II Samuel 11 – 12 and I Chronicles 20

I am always saddened when I read about David and Bathsheba, where David, described as a man after God’s own heart, commits adultery and then has the husband of the woman he slept with murdered via the sword of the Ammonites.

On the other hand, I am also heartened by the fact that Bathsheba is one of the four women mentioned in Matthew in the line of Christ. We have already encountered the other three women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. Tamar played the prostitute, Rahab was a prostitute, and Ruth was a Moabitess, not a Hebrew.

David, who should have been on the battlefield with his army, but instead he sent Joab and the army to fight the Ammonites. This must have caused David to have a lot of free time. He’s walking on the rooftop when he sees a gorgeous woman taking a bath. Even though he finds out that she is the wife of one of his best fighters (we first saw the name Uriah the Hittite in a list of The Thirty, David’s special fighters), he sends for her and sleeps with her. Nothing is said about whether she consented to this or not; I doubt she would have dared say no. Of course, she becomes pregnant and given the circumstances, there is no way the baby could be Uriah’s.

Hoping Uriah will sleep with Bathsheba and think the baby is his if he is home for a few days, David sends for him, but Uriah refuses to sleep with his wife, even after David gets him drunk. What a devious man David was! When that didn’t work, he orders Joab to put Uriah close to the city wall, where he is sure to be killed. Sure enough, Uriah is killed. Once the mourning period was over, David sends for Bathsheba and marries her.

Sounds like something out of a soap opera, doesn’t it? What on earth was David thinking? He knew right from wrong. When Nathan the prophet told him the story of the rich man and the man with only one little lamb, he saw the injustice. When Nathan said, “You are the man,” David confessed his guilt. Our wonderful Lord forgave David, but there were still consequences: David and Bathsheba’s child died from a deadly illness and the Lord promised that David’s household would revel against him.

How sad!

Tomorrow, it’s Psalm 32, 51, 86, and 122.

Until next time…