Wrong Actions

When did it all go wrong?

In this passage from Samuel we discover that King David had done something that was very wrong. King David took a woman that was not his to his bed. 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. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Sa 11:2–3). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The account of what happened seems as though it was very accidental. David just happened to be walking on his roof one afternoon and just happened to notice a beautiful woman bathing. A study of the time and the verb form of the stroll we find that, 2–4. The account of what happened is brief and objective. The king has an afternoon siesta, followed by a stroll on the roof, which of necessity involves going backwards and forwards, getting nowhere, a sense conveyed by the Hebrew verb form.

Baldwin, J. G. (1988). 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 8, p. 248). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

The second half of verse 3 shows how David as King is king of all. In other words, kings were given complete power and control, what they asked for they got. Does this mean that the servants could not refuse him? I believe this is the case. David, asked about the woman and received word that she was a married woman. Listen to the response he gets. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Sa 11:3). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

This is a brave soul trying to warn David from doing something he will regret. The statement is formed in a question so as to not be too demanding but to put it back on David. This is actually something that Jesus uses all through out the New Testament. Look what David does despite the gentle warnings, 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.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Sa 11:4). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. There are a couple of things about what happens here that we need to take a quick glance at. 1. Despite the gentle warnings David sends for the woman and she is brought to him. The writer Samuel, lets us know something else important to the story; the woman was not pregnant before she came to David’s bed. We know this because she was purifying herself when the messengers arrived to her home, perhaps why she was bathing in the afternoon. 3. The woman returns to her home. This is important because David and the woman had just been together intimately and you should understand that this was not the way of the Lord.

Every one night stands greatest fear is apparently what happens next. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Sa 11:5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The next few verses are all about cover-up and other than it being wrong look at all the people that help David without questioning his motives. Also, notice that David sends a message in the hands of the man who was her husband. Does David have any conscience?

The final act of a desperate man to cover his tracks is found in verse 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.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Sa 11:15). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

So today, when did David begin to fall from grace? 1. Perhaps when he invited the woman to his bed? 2. Perhaps when David made plans to have her husband come home to be with his wife? What I will tell you is that David most likely has been falling for awhile, but from the beginning of this passage David is doomed. 11 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Sa 11:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

David stays home while his servants go off to battle. This was the Spring of the year. A time when Kings went off to battle.

The King James version of the verse refers only to ungodliness: An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire. Only The Living Bible of 1971 injects the idea of idleness into its translation: Idle hands 27  An ungodly man diggeth up evil:

And in his lips there is as a burning fire.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Pr 16:27). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.are the devil's workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.