2 Samuel 11

Egypt on the south, to the Euphrates River on the north, and on the east he conquered Edom, Moab, and Ammon, and on the north defeated the Arameans and the Syrians, including Hamath. Because of God’s gifts and help, David undoubtedly became Israel’s greatest king and greatest military genius. He was blessed with courageous men like Joab and Abishai, plus his “mighty men” (2 Sam. 23; 1 Chron. 11:10–47).

Unlike the average campaign biography or press release, the Bible always tells the truth about people. It should encourage us to know that even the best men and women in the biblical record had their faults and failures, just as we do, and yet the Lord in His sovereign grace was able to use them to accomplish His purposes. Noah was a man of faith and obedience, and yet he got drunk. Twice Abraham lied about his wife, and Jacob lied to both his father, Isaac, and to his brother Esau. Moses lost his temper when he struck the rock, and Peter lost his courage and denied Christ three times.

Here we see David, the man after God’s own heart, who committed adultery and then murdered a man in a last-ditch effort to cover his own sin. For at least nine months, David refused to confess his sins, but then God spoke to Him and he sought the face of the Lord and made a new beginning. But he paid dearly for his sins for, as Charles Spurgeon said, “God does not allow his children to sin successfully.” Alas, David suffered the consequences of his sins for the rest of his life, and so shall we if we rebel against Him, for the Lord chastens those He loves and seeks to make them obedient. The good things that we receive in life, we pay for in advance, for God prepares us for what He has prepared for us. But the evil things we do are paid for on the installment plan, and bitter is the sorrow brought by the consequences of forgiven sin.

These two chapters describe seven stages in David’s experience. As we study, let’s remember Paul’s admonition, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10: nkjv).

David’s temptation and sin illustrate the truth of James 1:14–15—“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (nkjv). It isn’t difficult to see how it all developed.

Idleness (vv. 1–2a). The account of David’s sins is given against the background of Joab’s siege of Rabbah, the key city of the Ammonites (11:1, 16–17; 1 Chron. 20:1–3). The Ammonite army had fled to the walled city of Rabbah (10:14), and Joab and the Israel troops were giving the people time to run out of food and water, and then they would attack. David sent Joab and the troops to lay siege to Rabbah, but he himself remained in Jerusalem. It was probably April or May and the winter rains had stopped and the weather was getting warmer. Chronologists calculate that David was about fifty years old at this time. It’s true that David had been advised by his leaders not to engage actively in warfare (2 Sam. 21:15–17), but he could have been with his troops to help develop the strategy and give moral leadership.

Whatever the cause, good or bad, that kept David in Jerusalem, this much is true: “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Idleness isn’t just the absence of activity, for all of us need regular rest; idleness is also activity to no purpose. When David was finished with his afternoon nap, he should have immediately moved into some kingdom duty that would have occupied his mind and body, or, if he wanted to take a walk, he should have invited someone to walk with him. “If you are idle, be not solitary,” wrote Samuel Johnson; “if you are solitary, be not idle.” Had David followed that counsel, he would have saved himself and his family a great deal of heartache.

When David laid aside his armor, he took the first step toward moral defeat, and the same principle applies to believers today (Eph. 6:10–18). Without the helmet of salvation, we don’t think like saved people, and without the breastplate of righteousness, we have nothing to protect the heart. Lacking the girdle of truth, we easily believe lies (“We can get away with this!”), and without the sword of the Word and the shield of faith, we are helpless before the enemy. Without prayer we have no power. As for the shoes of peace, David walked in the midst of battles for the rest of his life. He was safer on the battlefield than on the battlement of his house!

Imagination (v. 2b). A man can’t be blamed if a beautiful woman comes into his line of vision, but if the man deliberately lingers for a second look in order to feed his lust, he’s asking for trouble. “You heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery,” said Jesus. “But as for myself, I am saying to you, Everyone who is looking at a woman in order to indulge his sexual passion for her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:27–28 wuest). When David paused and took that longer second look, his imagination went to work and started to conceive sin. That would have been a good time to turn away decisively and leave the roof of his palace for a much safer place. When Joseph faced a similar temptation, he fled from the scene (Gen. 39:11–13). “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26: nkjv).

“Lead us not into temptation” was the prayer David should have prayed. By lingering and looking, David tempted himself. By sending the messengers, he tempted Bathsheba, and by yielding to the flesh, He tempted the Lord.

Information (v. 3). When God forbids something and calls it sin, we shouldn’t try to get more information about it. “I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil” (Rom. 16:19). David knew what the law said about adultery, so why did he send to inquire about the woman? Because in his heart, he had already taken possession of her, and now he was anxious to have a rendezvous with her. He learned that Bathsheba was a married woman, and that fact alone should have stopped him from going on with his evil plan. When he found out she was the wife of one of his courageous soldiers who was even then on the battlefield (23:9), he should have gone to the tent of meeting, fallen on his face and cried out to God for mercy. From the brief genealogy given, David should have realized that Bathsheba was the granddaughter of Ahithophel, his favorite counselor (23:34; 16:23). No wonder Ahithophel sided with Absalom when he revolted against his father and seized the kingdom!

David knew the law and should have remembered it and applied it to his own heart. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Ex. 20:17); “You shall not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14). David also knew that the palace servants saw and heard everything that went on and reported it to others, so there wasn’t much chance he could escape detection. The fact that he was showing interest in his neighbor’s wife was probably already public knowledge. But even if nobody but the messenger knew it, the Lord God knew it and didn’t approve of what David was doing. God gave David time to come to his senses and seek forgiveness, but he only hardened his heart and continued to pretend that all was well.

One of the puzzles in this event is the willingness of Bathsheba to go with the messengers and submit to David’s desires. The Hebrew word translated “took” (laqah) can mean simply “to get, receive, or acquire” or it can be translated “lay hold of, seize, or take away.” However, there seems to be no evidence of force or violence in the text and the reader assumes that Bathsheba cooperated with the messengers. But why?

Did Bathsheba even know why David wanted her? If so, didn’t she stop to consider that, having just finished her monthly period (v. 2), she was ripe for conception? Maybe she wanted to have a baby by the king! First Kings 1 reveals that Bathsheba was more a tiger than a housecat. “Did the young wife construct the situation?” asks Professor E. M. Blaiklock. “There is more than suspicion that she spread the net into which David so promptly fell.” Perhaps she thought David had news from the front about her husband, but it wasn’t the king’s job to deliver military announcements. Did she miss her husband’s love and take her purification bath in public as a deliberate invitation to any man who happened to be watching? If she refused David’s requests, would he punish her husband? (That happened anyway!)

No Jewish citizen had to obey a king who himself was disobeying God’s law, for the king covenanted with God and the people to submit to the divine law. Did she think that submitting to David would put into her hands a weapon that might help her in the future, especially if her husband were killed in battle? We can ask these questions and many more, but we can’t easily answer them. The biblical text doesn’t tell us and educated guesses aren’t much help.

The sin that David’s lust had conceived was now about to be born, a sin that would bring with it sorrow and death. According to Proverbs 6, David was about to be robbed (v. 26), burned (vv. 27–28), disgraced and destroyed (vv. 30–33), just for a few minutes of forbidden pleasure. Hollywood movies, television, and modern fiction use stories about adultery as a means of entertainment, which only shows how bad things have become. Famous people admit they’ve been unfaithful to their spouses, but it doesn’t seem to hurt either their popularity or their incomes. “No-fault divorces” simplify the procedure, but they don’t prevent the painful emotional consequences of infidelity. Ministers and other counselors know that it isn’t easy for victims to heal and rebuild their lives and homes, yet the media go on teaching people how to break their marriage vows and apparently get away with it.

David and Bathsheba sinned against God, for it is God who established marriage and wrote the rules that govern it. So serious was adultery in the nation of Israel that both the adulterer and the adulteress were taken out and stoned to death (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22–24; John 8:1–6). God takes seriously the marriage vows brides and grooms make, even if they don’t (Mal. 2:14; Heb. 13:4).

“And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child” (v. 5). These are the only recorded words of Bathsheba in the entire episode, but they were the words David didn’t want to hear. You can paraphrase her brief message, “The next step is yours.” Being the tactician that he was, David immediately devised a plan to cover up his sin. He called Uriah home from the battlefield, hoping that this brave soldier would go home and spend time with his wife. In fact, David ordered him to go home (v. 8), but the soldier disobeyed and stayed with the king’s servants that night. David even sent food from his own table so Uriah and his wife could enjoy a feast, but Uriah never took it home. We wonder if Uriah had heard something that made him suspicious. Palace servants are notorious gossips.

David had to think up another scheme, and his next expedient was to have a second interview with Uriah the next day, during which the king chided him for not going home. A true soldier, Uriah gently rebuked the king for suggesting that one of his own soldiers put personal pleasure ahead of duty, especially when their fellow soldiers were out on the battlefield. Even the ark of God was in a tent, so why should Uriah enjoy his home and wife? First Samuel 21: suggests that David’s soldiers abstained from intercourse while fulfilling their military duties (a regulation based on Lev. 15:16–18), so Uriah must have been surprised when his commander suggested such a thing.

David’s third expedient was to invite Uriah to have a meal with him before he returned to the battle. During the meal, David passed the cup so frequently that Uriah became drunk. But Uriah drunk proved to be a better man than David sober, for he once again refused to go home. Uriah was a soldier at heart, and even when alcohol tore down his defenses, he remained faithful to his calling. There was but one expedient left: Uriah had to die. If David couldn’t entice Uriah to go home, he would have to get him out of the way so he could marry Uriah’s widow, and the sooner they married, the better the scheme would work. David was breaking the Ten Commandments one by one. He coveted his neighbor’s wife and committed adultery with her, and now he would bear false witness against his neighbor and order him to be killed. David thought he was deceiving everybody, but he was deceiving only himself. He thought he could escape guilt when all the while he was adding to his guilt, and he could not escape God’s judgment. “He who covers his sins will not prosper” (Prov. 28: nkjv).

Joab had Rabbah under siege and ordered his men not to go too near the wall lest they be shot at and killed. Occasionally some Ammonite soldiers would come out the city gate and try to entice the Jewish soldiers to come closer and attack them, but Joab’s orders were obeyed. Shrewd Joab may have read between the lines of David’s letter and deduced that the only thing Uriah had that David could want would be Uriah’s beautiful wife, so he cooperated with the plan. After all, knowing David’s scheme would be another weapon Joab could use for his own protection someday. Besides, Joab had already killed Asahel, Abner (2 Sam. 2:17–24; 3:27ff.), and would one day murder Amasa (20:6–10), so he understood these things. Joab knew he couldn’t send Uriah up to the walls alone or it would look suspicious, so several of “the king’s servants” (v. 24) died with him just so David could cover his sins. “The king’s servants” may refer to David’s bodyguard, the best of the Israelite troops (8:18).

Bathsheba’s expressions of grief for her dead warrior husband were undoubtedly sincere, but they were mitigated by the knowledge that she would soon be living in the palace. People probably raised their eyebrows when she married so quickly after the funeral, and married the king at that, but when some six months later she delivered a baby boy, eyebrows went up again. Second Samuel 3:1–5 suggests Bathsheba is the seventh wife of David, but when you add Michal, who was childless, Bathsheba becomes the eighth. In Scripture, the number eight is often the sign of a new beginning, and with the birth of Solomon to David and Bathsheba, this hope was fulfilled.

However, David had unfinished business to take care of because the Lord was displeased with all he had done.

The confessing (2 Sam. 12:1–14) Nathan had the privilege of delivering the message about God’s covenant with David and his descendants (2 Sam. 7), but now the prophet had to perform spiritual surgery and confront the king about his sins. David had been covering his sins for at least six months, and Bathsheba’s baby was about to be born. It wasn’t an easy task the Lord had given Nathan, but it’s obvious that he prepared carefully for his encounter with the guilty king.

The trial (vv. 1–6). In telling a story about the crime of another, Nathan prepared David for dealing with his own sins, and it’s possible that David thought Nathan was presenting him with an actual case from the local court. Nathan was catching David off guard and could study the king’s response and better know what to do next. Since David had been a shepherd himself, he would pay close attention to a story about the theft of an innocent lamb, and as king, he was obligated to see that poor families were given justice.

God directed Nathan to choose his words carefully so that they would remind David of what he had said and done. The prophet said that the ewe lamb “did eat of his [the poor man’s] own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom” (v. 3). This should have reminded David of Uriah’s speech in 11:11: “Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife?” (nkjv). But it wasn’t until Nathan told about the rich man stealing and killing the lamb that David showed any response, and then he was angry at another man’s sins! (See 1 Sam. 25:13, 22, 33 for another example of David’s anger.) David didn’t seem to realize that he was the rich man, Uriah was the poor man, and Bathsheba was the ewe lamb he had stolen. The “traveler” whom the rich man fed represents the temptation and lust that visited David on the roof and then controlled him. If we open the door, sin comes in as a guest but soon becomes the master. (See Gen. 4:6–7.)

David passed judgment on the rich man without realizing he was passing judgment on himself. Of all blindness, the worst kind is that which makes us blind to ourselves. “Many men seem perfect strangers to their own character,” said Joseph Butler, and David was among them. How easy it is to be convicted about other people’s sins (Matt. 7:1–3)! Stealing and killing a domestic animal wasn’t a capital offense in Israel, but David was so angry he exaggerated both the crime and the punishment. Until now, he had been minimizing the consequences and doing nothing, when actually what he did to Uriah was worthy of death. Both David and Bathsheba should have been stoned to death (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22–24; John 8:1–6). Knowing the law, David realized that four sheep had to be given to repay the owner whose ewe lamb had been stolen (Ex. 22:1).

The verdict (vv. 7–9). The prophet realized that though David was very angry, he was also unguarded and ready for the sword of the Spirit to pierce his heart (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17). With one quick thrust, Nathan said, “You are the man!” (v. 7 nkjv) and proceeded to hold up the mirror that revealed how dirty the king really was. Nathan explained to David why he stole Uriah’s little ewe lamb. First, the king forgot the goodness of the Lord who had given him everything he had and would have given him more (v. 7–8). Second, David had despised God’s commandment and acted as though he had the privilege of sinning (v. 9). By coveting, committing adultery, bearing false witness, and killing, David had broken four of the Ten Commandments, and he thought he could get away with it! It was bad enough that David arranged to have Uriah killed, but he used the sword of the enemy to do it!

The sentence (vv. 10–12). David’s adultery with Bathsheba was a sin of passion, a sin of the moment that overtook him, but his sin of having Uriah killed was a premeditated crime that was deliberate and disgraceful. This may be why 1 Kings 15: emphasizes “the matter of Uriah the Hittite” and says nothing about Bathsheba. But the Lord judged both sins and David paid dearly for his lust and deceit. God repaid David “in kind” (Deut. 19:21; Ex. 21:23–25; Lev. 24:20), a spiritual principle that David expressed in his “victory psalm” after Saul died (Ps. 18:25–27).

The sword did not depart from the king’s household, and his wives were taken and violated just as he had taken Bathsheba. Indeed, David did pay fourfold, for Bathsheba’s baby died, and his sons Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah were slain (13:29; 18:14–15; 1 Kings 2:25). David’s beautiful daughter Tamar was raped by her half brother (chap. 13), and David’s concubines were humiliated publicly by Absalom when he captured the kingdom (16:22). For the rest of David’s lifetime, he experienced one tragedy after another, either in his family or in the kingdom. What a price he paid for those few minutes of passion with his neighbor’s wife!

The punishments God assigned to David were already stated in the covenant God had with Israel and which the king was expected to obey (Lev. 26; Deut. 27–30). If the nation rebelled against God, He would slay their sons in battle (Lev. 26:17; Deut. 28:25–26), take away their children (Lev. 26:22; Deut. 28:18), give their wives to others (Deut. 28:30), and even take Israel out of its land into foreign exile (Deut. 28:63–68). Because of Absalom’s rebellion, David was forced to flee Jerusalem and live in the wilderness. But the covenant also included a section on repentance and pardon (Deut. 30; Lev. 26:40ff.), and David took it seriously.

The pardon (vv. 13–14). The condemned prisoner knew that the verdict was true and the sentence was just, so without any argument, he confessed: “I have sinned against the Lord” (v. 13). Nathan assured David that the Lord had put away his sin. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: nkjv). “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared” (Ps. 130:3–4 nkjv).

No wonder David later wrote that the Lord “forgives all your iniquities … [and] redeems your life from destruction.… As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:3–4, 12 nkjv).

But there was a “however” in Nathan’s reply, for though God in His grace had forgiven David’s sins, God in His government had to permit David to experience the consequences of those sins, beginning with the death of Bathsheba’s baby. All during David’s months of silence, he had suffered intensely, as you can detect when you read his two prayers of confession (Ps. 32 and 51). Psalm 32 pictures a sick old man instead of a virile warrior, and Psalm 51 describes a believer who had lost almost everything—his purity, joy, witness, wisdom, and peace—a man who was afraid God would take the Holy Spirit from him as He had done to Saul. David went through intense emotional and physical pain, but he left behind two prayers that are precious to all believers who have sinned.

Because of Christ’s finished work on the cross, God is able to save lost sinners and forgive disobedient saints, and the sooner the lost and the disobedient turn to the Lord and repent, the better off they will be. David wrote, “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found” (Ps. 32:5–6 nkjv). “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Isa. 55: nkjv).