“And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, And if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Samuel 11:14-27).
Introduction
The way David coldheartedly and callously conducted himself with regards to Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, reveals to us the depths of wickedness a person will plummet to engage in sin. He had sinned against Uriah, tried to trick him, and now wanted him dead.
The murder
David had tried to cover his sin and failed, but now he aimed to eradicate any sign of it by getting rid of Uriah. This murder was probably the worst thing David ever did in his life. Scripture highlights this fact in 1 Kings 15:5, “Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” His adultery was bad enough, but this final offence against Uriah was despicably evil.
David engineered every detail regarding the death
of Uriah, and to make matters worse he arranged that others would do the dirty
work for him. We wonder how someone as tender-hearted as this could act so
cruelly towards another, but we see exactly the same played out in daily news
reports. We assume that he thought long and hard about the best way to cover his
sin. “Woe to them that devise iniquity,
and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it,
because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them
by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his
house, even a man and his heritage” (Micah 2:1-2). The way he chose would
make it look like Uriah was just another casualty of war, and so convince
himself that it was not his fault after all. This cunning plan left God out of
the picture and soon he would be brought face to face with his sin.
How cruel it was to have Uriah carry his own death warrant and reveals the maliciousness in David’s heart. He took advantage of Uriah’s unquestioned loyalty and service. He knew that Uriah would willingly lay down his life for him and would not object to being put in the place of the greatest danger. We should note that Joab received no reason why Uriah had to die in battle that day; instead he was simply ordered to carry out the king’s wishes. Joab may have figured out that there was something nasty going on, but for now he complied with the king’s command and could use it against David in the future.
The message
As soon as Uriah was killed, Joab sent a message to David telling him the good news. The problem was that others died in the same battle, so the messenger was given a orders to spin the details to calm David down if he got angry. Several men lost their lives that day so that David could cover his sin, therefore the sad report ought to have broken his heart, but it did not. It is obvious that Joab was troubled about this and thought the king would be too.
Whatever worries the messenger had about delivering the news were quickly dispelled when saw the way David responded. Basically he says, “Tell Joab not to lose any sleep over it, men die in battle all the time." Instead of mourning over the death of his valiant men he almost rejoices. This response is another indication of the evil that was warping David’s heart and mind.
The marriage
Only Bathsheba mourned for Uriah, for David was planning his next move to take her as his wife and so further cover the evidence of his sin. In light of all that had happened we can be certain that he waited impatiently for the days of mourning to come to an end. Was Bathsheba’s mourning sincere or was she simply doing what custom demanded of her? Did she know what David had done to her husband and would she have married him? It is impossible to know, nevertheless, it is not her but David that is in the spotlight of judgement.
After the mourning came the speedy marriage. Now David could claim that the child was premature. Do we see how he needs to lay another layer on top of his already mountainous weight of sin to cover himself? David was willing to use everyone, even his unborn child, to keep up the appearance of respectability. No one but he, Bathsheba and possibly Joab need know about what really happened. He must have thought that he had solved the problem once and for all, but how wrong he was! The last statement of this chapter tells us that God was ready to deal with David over the terrible things he had done. Everything from the adultery to the marriage was an abomination to the Lord.
Conclusion
The roots of all of this can be traced back to David’s decision to practice polygamy and have a harem like many heathen kings. He had already shown a disregard for God’s plan for marriage, so adding to himself additional wives did not seem so bad to him. At no point did he seek God to get him out of the mess he had made for himself, but stubbornly dug a deeper hole with each attempt at fixing the problem.
© 7/6/2010