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A lesson forgotten - David and Bathsheba

In this study we move into the second book of Samuel. This has quite a different feel from that of 1 Samuel. Second Samuel is largely taken up with the themes of ‘house’ and ‘Zion’, which will perhaps become much clearer in our final two studies.

In our last study David had learned a very important lesson from Abigail. In this study we will find out what happened when David forgot Abigail’s lesson. But first we need to note two of the issues raised in the first few chapters of 2 Samuel, insofar as they give a clue as to the nature of the problems that the later parts of the book will reveal in and through David.

David the (almost) righteous king

The first four chapters of 2 Samuel are a unit made up of three separate stories.

Chapter 1 deals with the report of the death of Saul and David’s lament over Jonathan. However the main action in the story is in how David dealt with the Amalekite who claimed to have put King Saul out of his agony following his botched suicide attempt – David slew him for ‘destroying the Lord’s anointed’.

Chapters 2 and 3 are principally about David and Abner, and are the main story in this unit, in the same way that the story of David and Abigail formed the central theme in the three story unit of 1 Samuel 24-26.

Chapter 4 recounts the murder of the last serious alternative claimant to the throne from the house of Saul – Ish-bosheth. As in the first story, when the killers came to David expecting to be rewarded for their deed they were instead executed.

The David who emerges from stories 1 and 3 is a strong king who will have no part with injustice and murder. How sad then that in the crucial middle story David is revealed washing his hands of the murder of Abner on the ground that ‘I am weak today, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too difficult for me’ (^2S3:39). It is tragic, though almost comical that David, who, because he saw God, was not afraid of Goliath, is too weak to deal with the sons of his sister who have committed blatant cold-blooded murder. It makes a total mockery of his slaying in the name of justice those friendless individuals who through their own greed have strayed into his grasp. Yet David is not complicit in the murder of Abner. The text makes it clear that David recognized it as murder which required retribution, only he was not up to the task. David’s weakness highlights the beauty in Romans 8:3. Human administration will never deliver righteousness because it is ‘weak through the flesh’. David throughout this book of 2 Samuel is obligated to and dependent on his nephews. We can rejoice that salvation belongs to God alone. It is all His work. He is overawed, overshadowed, or indebted to no one. The sovereignty, responsibility and competence of the Messiah is absolute.

However we may begin to be uneasy that in the first collection of stories in 2 Samuel we have a hint that David may not fully appreciate the seriousness of sin, or the nature and value of righteousness.

‘Zion’, and getting close to God

Zion as a theme looms large in the Bible, especially in the book of Psalms and the prophecy of Isaiah, while in the New Testament it appears in Hebrews and under the title ‘New Jerusalem’ in Revelation. Yet the Bible’s introduction to Zion comes in a very low key in chapter 5. Some threads which become significant later are exposed. At this stage however the theme is very low key.

Immediately following the story of the taking of Zion we have the high point of David’s career, the account of two decisive confrontations with the Philistines. In this account we see God doing for the humble David what the nation had sought in vain to force God to do in 1 Samuel 4 – lead them into battle –

^{2SA 5:17} When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek out David; and when David heard of it, he went down to the stronghold. ¹⁸ Now the Philistines came and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. ¹⁹ Then David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Wilt Thou give them into my hand?" And the LORD said to David, "Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand." ²⁰ So David came to Baal-perazim, and defeated them there; and he said, "The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters." Therefore he named that place Baal-perazim. ²¹ And they abandoned their idols there, so David and his men carried them away.

^{2SA 5:22} Now the Philistines came up once again and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. ²³ And when David inquired of the LORD, He said, "You shall not go directly up; circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees. ²⁴ "And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act promptly, for then the LORD will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines." ²⁵ Then David did so, just as the LORD had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.

In this account however we have another seed of a problem that shortly emerges. In v21 we read that when the Philistines abandoned their idols ‘David and his men carried them away’. In the first place Deuteronomy 7:5 had told the nation that they should burn the idols of the conquered peoples. Then we read in the next chapter how David sought to bring the Ark of God to Zion, but problems emerged – including the death of Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:7) because David tried to treat the Ark in the same way that he had treated the Philistine idols. David had yet to learn the significance of the holiness of God.

Nevertheless, following the bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem David expressed a desire to build a house for God in Jerusalem/Zion.

^{2SA 7:1} Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, ² that the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains." ³ And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your mind, for the LORD is with you."

We can easily see how the concept of God dwelling in the midst of Zion, in the midst of His people is a picture that goes to the heart of our hope as Christians. However on this occasion God said that David was not to be the builder of the temple.

^{2SA 7:4} But it came about in the same night that the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying, ⁵ "Go and say to My servant David, `Thus says the LORD, "Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in? <sup>6</sup> "For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle. <sup>7</sup> "Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, `Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'"' ⁸ "Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over My people Israel. ⁹ "And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. ¹⁰ "I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, ¹¹ even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you. ¹² "When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ "I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, ¹⁵ but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ "And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."'"

God refused David the commission, but God promised that He would ‘make a house’ for David. David wanted to put up a building for God, but God promised David that He would give David a different kind of house, a family, a dynasty.

We should not miss the significance of God’s promise. David already had a family. In fact he had several wives and children at this point. Yet God said that He would ‘make a house’, a family for David. It would be an enduring dynasty, and if we look at the genealogies in Matthew and Luke we can see that both of these genealogies trace the line of the human ancestry of Jesus to the house that God promised David in 2 Samuel 7.

We shall come back to this promise later, but first let us look at the next big event in David’s life.

David the King

By chapter 10 of 2 Samuel David is well on his way to being a powerful figure in the region. And then something happens that disturbs this happy picture.

^{2SA 10:1} Now it happened afterwards that the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun his son became king in his place. ² Then David said, "I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me." So David sent some of his servants to console him concerning his father. But when David's servants came to the land of the Ammonites, ³ the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, "Do you think that David is honoring your father because he has sent consolers to you? Has David not sent his servants to you in order to search the city, to spy it out and overthrow it?" ⁴ So Hanun took David's servants and shaved off half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle as far as their hips, and sent them away. ⁵ When they told it to David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly humiliated. And the king said, "Stay at Jericho until your beards grow, and then return."

^{2SA 10:6} Now when the sons of Ammon saw that they had become odious to David, the sons of Ammon sent and hired the Arameans of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob with 12,000 men. ⁷ When David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army, the mighty men. …

^{2SA 10:16} And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Arameans who were beyond the River, and they came to Helam; and Shobach the commander of the army of Hadadezer led them. ¹⁷ Now when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Arameans arrayed themselves to meet David and fought against him. ¹⁸ But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 700 charioteers of the Arameans and 40,000 horsemen and struck down Shobach the commander of their army, and he died there. ¹⁹ When all the kings, servants of Hadadezer, saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Arameans feared to help the sons of Ammon anymore.

^{2SA 11:1} Then it happened in the spring, 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 sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

Nahash the old king of Ammon died, and David sent condolences to his son and successor, Hanun. This young man had neither the wit nor the manners to receive the delegation from David properly, and rather insulted David by ridiculing his ambassadors. David was furious, his dignity had been offended. So how did he react?

We noted in our last study that David did not have time to seek the mind of God when he was confronted by Saul in the cave, and we observed that sometimes we have to respond spontaneously as Christians; we do not have time to seek God’s guidance. But this was not one of these occasions. David was not under pressure of time. Yet he made no attempt to discover God’s mind in this matter. He certainly had no thought of leaving it up to God to avenge the hurt done to his dignity. Perhaps the reason why David did not ask God, was that he instinctively knew the answer he would get.

In any event David forgot or ignored Abigail’s lesson and so began a disastrous chain of actions. It would seem that the first campaign took place in the summer or autumn, and then came the winter break. When the spring of the next year arrived the conflict was resumed. The writer of 2 Samuel gives a hint of trouble in store in recording ironically

^{2SA 11:1}  ‘in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle … David sent Joab’.

 This war should never have happened, and now David, whose job as king was to fight the nation’s battle, (as he had done against Goliath), or at least lead them in the battle, stays at home and sends Joab to lead the people for him. And what happens next is tragic.

^{2SA 11:2} Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. ³ So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" ⁴ And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. ⁵ And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant."

David has gone from bad to worse; from anger to adultery, and Bathsheba is pregnant. In desperation he attempts crudely to trick Uriah into thinking that the child will be his, but when Uriah doesn’t respond David has Uriah killed.

^{2SA 11:6} Then David sent to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." And Uriah went out of the king's house, and a present from the king was sent out after 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 Now when they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Have 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 staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing." ¹² Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord's servants, but he did not go down to his house.

^{2SA 11:14} Now it came about in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵ And he had written in the letter, saying, "Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die." ¹⁶ So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷ And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David's servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died. ¹⁸ Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war. ¹⁹ And he charged the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, ²⁰ and if it happens that the king's wrath rises and he says to you, `Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? <sup>21</sup> `Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?'--then you shall say, `Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'"

Is this how the man after God’s heart should behave? Of course not, and David’s reign after this becomes a sorry tale of trouble and disharmony, rebellion and death.

Can we now see the value of Abigail and her advice? David’s decline started so simply, in reacting with pride and anger when he was insulted by the young king of Ammon. We could easily stop our study at this point and apply the lesson to ourselves; not only to eschew anger, but not to let pride get such a hold that we overreact to the slightest insult. The injunction of Romans 12:3 -

‘For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think’

is transparently sensible.

God’s love

But the real tragedy in this study and story is that there is even more to it. We have noted that David had one great task in his heart that he wanted to achieve for God. He wanted to build a permanent house for the Ark, for God, in Jerusalem. He desired to build the temple. But he had already been told that he was not to be the temple builder, and it is important for two reasons to note that this rejection of David came before the incident with the Ammonites and the seduction of Bathsheba.

The first reason is to be clear that the rejection of David was not a punishment for his sin with Bathsheba. But the second reason is dynamite. In God’s rejection of David as temple-builder God had pledged that He would raise up a new dynasty/family from David and that one of the sons to be born to this family will build the temple. Now we all know who it was who built the temple. It was Solomon.

We can find this confirmed by 1 Kings 8:14 and 1 Chronicles 22:6-7, 28:1-10 and 2 Chronicles 6:4-10.

Now here is a problem. God had chosen Solomon to build the temple from way before Solomon was born. But Solomon was the son of Bathsheba and David. Solomon would not have been born if David and Bathsheba had not come together. So what is God doing? Is God condoning David’s later actions? Or is God simply making the best of a terrible mess? Thank God that He is not like that – God will never compromise with sin – God will never be in debt to sin, God will never use sin to achieve His will.

Solomon did build the temple. Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba. But it was always God’s intention that Solomon was the one who would do it. It was always God’s design that the Messiah would come through the line of David and Bathsheba, as Matthew and Luke confirm.

(In Matthew 1:6-7 the line passes through David and Solomon (son of Bathsheba). In Luke 3:31 however the line reaches David through Nathan, who is according to 1 Chronicles 3:5 also a son of Bathsheba. Whatever the reason for the different genealogies, whether one of them is a maternal line in whole or in part, it is clear that the line of the Messiah comes through David and Bathsheba.)

From the moment that David set his eyes on Bathsheba he longed for her. But David refused to submit the longings of his heart to God’s scrutiny and will – probably because he was afraid of being refused and because it seemed to him to be impossible, since Bathsheba was already married.

In our last study however we saw God giving Abigail to be a wife to David, even though at the start of that story she was the wife of someone else. And David did not have to lift a finger in wrongdoing to get her. God gave her to David when God judged Nabal for his attitudes. Uriah appears to have been a very different kind of man from Nabal, and there is no suggestion that God was about to judge Uriah, but God could have called Uriah home in any number of ways if it was God’s plan to bring Bathsheba to David.

David did not seek God’s mind before he hit out at the Ammonites, and he certainly did not do so before seducing Bathsheba. Sadly we conclude that although it was always God’s design that David would have Bathsheba as a wife, it was never God’s purpose for David and Bathsheba to come together through seduction and murder. Thus in 2 Samuel 12:1-11 we read how God sent Nathan with a parable of David’s action, and it is David himself who condemns the deed, when he sees it objectively.

^{2SA 12:1} Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said, "There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. ² "The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. ³ "But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nourished; And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, And was like a daughter to him. ⁴ "Now a traveler came to the rich man, And he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; Rather he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."

^{2SA 12:5} Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. ⁶ "And he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion."

Nathan then said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel, `It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. <sup>8</sup> `I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! ⁹ `Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. <sup>10</sup> `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 evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.

The most heart-wrenching line in the judgement of God is God’s declaration of His unlimited generosity to David -

^{2SA 12:7} ... `It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. <sup>8</sup> `I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these!’.

 Given that we now know that it was already in God’s mind to give Bathsheba to David, we can see that God was not just playing with words when He gave this rebuke. If His blessings to David really had been insufficient God would have given more, and more, and more.

But David did not submit his longing for Bathsheba to God, because he questioned whether God’s version of what would be good for David was really good enough. Our last study finished with the quotation from 2 Corinthians 12:9 in which God tells the apostle Paul "My grace is sufficient for you …"

How do we view this statement? Do we read it as instructing us to ‘make the best of it’, or ‘grin and bear it’? Just how generous to us now is God’s grace? What kind of a God do we have? Is God parsimonious, tight-fisted, or is He so generous to us – now – that we cannot even imagine the things that He wants to bless us with.

Just look at what God had planned for David. God knew that Bathsheba was to be the love of David’s life, and He had designed that David and Bathsheba were to be man and wife, and that the Messiah was to come in the line that came from their union. If David had only remembered the lesson that Abigail had taught him, and submitted his anger to God’s sovereign will, he would have enjoyed all the blessings of his union with Bathsheba in the fellowship of God.

Instead he gave way to pride and anger, and a chain reaction ensued that cost David greatly. God was not diverted from His design that through the union of David and Bathsheba would flow the line of the Messiah, but in seeking his own will rather than God’s, David lost his reputation, tore apart his family resulting in the deaths of four of his sons, and left himself for the remainder of his reign a hostage to his unsavoury nephew and military commander Joab.

This story of David shows us how easy it can be to try to seize what God is planning for us in any event, and to spoil it and us for God. We shall pick up the remainder of this story and its consequences in our next (and final) two studies in these books. For today we want to stop at the revelation of the heart of God to us that this story has shown us.

We might be tempted to think, well God loved David and had planned to give David his heart’s longing. But we are nothing like David. So can we really accept that God wants to be as generous to us? The answer from the New Testament is a resounding and staggering – YES. In Romans 8 Paul sets out the staggering truth that God’s purpose and plan is to bless us – not just as much as He blessed David, but in fact as much as He intends to bless His Son – Jesus the Messiah.

^{RO 8:31} What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

This verse is often misrepresented as – accept the Son and God will throw in a lot of freebies ‘along with the gift of His Son’. But that would require God to give His Son to us, and Paul carefully tells us that God gave His Son ‘for us’. The real point in this wonderful verse is that God has planned one day to give absolutely everything to His Son. Paul tells us here that that when that day comes, God will, when He gives all things to the Son, also make us the beneficiaries of the gift. He will give the gift to the Son and us together. That is the magnitude of the heart of generosity of God. Could God be any more loving or generous to us?

Now we might note that Psalm 84 had already told us that

^{PS 84:11b} The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

We have also noted in these studies that when God’s people have their eyes only on the gift and seek to use God to get what they desire, God will fight against them rather than allow blessings to shore up their cold hearts. We have also discovered (as in the case of Jonathan) that sometimes the people of God are asked to experience what seems unfair, and they seem to lose out, but God will not short-change any of His children.

We are at a significant moment in the growth of our church fellowship. We have a desire, a need perhaps, for a new building. We have the land, but we do not have the finance for the building. We know that the Lord loves us, and yearns to give us what our hearts long for. In a way we stand like Moses at Sinai, eager to get to the land of promise. We find however in Exodus 33 that because of the problem with sin and rebellion Moses had come to review his priorities. He could see clearly that the land of promise without God in its centre would not be worth the effort of going there.

Consequently the plea of Moses to God was

^{EX 33:12} Then Moses said to the LORD, … ¹³ "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight.

Moses pleaded ‘if I have found favour in your sight’ – and we know from this study today that God does look with favour on His people – in fact He loves us passionately – ‘let me know Your ways, let me know You’.

We long for a building that we believe God has promised us, but let us note very clearly that it is only worth the effort if we know God’s ways in it, and for it. Moses prayed that he might know God. Paul could pray the same in Philippians 3:10-11. If those two Biblical giants could ask for that as their priority, then we can, nay must keep the same prayer as our present and highest goal.

‘Loving Father, we want to know your ways – and we want to follow them. We want to know You’.

That is what really matters. We can trust Him for all the rest, for His love for us, and His yearning to give us what our heart desires, is sure.

Crossroads 13.07.03 - DAB