Scripture Focus (2 Samuel 11:1-6) – “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. [2] It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. [3] And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” [4] So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. [5] And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” [6] So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.”
I. It Begins with Idleness (1)
A. Where David should have been – “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.”
Proverbs 19:15 – “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.”
II. It Activates in Restlessness (2)
A. David had been dormant
The long, inactive winter passed with little for David to do. Spring had arrived, David began to stir. All his life, David has been a man of action. He was fashioned by God to conquer. He was built by God to dominate. He was equipped by God to take territory. David had all of his internal, holy instincts moving within him, but he chose not to go to his assigned battlefield, so he began to allow his attention to move him into a forbidden place of conquest.
B. David cultivated disquiet (2a) – “It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house…”
The man of action begins to move into restless wandering. We are not told why he went to the roof. Did he secretly know what he might see from that elevated view? Was he ignorant of what awaited him? Did Satan tempt David without David being sharp enough in his discernment to recognize the coming danger? We are not told. We just know that his feet which should have been on a battlefield against the enemy led him instead to a rooftop where war was waged against his own soul.
C. David created his own dilemma (2b) – “…that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.”
Proverbs 5:20-23 – “Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? [21] For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his paths. [22] The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. [23] He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.”
Scripture teaches that David had at least eight wives in his lifetime. He also had an unspecified number of concubines. Kings in that day had no shortage of access to women. David, however, was King of Israel, and God would not permit him (or any other Hebrew male) from taking the wife of another man. David’s eyes were swiftly leading him into adultery. David cooperated the whole way.
III. It Strengthens with a Sense of Entitlement (3-4)
A. Entertaining the thought of sin (3a) – “And David sent and enquired about the woman.”
James 1:14-16 – “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. [15] Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. [16] Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.”
B. Ignoring the conviction of sin (3b) – “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
Notice the wise and careful choosing of words that the servant of David gave him. He mentions the woman’s father is Eliam, one of David’s loyal men of valor. Also mentioned is her husband, Uriah, a faithful soldier in David’s army. The servant was careful but clear: this woman had a father and husband loyal to David. This was a subtle warning not to do what David was thinking of doing.
C. Choosing the path of sin (4) – “So David sent messengers and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her…then she returned unto her house.”
IV. It Creates a Need for Deception (5-13)
A. The trouble of David (5) – “And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
Numbers 32:23 – “You have sinned against the LORD: and be sure that your sin will find you out.”
B. The trickery of David (6-8) – “So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 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 there followed him a present from the king.”
Proverbs 28:13 – “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
C. The tribute to David (9-13) – “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 When they told David, “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 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, 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? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.”
Naive Uriah sought to honor David and his fellow soldiers by not pleasing himself. He was acting in honor while David was acting in deception. Uriah’s disgust at the idea that he would sleep with his own wife while his fellow-soldiers were suffering on the battlefield stood in stark contrast to the treachery David had performed against Uriah. David’s plan to conceal his sin was falling apart.
V. It Results in a Controlling Darkness (14-21)
A. The extreme lengths of selfishness (14-17) – “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.”
David’s plan to cover a comparatively lesser sin failed, so he committed an even greater sin. David framed up the certain death of Uriah. Sending Uriah back to the battlefield, David commanded Joab to abandon Uriah in the next fight, ensuring his death. David, the adulterer, became a murderer.
Lust ➔ Adultery ➔ Deceit ➔ Murder
B. The defiled heart of hardness (18 – 25) – “So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
With a flippant word (verse 25), David now causes the deaths of numerous men in order to hide his sin. Uriah’s testimony would be that he died during a great battle in which many soldiers died by the sword. We do well to recognize as early as possible the importance of acknowledging our sin and forsaking it. David had no idea when he initially lusted after Bathsheba that he would become a murderer within a little more than a month.
C. The painful path of darkness (26-27) – “When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the 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.”
David’s sin caused three types of pain for himself and others: Relational pain occurred when Bathsheba heard of the death of Uriah. Before that pain was complete, David quickly married her in hopes of concealing the nature of the pregnancy. She then endured progressive pain when she birthed and eventually lost that baby. We are then told of the spiritual pain when it says that God was displeased.