(12)
2 Samuel 2—24
(6)
Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 11:1-27; 12:1-15a
Second Samuel 11:1—12:15a is a record concerning David's indulging sin and God's punishing condemnation.
David committed the sin described in chapter eleven in the time while Joab and David's servants were fighting against the kings of the Canaanites. David had sent out Joab and his servants, but he himself remained in Jerusalem (v. 1).
After all the enemies of Israel were subdued and David was exalted as the king of Israel, David committed a great sin while he was in a peaceful situation. This indicates that whenever we are in a peaceful situation, it is easy for us to be seduced to indulge our flesh.
Verse 2a tells us that late one afternoon David rose from his bed and went for a walk on the roof of the king's house. Here David was enjoying a life of ease, and his sin was committed during a time of ease. Ease is a big spoiler. We need to labor, toil, and suffer. Instead of damaging us, suffering is a help to us. We need to be occupied with either laboring or suffering.
David's sin was the issue of his indulging of the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh (vv. 2b-3).
David committed a willful adultery by robbery, abusing the power of his kingship (vv. 4-5). This was a real insult to God. David's great sin nearly annulled all his attainments from the past.
After committing a willful act of adultery, David pretended to cover his evil deed (vv. 6-13). Eventually, God exposed him.
David murdered Uriah, his faithful servant, by a conspiracy with Joab (vv. 14-25).
In a letter, David instructed Joab to put Uriah in the forefront of the hardest battle and then withdraw from him so he might be stricken down to death (vv. 14-15). By giving such a word to Joab concerning Uriah, David abused his kingship. Joab did what David commanded, and Uriah was killed.
Not only was Uriah slain, but also "some of the people, some of the servants of David, fell" (v. 17b). This indicates that David murdered Uriah even at the sacrifice of the life of some of the servants of David.
Joab surely realized that he was involved in a conspiracy to carry out a great sin, and his conscience must have condemned him. David comforted and encouraged Joab, the one who carried out the conspiracy, by saying, "Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your fighting against the city and overthrow it" (v. 25). What a terrible thing for David to say! Uriah was not merely devoured by the sword — he was actually murdered by David so that he could take Uriah's wife.
David's behavior here was utterly different from that of Joseph and Boaz. Joseph was tempted, but he ran and escaped from adultery (Gen. 39). Boaz, David's forefather, also kept himself clean from the indulgence of the flesh of sin (Ruth 3). This purity kept Boaz in the line of the genealogy of Christ. David, however, willingly committed adultery. By his one sin David broke the last five of the Ten Commandments (Exo. 20:13-17).
Before David was crowned and enthroned, he already had a number of wives. Second Samuel 5:13 says that he took more concubines and wives. David was perfect in every way, but he was weak in the matter of the indulgence of the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh is like a wild horse. To subdue this lust, we must hold the bridle very tightly. In this matter David was loose, and he sacrificed his high attainment in the pursuit of God. David was a great "diamond," but his indulgence in lust was a black, foreign particle in this diamond. Even though he was a person of high attainment in his spiritual pursuit, he was still able to commit such a great sin.
When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. As soon as her mourning was over, David took her as his wife (11:26-27a).
The thing that David did displeased Jehovah to the uttermost (v. 27b). David's sin is referred to elsewhere in the Bible. First Kings 15:5 says, "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." Even in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 there is a word regarding this: "David begot Solomon of her who had been the wife of Uriah" (v. 6b). This genealogy does not say "of Bath-sheba" but "of her who had been the wife of Uriah," to emphasize this great sin of David's.
Second Samuel 12:1-15a speaks of God's punishing condemnation of David's sin.
God's punishing condemnation came to David through Nathan the prophet (v. 1a). In chapter seven Nathan had helped David realize that the need in the universe is for God to work Himself into human beings and to build Himself into them. In chapter twelve Nathan came to David to remind him of what he had done and to rebuke him.
Because David the king had power and because he could have misused this power to kill Nathan the prophet, Nathan was careful in speaking to David. Instead of directly condemning David, Nathan told him a parable which led him to condemn himself for what he had done in murdering Uriah and robbing him of his wife (vv. 1b-7a). When David heard about the rich man who took the poor man's ewe lamb, David's "anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As Jehovah lives, the man who has done this is worthy of death; and he shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this thing and because he had no pity" (vv. 5-6). Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man" (v. 7a).
Nathan went on to refer David to all the things that God had done for him (vv. 7b-8). Especially Nathan referred David to the fact that God had given him the house of Israel and of Judah. Then Nathan said that, if what had been given was too little, God would have added to David even more things.
"Why have you despised the word of Jehovah by doing what is evil in His sight? You have stricken down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife as your wife and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon" (v. 9). Here God, speaking through Nathan, condemned David for murdering Uriah and for robbing him of his wife.
Nathan told David that because he had despised Jehovah the sword would not depart from his house forever (v. 10). God would raise up trouble against him from within his house. Further, God said that He would take David's wives before his eyes and give them to his companion, who would lie with them in the sight of the sun (v. 11). David had done this secretly, but God would do it before all Israel and even before the sun (v. 12).
Here we see that God is not only loving; He is also fearful. Under God's punishment, there was fornication and killing in David's family, and David's son, Absalom, even rebelled against him.
David confessed his sin against Jehovah, and Nathan said to him, "Jehovah has also put away your sin; you will not die" (v. 13). That was God's mercy to David, for David surely deserved to die. Nevertheless, because David had given the enemies of Jehovah much occasion to blaspheme Him, Nathan told him that the son who was born to him would surely die (v. 14).
When God forgives, He forgets (Jer. 31:34). To forgive is to forget. But it seems that God did not forget this sin of David's. As we have pointed out, in his record of Christ's genealogy, Matthew purposely wrote, "David begot Solomon of her who had been the wife of Uriah." This indicates the seriousness of David's sin.
We need to learn of David on the negative side as well as on the positive side. The lust of the flesh is a devastating element that can destroy us. If such a godly man as David could be seduced, can we escape? Human beings are human beings, flesh is flesh, and lusts are lusts. We should always keep a distance between ourselves and those of the opposite sex. A young man or young woman should not talk privately with someone of the opposite sex in a closed room. No godly person should be loose in contacting the other sex. Regardless of our attainment in our spiritual pursuit, it is possible for any of us to commit such a sin.
