II Samuel 11-12; I Chronicles 20     Listen

David, good in battle - bad in love (II Samuel 11)

1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 ¶ Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.
3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.
5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
6 ¶ Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.
7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered.
8 And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him.
9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
10 So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
11 ¶ And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
12 ¶ Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13 Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
14 ¶ In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.”
16 So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men.
17 Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; 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 you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king,
20 if it happens that the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you: “Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
21 Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, “Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ”
22 ¶ So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him.
23 And the messenger said to David, “Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate.
24 The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”
25 ¶ Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.”
26 ¶ When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
27 And when her 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.

Here's the infamous story of David and Bathsheba. Her husband fought in Israel's army, but was not a naturally-born Hebrew; he was a Hittite...married to a Jewish woman. Do you suppose David discounted the importance of Uriah's life because he was not Jewish by blood? Anyway, why isn't David out there fighting his own battles? Israel's at war! David did a bad, bad thing - adultery complicated by conspiracy to commit murder. Verses 4-5 would indicate that this wasn't even a casual meeting that just escalated out of control; David saw Bathsheba bathing, immediately sent for her, spent intimate time with her and then sent her back home. For a big-time king, these actions might have been no big deal had Israel not been a nation under Jehovah, but God expects more from his people.

The timetable for action was expedited by the pregnancy of Bathsheba as a result of David's selfish, extra-marital activities - like he didn't already have enough female attention. All's well that ends well - right! WRONG!

Then there's Uriah. What had to have made David feel like a dirty rotten dog here is the dedication to God, his country and his king demonstrated by the proselyted Uriah on his visit to Jerusalem from the battlefield (per David's command). While David is trying to orchestrate a cover story for his adultery by compelling Uriah to go spend a night with Bathsheba, Uriah is completely uncooperative. Look at verse 11, "And Uriah said to David, 'The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.'" A second attempt - this time with the assistance of an over-indulgence of alcohol - fails to cause Uriah to seek out and spend quality time with his wife, Bathsheba. To David, now the solution is simple - Uriah must die! David sends Uriah back to General Joab with a note commanding Joab to tend to Uriah's death in battle. Clueless Uriah is carrying his own death sentence!

Joab, with orders to make certain Uriah dies in battle from the King of Israel himself, makes a battle move which had proved fatal in previous Israeli battles (verse 21) - notably Abimelech’s death in Judges 9:50-53 (see notes). In that battle, the infamous Abimelech got too close to the city wall in battle and a woman dropped a millstone on his head. Joab apparently calculates that a similar fate will follow if he sends Uriah to fight near the wall.

You will notice that Joab didn't follow David's plan exactly. David's written order to Joab is seen in verse 15, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die." Wow...now that's cold! Instead, Joab sends Uriah to fight with other valiant men next to the city wall, and some of them are killed as well. Joab's plan actually resulted in the calculated deaths of others besides Uriah. Only David and Joab know the treachery that had caused their deaths.

David and Joab had even worked out a code (so to speak) for relaying Uriah's death from Joab to David without raising the messenger's suspicions - a carefully-devised cover up. It was deceit all the way around. Incidentally, you can see why Joab had so much influence in David's life. Even though David would like to have been rid of Joab, Joab knew where all of David's skeleton's were (so to speak). Ultimately that was Joab's undoing with David's deathbed decree that Joab be executed by his son, Solomon, in I Kings 2:1-12 (see notes).

Finally, in verse 27, David makes an honest woman of Bathsheba when he marries her immediately after the death of her husband, a war hero, in battle. To friends and family, David taking care of Uriah's widow must have seemed like a very noble deed on David's part - HOW IRONIC!

Bad-news - Nathan shows up! (II Samuel 12:1-23)

1 Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds.
3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him.
4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
5 ¶ So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!
6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
7 ¶ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!
9 Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
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 adversity against you from 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, before the sun.’ ”
13 ¶ So 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 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
15 Then Nathan departed to his house. ¶ And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill.
16 David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
17 So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.
18 Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”
19 ¶ When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” ¶ And they said, “He is dead.”
20 ¶ So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.
21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”
22 ¶ And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’
23 But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

Sometimes God's prophets can be a pain - know what I mean? You gotta admire Nathan's boldness in confronting David the way he does here; men had died for a lot less at the hand of David. "Hey David! I have a disgusting story for you!" David is all ears. Nathan tells a story - an allegory, which apparently David thinks is true. It's about a rich man and a poor man - a poor man with only one little sheep to his name. David was really into this rich-man-rips-off-poor-man story when he cries out, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!" Nathan makes the mother of all king-bashing statements when he replies, "You are the man!" Then Nathan gets ugly with his prophecy concerning the future implications of David's sin. Here's the clincher; the baby of David and Bathsheba will die. After his death, David makes a statement of reassurance to Bathsheba concerning eternal life when he says in verse 23, "...I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

Why must David's son die? There's your answer in verse 14, "However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die." The "enemies of the LORD" must not see God's children prosper in their disobedience. It's worth noting that David still holds out the hope that God would spare his son for seven days - even after Nathan's prophecy that his son would die. Notice verse 16, "David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground." However, after the child dies, David readily accepts the reality. David doesn't blame Nathan for the consequences of his own sin. As a matter of fact, Nathan continues to hold a place of prominence in the reign of David. He even takes part in the inauguration of King Solomon later on.

As we analyze God's methods (as best we can), a principle seems to emerge here. God does not let the overt disobedience of his children go unnoticed; he chastises disobedience. Hey, but didn't David say he was sorry; why did the child have to die? Here's the deal: When a Christian disobeys God, chastisement from God is to be expected. But what if one repents of his wrongdoing; doesn't that wipe the slate clean? Well...yes, of course God forgives our sin according to I John 1:9 (see notes), "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." However, the consequence of that sin is not necessarily erased - maybe so, maybe not. Though David cried out in sorrow and repented of his evil deed, the prophecy of Nathan regarding the death of his child proceeded nonetheless.

There's a powerful lesson on the strength of an unconditional covenant in this account. At this point in time, David functioned under the provisions of the covenant God had made with him back in II Samuel 7:12-16 (see notes). We refer to those promises made to David in that passage as The Davidic Covenant (see article). In those promises we see that God had provided that David's throne would last forever. David was given a cornerstone role in the future of Israel that would extend all the way into eternity, and those promises were given unconditionally by God. Many people have trouble understanding the nature of an unconditional covenant. When God make an unconditional covenant with man, that means that God will keep his promise based only upon God's faithfulness. The man's faithfulness with whom God made the covenant is not a factor. Indisputably, David was not faithful to God in this instance, but it did not invalidate the promise God had previously made in II Samuel 7:12-16 (see notes).

By the way, God's promise of salvation to Believers is another unconditional covenant. Jesus said in John 5:24 (see notes), "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." That's just one of many passages in the New Testament where we see the strength of an unconditional covenant with regard to salvation. God never changes his mind on an unconditional covenant! As in David's case, God did not let his sin go without dealing with it. That's where the Biblical concept of  "chastisement" comes into play. For a greater understanding of this concept, read the notes on Hebrews 12:5-17.

So, what good can come from the marriage of David and Bathsheba? (II Samuel 12:24-25)

24 ¶ Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in to her and lay with her. So she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. Now the LORD loved him,
25 and He sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet: So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.

Who was King Solomon's mama? Bathsheba. God forgave David and gave him the next King of Israel through Bathsheba. However, David's sin was not without future consequences - chastisement from God.

In II Samuel 12:10-12, Nathan prophesied from God that the following consequences would follow David as a result of his sin:

• "the sword shall never depart from your house."
  It starts with the rape of David's daughter by her half brother, Amnon in II Samuel 13:1-22 (see notes).
  It continues as David flees his own city of Jerusalem for fear of his son, Absalom, until Absalom's death in II Samuel 18:1-18 (see notes).
• "I will raise up adversity against you from your own house."
  Absalom flees Jerusalem after executing the death of his half brother Amnon in II Samuel 13:23-39 (see notes)
• "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."
  In an attempted overthrow, David's own son Absalom takes David’s wives in II Samuel 16:21–22 (see notes) in plain sight of all of Israel
• "I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun."
  Absalom's attempted coup was viewed by all.

As specified above, here's an important addition to the principle regarding forgiveness from God. I John 1:9 (see notes) says with regard to Believers, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That, however, does not preclude future consequences as a result of that sin. David suffered chastisement at the hand of God for his sinful act of adultery and murder, but God never rescinded the covenant made with David in II Samuel 7:12-16 (see notes). As a matter of fact, that covenant was valid before, during and after David's sin. David knew the consequences of his sin that would follow; Nathan had carefully outlined them. Nevertheless, David writes a heart-wrenching Psalm 51 (see notes) in the aftermath of Nathan's prophecy. Even though David had his faults, he was a man after God's own heart, first mentioned even before David was King of Israel in I Samuel 13:14 (see notes).

David takes the Ammonite prize (II Samuel 12:26-31; I Chronicles 20:1-3)

Hey! What about the capital of the Ammonite kingdom, Rabbah? Joab's on it. This finishes off the Ammonites; they're slaves of Israel now. This battle and the subsequent capture of Rabbah, a land of the Ammonites, just gets three verses in I Chronicles. David stays behind in Jerusalem until Joab sends for him to come try on the crown - a crown that was more for show than daily wearing - 75 pounds it weighed! In the Chronicles rendition, Ezra sticks to the battle results instead of dealing with the whole Bathsheba episode. According to the text of the KJV, these Ammonites were subsequently executed - apparently in the fashion of cruelty to which the Ammonites were accustomed to inflicting on others (I Samuel 11:1-15, see notes). However, due to the varied usages of the Hebrew prepositions used in verse 31, it may be that these Ammonites were put to forced labor rather than executed, as is indicated in the text of the NKJV.

Another war with the Philistines (I Chronicles 20:4-8)

4 ¶ Now it happened afterward that war broke out at Gezer with the Philistines, at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Sippai, who was one of the sons of the giant. And they were subdued.
5 ¶ Again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
6 ¶ Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, with twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant.
7 So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.
8 ¶ These were born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

Those Philistines had some big kids. Must have been something in their water - this guy (Sippai) had four extra appendages - two extra toes and two extra fingers. We read about him also in II Samuel 21:20 (see notes); he's related to Goliath. David and his men take care of them though. It is worth noting that Ezra skips the whole David/Absalom crisis that occupies the chapters in II Samuel from 13 to 20. That's why there's an eight-chapter gap of II Samuel occurrences between I Chronicles 20:3 and 4.