David and Bathsheba

Verse 1 - all of the soldiers go to battle, but David stays in Jerusalem

2 Samuel 11:2 ESV

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

hanging out and sees a beautiful woman; nothing wrong with seeing something and thinking it is beautiful

2 Samuel 11:3 ESV

3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

finds out she is married; what should happen now?; story should be over

2 Samuel 11:4–5 ESV

4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

David takes her, sleeps with her, and gets her pregnant; a lot of issues with this

morally, she is married; his sin had to do with seeing a married woman, wanting her and then taking her;

but now David has a problem; her husband is in battle

what issues does this bring to David?(knowledge that the baby is not his, adultery, potential backlash if he husband figures out who the baby belongs to)

So David comes up with a plan; but the plan isn’t a great one

The Half-Wit Cover-Up Plan: Two young insurance employees, Larry and Richard, discover their boss Bernie is dead. Instead of calling the police, they decide the best possible plan is to pretend he’s still alive for an entire weekend so they don’t look suspicious—and so they can survive the situation.

What the plan involves:

Propping Bernie up like a living person.

Using sunglasses, strings, and physical manipulation to simulate movement.

Letting party guests believe Bernie is chatting, dancing, and hosting.

David thinks that he can bring Uriah home and get him to stay in at home for the night so Bathsheba can sleep with him to cover up the fact that she got pregnant by another woman. But Uriah wasn’t having it. He was an honorable soldier. So while his men were in battle, he was not going to stay in his home in a comfortable bed.

2 Samuel 11:10–11 ESV

10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”

Uriah vows that while his men are at battle, he will not enter into his house and sleep with his wife. He was a man who was devoted to his soldiers who were in battle. He shouldn’t have even been home except for the fact that David sent for him. Since he won’t do what David wants him to, David has to go to plan B.

2 Samuel 11:13 ESV

13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

David got him drunk but he still refused. I can imagine that this was very frustrating to David. He knew how bad his actions were and his plan to cover it up were just not working. So it was now time for plan C.

2 Samuel 11:15 ESV

15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.”

Death. He was going to kill Uriah, who was the innocent party in this incident, in order to cover up his own sins.

What is an instance that this is relatable for us today? The one that comes to my mind is abortion. Now, I know that there is a very small percentage that are done for medical reasons or rape, but it is very slim. And there is no instance where a child in the womb should die. But the overwhelming majority of abortions are because someone has made a decision and they don’t want to live out the consequence. So they eliminate the innocent party.

That is David’s ploy here. Have Uriah die in battle so that the truth can be hidden. So, in verse 17, we see that Uriah dies on the battlefield. Word now gets back that Uriah has died. David hears about it. And Bathsheba hears about it too.

2 Samuel 11:26–27 ESV

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

David let’s things settle and he swoops in and takes her as his wife. Now, maybe not as much as it was in years past, but I know a lot of people who got married just because one party got pregnant. I think they believed that they were “making it right”. And, in some cases, it was the right thing to do.

But in David’s case, this should never have been in the cards. He was immoral with a woman who was not his wife, he tried to cover it up, and when that didn’t work, he had her husband killed and he took her as his wife. And we see why this was not the “right thing” to do by the last of the verse. It displeased the Lord.

Why do you think that God was displeased by all of this?

Because God was displeased, he wasn’t going to let this go unpunished.

2 Samuel 12:1–4 ESV

1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

Nathan gives this story to David of a rich man who decides to steal a lamb from a poor farmer to have for a feast because he saw this lamb and just had to have it. I love how Nathan is using this illustration to make a point to David. David is the rich man.

2 Samuel 12:5–6 ESV

5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

David gets angry and says that this man must pay for what he did. He even went so far as to say that he deserves to die. But David didn’t know that Nathan was using this illustration to paint a picture of who David really was.

Has anyone ever given you a “scenario” and you are upset. And then come to find out it was about you?

2 Samuel 12:7–12 ESV

7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ”

God was going to make sure that David understood the severity of his sin. David tried to hide it and now his punishment was going to be public. But through all of this, it brings David down to earth and he sees exactly what has happened now.

2 Samuel 12:13–14 ESV

13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.”

So the child that David and Bathsheba have now is going to die. And that is what happens. While the child is sick, David fasted and wept. But the child still died. After the child died, David sits down and ate. God then gave him another child, Solomon. Maybe you can see the new child as some sort of redemption.

But I want us to turn to Psalm 51 and read it. As David is dealing with his sin, he writes this song to God.

Psalm 51 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

What do we see in this Psalm that we can see about David?

How does reading this and seeing David’s reaction teach us about our need to Jesus?