s face it, God could have sent an angel, stopped this whole thing, and no murder of Uriah would ever happen.

i) This gets back to the issue of “Why does God allow evil?” The answer is partially to show us the consequences of sin. We can’t freely choose God out of our own free-will unless we are equally given the opportunity to sin as well. Even if that sin causes pain to others!

11. Verse 10: When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?" ¹¹ Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"

a) Let me paraphrase Uriah here: “Your highness, you expected me to go home and sleep with my wife? No sir! I can’t do that. My fellow soldiers and I are “one”. If they don’t have the privilege of coming home to their wives, then neither do I. If they are busy fighting for Israel, then I too will do my duty and protect my king by sleeping with the guards outside the palace.”

b) Personally, the guy is a lot more disciplined than I am. After being at the front for a long time, it would be very tempting to go sleep in a bed with my wife. Uriah would not be committing any sin by going home to his wife. These verses just show Uriah’s zeal for God and zeal for his fellow soldiers.

c) Uriah also mentioned that the “the ark of God is staying in a tent”. That either refers to the tent-structure that David made for the ark, or possibly, the soldiers took the ark into battle with them.

i) A few chapters back, a proclamation was made to David from God that a son of David would build a future, permanent home for the ark. I’m guessing that proclamation was public knowledge.

ii) If that is the case, when Uriah says, “the ark is in a tent”, Uriah is saying in effect, “I, Uriah am fighting for the day when the Messiah comes down and we have a permanent, peaceful rest of the land. In the meantime, I fight for my homeland and for God. Until that promise is fulfilled to a descendant of David, the war will continue and I choose to be a part of it”.

iii) I have to admit, I do wonder if Uriah will have a greater reward in heaven than David. David was much older, and the bible records far more of David’s life than Uriah’s. Still, I believe our rewards in heaven are based on our lifelong record of obedience to God. On that scale, Uriah beats David hands-down.

12. Verse 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.

a) David’s next trick was to get Uriah drunk. Even in Uriah’s drunken weakness, he does not go home to Bathsheba. (Maybe Uriah couldn’t find his way home now. ☺)

b) The text read that Uriah slept on his mat at the kings door.

13. Verse 14: In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵ In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line 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. 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.

a) Here we read of David sending an order to Joab. The order read in effect, “When the battle heats up, put Uriah in front so he’ die.” Joab did as ordered, and Uriah died.

i) Notice Uriah delivered that order from David to Joab. Notes were sealed the messenger was not allowed to read it. David trusted Uriah not to open it!

b) You have to wonder what Joab was thinking when he read that order:

i) “Was Uriah some sort of traitor? It can’t be. I know the guy. Even if he was, David would just have the guy killed and not go through some plot like this”.

ii) Joab must have thought, “OK, for whatever reason, David wants this guy killed. Personally, I like the guy, but orders are orders. After all, I’m not guilty as David gave the order and not me”. I’m just doing the dirty work.”

iii) I’m sure Joab thought a lot less of David. There is a commentary on this point to the effect of, “Well, David can write all of those Psalms, but when he wants his dirty laundry thrown out, he comes to me, Joab!” (Source F.B. Meyer).

c) David is responsible for murder. Not only for the murder of Uriah, but of whatever soldiers died in that same battle.

i) Never, never underestimate our ego’s. We (yes we) will go to tremendous lengths to try to cover up our sins instead of having them publicly exposed.

ii) I find that in order for people to really change, they have to hit “rock bottom”. Each of us has a different point of “rock bottom”, but we each have one. For David, it won’t be until the next chapter when he is confronted with the sin.

14. Verse 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? <sup>21</sup> Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn't a woman throw 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, `Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.' "

a) The point of this paragraph is that Joab still needed to deliver the message to David that Uriah was dead. Joab didn’t want to be punished for the fact he lost a battle. Joab didn’t want the guy delivering the message to be punished either. The “get-out-of-jail-free” card was the coded message: “Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead”.

b) There is a reference to the book of Judges here. Centuries earlier, there is the story of an Israelite-judge leader named Abimelech who died when a millstone was thrown over a wall and it fell on Abimelech.

i) To paraphrase this thought, Joab was telling the messenger, “What if David says, “Why did you get so close to the wall? Don’t you soldiers read your bible? ☺ Don’t you know that in the times of the Judges a “judge” (Abimelech) was killed by getting too close to the wall? You should know better than that!”

ii) Joab was telling the messenger “If David gets too ticked off about the bad news of the war, mention the Uriah-thing and that should calm him down!”

15. Verse 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 to 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."

a) Here is David being told that Bathsheba’s husband is dead. The messenger brought the war report to David. The “coded sentence” was given of Uriah’s death and David said to the messenger in effect, “Thanks for the report. We lost? Oh well, life goes on.” ☺

b) Understand that there is a time lapse here. From the day Bathsheba got pregnant, it took time to get Uriah back to Jerusalem for a visit with David. It then took time to get a messenger to Joab. It took time to find the right battle for Uriah to die in. Given that time lapse, David must have been worried sick because that baby in Bathsheba’s stomach is now growing. I can imagine the stress David put on himself waiting for the announcement Uriah’s death.

c) With that in mind, you can read these verses as a sense of relief on David’s part. It doesn’t excuse it of course, but you can picture David thinking, “OK, I got away with it”.

d) Several pages back I pondered what would motivate David to do this, and the best thing I could come up with is “boredom” and the adrenaline rush of trying to get away with this. Now that David thinks he got away with it, you can sense the temporary relief David got from this stress.

i) The problem with having a “healthy” fear of God is you can’t stand the guilt of your sin. That pain causes stress and misery. I have heard that many criminals are grateful when they are caught because they can’t stand living with the guilt.

16. Verse 26: When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

a) Notice the “editorial comment” of this verse: The name “Bathsheba” has been edited out of the text. Bathsheba is only referred to as “Uriah’s wife”. In fact, when you read all of Chapter 10 and most of Chapter 11, Bathsheba is referred to as “Uriah’s wife” as if to emphasize the comment of what David was doing wrong.

b) You have to wonder what Bathsheba was thinking at this point. I’m guessing she did have some love for her ex-husband and feels guilty about what happened.

17. Verse 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.

a) In Jewish culture, there is a traditional time-period for morning the death of one’s spouse. After that time frame was over, we read of David adding her to his harem.

b) From the point of view of the local townsfolk in Jerusalem, David was probably a hero in this verse. All the locals knew was that Uriah died in battle. His poor pregnant wife now didn’t have a husband to raise the child. Now, David, as a good gesture, agreed to marry her and let her child be raised in the palace.

c) Then comes the biggest understatement of the whole chapter: “But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.”

d) Now that the crime has been committed, Chapter 12 is the punishment.

18. Chapter 12, Verse 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."

a) Now we are reintroduced to the prophet Nathan.

i) We last read of this guy in Chapter 7 when David wanted to build a temple.

a) God told David “no” via the mouth of Nathan the prophet.

ii) Now, Nathan “just” shows up at David’s doorstep to tell David he is wrong.

iii) One sermon I heard on this point (Bob Davies) mentioned that prophets are the bravest people in the bible. They’re the guys who have the guts to walk right up to a king and tell them they have sinned. If you don’t think this is hard, try telling a fellow Christian of their sins! Watch their defenses go up! ☺

b) Nathan told David his sin through a parable.

i) This is a very clever way of discussing the issue. If Nathan just bluntly told David what he did was wrong, David’s defenses would have been up and David would probably just deny it or try to justify it. Instead, Nathan tells this parable.

c) Let’s summarize the parable: The parable was about a rich man with lots of sheep and a poor man who only had one female lamb. The poor man prized his one female lamb and kept it as a pet. When the rich man had company over for dinner, he took the one lamb from the poor man instead of one of his own flock.

i) Notice that Nathan never stated if this was a true story. David’s assumption when hearing this story was that this was true.

ii) This chapter opened with “The LORD sent Nathan to David.” I suspect God somehow, implanted the idea of this parable in Nathan’s head. God told Nathan of David’s sin and then told him how to approach David.

iii) Again, what is impressive is how Nathan found a way to tell David of his sin without directly confronting David on the issue.

19. Verse 5: David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶ He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."

a) The NIV translation here misses a point. The verse is translated here as “deserves to die”. If you read the King James and other versions, you get the impression that David wants to impose the death sentence.