God doing God things - He sees.

2 Samuel 11 KJV 1900

1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. 2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. 3 And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 4 And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. 6 And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. 10 And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house? 11 And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. 12 And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. 13 And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. 14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. 16 And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. 17 And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; 19 And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, 20 And if so be that the king’s wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 22 So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for. 23 And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. 24 And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king’s servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 25 Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. 26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

Introduction

Exodus 20:12-17 “12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”

The set-up. vs 1

This all takes place around the spring time.

A new year has just started.

Nature is waking up again.

Winter agricultural chores are done and there is a brief respite before the summer chores begin.

With the nicer weather and the natural break in activity, most kings used this time of year to initiate any military campaigns that they hoped to engage in.

David has unfinished business with the Ammonites.

They had embarrassed and offended some of his men, so David sends Joab to attack their capital city.

David, by this point in his reign, does not feel it necessary for himself to accompany the army personally.

Instead, he hangs back in Jerusalem to enjoy all that has been accomplished.

As we will see in this account, David has become intoxicated by his own success.

Since becoming king of the unified kingdom, he has enjoyed undisturbed prosperity.

Every year of his reign, David becomes more and more powerful.

One of the first signs of trouble is the situation that David crafted for himself in verse 1.

He is alone and he is idle.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.

-Sam Johnson

David is both.

When he was a shepherd, he was often solitary, but he was never idle.

Even when the sheep were resting and calm, David occupied himself with psalm-writing, sling practice, or playing his instrument.

This is a bad place for this account to start.

It only goes downhill from here.

Breaking Commandment #10. vss 2

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.

David wakes up from a nap one evening and goes for a walk on the roof of the palace.

David’s palace was situated on a elevated part of the city.

From the roof, David could look out on all of Jerusalem.

It doesn’t seem like David went up there looking for trouble.

As he looked out over the city, something caught his eye.

It was a woman.

On a roof.

Bathing herself.

David couldn’t control what Bathsheba chose to do at her house.

We don’t know why Bathsheba was doing this.

It wasn’t necessarily normal.

Did she know that David might be watching?

Regardless the Bible plainly places the responsibility of all that happens on David.

Where David failed in this moment can be found in the phrase, “the woman was very beautiful to look upon.”

This indicates to us that David didn’t just notice what was happening.

He lingered on what was happening and got enjoyment or pleasure out of seeing her in this condition.

David chose, once he saw Bathsheba to continue looking at her.

David in this decision, became covetous of Bathsheba.

He broke the 10th commandment which expressly prohibits coveting after what is not yours.

Though this was a definite, damaging sin, David could have stopped there and many lives would have been saved.

Instead, he takes another step.

Breaking Commandment #7&8. vss 3-5

Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal.

David inquires of his servants who this woman is.

Throughout this account, David relies on his servants to accomplish his desire.

For a man that goes to great lengths to cover his tracks, he sure employs a lot of people in his sin.

David finds out who the mystery woman is.

Her name is Bathsheba.

She is the daughter of Eliam.

She is also married to Uriah the Hittite.

Let’s unpack all of this for a second.

Eliam, her father, is the son of Ahithophel, one of David’s favorite counselors.

Uriah, her husband, is listed as one of David’s mighty men that had stood with him during his life as a fugitive.

This means that David knew who she was the moment the servant said, “Is not this Bathsheba?”

David didn’t need to know who her father and husband were, she was a person that he had been familiar with for a long time.

David is somewhere around 50 years old by the time all of this happens.

What had he known Bathsheba and Uriah for 20+ years?

This should have stopped David in his tracks.

His soul is so clouded with lust that David disregards these very meaningful connections.

He doesn’t care that Bathsheba has been a loyal supporter for decades.

He doesn’t care that she is the grand-daughter of one his best advisors.

He doesn’t care that her husband is one of his mighty men and is currently at war fighting for him.

David sends his messengers to bring her to him.

The Bible says that the messengers went and TOOK her.

Some, even quite recently, have tried to insinuate that this means that David raped Bathsheba.

There doesn’t seem to be much support for this.

The word TOOK typically means to get or receive.

It is less common for it to mean lay hold or take away.

There is no evidence of violence in this part of the story.

Bathsheba appears to go willingly to the king.

The affair that takes place seems to be result of two consenting, un-married adults.

It is adultery, it is fornication.

When it was over, she returned to her house.

Perhaps that is all that would have ever happened.

An impulse gratified, never to be revisited.

Some commentators don’t believe that this was a one time event.

Uriah would be gone for months.

The Bible has a record of condensing events that lasted a long time into a brief summarizing statement.

Whether it was a regular occurrence or a one-time event, the relationship took on a different seriousness when David received a message from his mistress.

Bathsheba was pregnant.

Those 4 words would signal to David that things would never be the same.

If he would have just gone to battle, he wouldn’t have been alone on his roof.

If he would have just looked away, he wouldn’t have fantasized about this bathing woman.

If he would have never asked for her to come to the palace, they would have never had an inappropriate relationship.

But, he had done all those things.

Now there was proof.

David immediately sets to work trying to cover up his sin.

Proverbs 28:13 “13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Breaking Commandment #9 vss 6-13

Thou shalt not bear false witness.

David tries to execute a scheme that would have kept his infidelity hidden.

He orders Joab to send Uriah back to Jerusalem.

David hopes that if Uriah comes home, he can make it look like the baby Bathsheba is carrying is not the king’s.

This is a lie, it is deception.

Uriah arrives from the battle and David immediately starts acting.

He feigns interest in the battle and how it goes.

Look at the word demanded and imagine David speaking in as noble a voice as he could muster.

After Uriah gives his report, David pulls out his next deception.

He tells Uriah to go on home and relax a little, get some good rest.

As Uriah leaves David’s presence, the king has his servants carry a feast’s worth of food behind him.

What a generous and gracious king, am i right?

Rest, food?

He must really love and appreciate Uriah.

Uriah doesn’t go home however.

He marches straight to the bunk house where David’s servants slept.

This may have been like a barracks where the palace guards slept.

The point is, he doesn’t go home.

Do you think Bathsheba was expecting him?

Do you think she was in on the scheme and had the whole evening planned out to seduce her husband?

What did she think when he never showed up?

David finds out that Uriah never went home, so he calls him again.

David asks him why he didn’t go home to his wife.

Uriah answers with a reply that should have, and would have normally, ripped David’s heart right out of his chest had he not been so blinded by sin.

How could I go home, eat and drink, lie with my wife while we are at war?

The ark (and supposedly the presence of God) are out in the field.

My brothers in arms from every tribe in Judah and Israel are sleeping outside a besieged city.

My commander Joab too is sleeping out in the open fields.

Uriah says to David that he could not bear to enjoy such comforts while so many were out in the battle.

Some have speculated that perhaps Uriah had some inkling of suspicion.

Remember there are multiple people who know that David was inquiring about Bathsheba and that she was brought to the palace.

But, we don’t know and all we have to go on is what he said.

What he said, should have been convicting to David.

Instead, he is still scheming.

He tells Uriah to spend one more day and night in Jerusalem and on the morrow he will send him back to the battle.

That night Uriah dines with David.

And David got him drunk.

David is hoping that an inebriated Uriah will go back to his house without holding so tightly to his morals.

As many have pointed out, however, a drunk Uriah proved to be more noble than a sober David.

Uriah goes back to the servants quarters and sleeps.

David has to be frustrated that his cover up is failing so badly because of the honesty of the man he defrauded.

Why couldn’t he have just given it up?

Why couldn’t he just come clean?

Why don’t we?

Breaking Commandment #6 vss 14-25

Thou shalt not kill.

The next morning before Uriah returns to battle David writes a letter for him to deliver to Joab.

Though he doesn’t know it, Uriah will carry his own death sentence back to Joab.

In the letter, David had ordered Joab to set Uriah wherever the battle was hottest and then to pull back from him so that he would die.

Joab gets the message and immediately sets to work fulfilling the king’s orders.

Joab must have known that Uriah was fallen from the good graces of the king.

Joab actually changes the plan a little bit.

It would be too suspicious if just Uriah died.

Instead, he orchestrates it so that some other men will die with him.

After it was done, Joab sent a messenger back to David to let him know that Uriah had died.

Look at how calloused David’s response is.

Remember this is the man that wept when Saul, his enemy died.

Upon hearing that one of his own mighty men had died because David had betrayed him, David says. “2 Samuel 11:25 “25 Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him.”

The disconnect from reality and true personhood that sin implants in our human character is astounding.

The wrap-up. vss 26-27

Bathsheba goes into mourning over her dead husband.

Traditional time of formalized mourning for a Jew was 7 days.

Obviously for a person with a beating heart, the grieving period would last much longer.

After the 7 days is up, David and Bathsheba got married.

Lucky girl; married to the king.

Living in the palace.

I mean who wouldn’t want to trade a man of honor and love for a king who already has 7 wives!!??!!

That’s right.

Bathsheba becomes David’s 8th wife.

But, hey, at least their little indiscretion won’t be found out now.

From the time that David found out she was with child to the time of their marriage, a very short time period has passed.

You have to move quickly so people who can do math to suspect something fishy going on.

Watch this, Day 1, David finds out about the baby and immediately dispatches a messenger recalling Uriah.

It takes two days to reach Uriah and two days for Uriah to make it back to the kingdom.

On Day 5 David tries to get Uriah to go to his house, he refuses.

On Day 6, he tries again.

On Day 7, He sends Uriah back to the battle.

On Day 8, He dies.

On Day 10, word gets back to Jerusalem.

7 days of mourning.

On Day 18 David and Bathsheba get married.

This gives plenty of time to conceal the conception of the child.

Everything is once again A-okay in David’s world.

He has successfully prevented a scandal.

Very few people have any idea that anything has happened.

But…there is someone who had seen the whole thing transpire.

He watched every step of David’s decline into sin.

He watched as this man after God’s own heart had broken 5 of the 10 commandments.

God saw David’s sin…and you know what, He was actually okay with it.

I mean, after all the good things that David had done, this one little hiccup could afford to be overlooked.

Plus, with as stressful as being king was, David deserved a little indulgence.

Finally, and this is kind of personal, but David had needs you know.

His first 7 wives were shutting him out, so really it’s their fault, they pushed him to this.

You know that this isn’t true.

The Bible tells us that God was displeased with what David had done.

No excuse could be offered to justify all that David had done.

Next week, we are going to look at the consequences that must result from David’s sin.

Tonight, we have one application to apply to our lives.

When we talk about god doing God things, let’s not forget one of those things is His omniscience.

There is nothing that we do or think that He doesn’t know.

He will never leave us or forsake, even when we go about to do things that grieve Him.