2 Samuel 11-12 "When Kings Go out to Battle" Introduction: Joab Besieges Rabbah (11:1) The story of David's sin with Bathsheba is justly famous. The author of 2 Samuel uses it as an explanation for all of the problems that afflicted David's house later. Many pastors and commentators have pointed out that the context is given in verse 1. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle... David sent Joab to attack the Ammonites. In other words, rather than lead his people into battle, as the LORD's anointed was supposed to do, David stayed home. We need to keep in view the context of 11:1 and 12:26-31. David's sin is couched in the context of David's failure to do what God called him to do. There are three things that you need to remember from this passage: 1) when you stray into sin, the reason is that you have failed to do what God calls you to do. 2) Jesus is the LORD's anointed (the Messiah) who never strayed from his path 3) therefore when you stray, repent and believe in Jesus! 1. David and Bathsheba (11:2-5) The progression of verbs in verses 2-4 is instructive: "He saw" (v2) It starts with the eyes. He saw a woman bathing. And he saw that she was beautiful. Why is she bathing on the roof of her house? We are told in verse 4 that she was purifying herself from her uncleanness. In other words, she had just had her period, and was now cleansing herself according to the law. The temptation has presented itself to David's eyes. And he gives in to the temptation. So secondly "he sent" and inquired about her. He discovered that she was the daughter of Eliam 2 Samuel 23:34 says that Eliam was one of David's mighty men, and the son of Ahithophel one of David's counselors, who wound up siding with Absalom a few years later. While it is possible that this is a different Eliam, given the fact that ancient cities were fairly small, and only the most trusted servants of the king were allowed to dwell permanently inside the city, it is most likely that this is in fact the daughter of one of his mighty men. He also discovered that she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his mighty men (23:39), so then he "sent" messengers and "took" her. He should have been taking the Rabbah the capital city of the Ammonites. But instead he takes the wife of Uriah and conquers her. Adultery starts with the eyes. It then moves to inquiry wanting to know more about her. It then concludes with the act itself. James 1 tells us "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by sin and when that sin has conceived it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death." James could have been thinking about David's story! How could David think that this was okay? David knew that the law forbade adultery. How could he do this? This is the way sin works. Sin is deceitful. It may be that David persuaded himself that as king he was above the law. I'm the king. I can have any woman in the land . . . But we also need to come back to the context of the whole passage: David is at home. He is supposed to be leading his army into battle. He is neglecting the things that God has called him to do. This is another aspect of dealing with temptation. If you stay focused on the things that God has called you to do, then you will not have time to do the things that God has forbidden you to do! David would appear to be around 50 years old at the time halfway into his reign (he has been king long enough to defeat almost all his enemies and we still need another dozen years or so for the story of Absalom, along with a few years afterwards to finish off David's reign). Now what about Bathsheba? Bathsheba would be perhaps 20 or so since she was the granddaughter of one of the king's counselors who also has to be alive in another dozen years in order to counsel Absalom. Bathsheba had grown up in a house that revered David. Her father and grandfather had followed David from the beginning. She grew up in awe of the LORD's anointed. She probably even met David when she was a little girl. Now the man after God's own heart the LORD's anointed calls for her and wants to sleep with her. Did she know that what she was doing was wrong? Yes. But the LORD's anointed was telling her, "don't worry it's okay!" Her husband was gone, and now the king flatters her with his attention. She does nothing to encourage David but neither does she do anything to discourage him and indeed she expects him to "take care of things" when she turns up pregnant. In short, Bathsheba is guilty, but not nearly as guilty as David. David is the King. He is the LORD's anointed. He takes one of these little ones who trusted in him, and abuses her trust. For David to sleep with Bathsheba would be like Jesus sleeping with Mary Magdalene a horrible abuse of power: causing one of these little ones to sin against God. 2. David and Uriah (11:6-13) But it gets worse. When David hears that Bathsheba is pregnant, he calls for her husband, Uriah the Hittite. He knows that Bathsheba has had her period (that's how he spotted her in the first place), so the only way to disguise his sin is to get Uriah to sleep with his wife. So he calls for Uriah and asks how the battle is going then he sends Uriah home for the night. But Uriah will not go home. There is no indication that Uriah is suspicious. He is simply keeping himself pure, because he is preparing to go back to the camp (Dt 23:9). He is a soldier, and he is devoted to David, and to the ark of God, and to the army. He will not sleep with his wife while they are engaged in holy war. What a contrast! This Hittite (a member of a people who were supposed to be exterminated by holy war) is so devoted to Yahweh and Yahweh's anointed, that he will not sleep with his wife. But David Yahweh's anointed did not go out to battle, preferring to sleep with Uriah's wife. In desperation David makes Uriah drunk but to no avail: Uriah is a faithful servant of the LORD, and a faithful servant of David. And so David turns to "plan B" If Uriah won't sleep with his wife, then the only way to save face is to kill him. The LORD's anointed is slaughtering the faithful. The shepherd is leading the sheep to the slaughter. Israel was supposed to be a kingdom of priests calling the nations to repentance and faith in Yahweh, but David is now prepared to kill this convert. It is in this context that we need to sing Psalm 10. Psalm 10 speaks of how the wicked seek to ensnare the poor and helpless, and prays that God will do justice. It is a horrible thing to sing this about David, but David is indeed the one saying "God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it . . ." David is not Jesus. In this moment David, the LORD's anointed, has become the anti-Christ, persecuting the church of God! [Sing Psalm 10] 3. David and Joab (11:14-27) Verses 14-27 reveal how David involved his cousin, Joab, in the murder of Uriah. David sends the instructions by the hand of Uriah. David has such confidence in the loyalty of Uriah, that he does not fear that Uriah will open the letter. Joab follows his orders, but not quite in the way that David commanded. Rather than draw back and allow Uriah to be slaughtered, Joab simply assigns Uriah to the place where the fiercest fighting will take place. Joab does not come off well in Samuel, but in this story he is more honorable than David! Further, Joab rebukes David in verse 21. He tells his messengers, the king may ask you why you came so near the wall and he suggests that David might ask: Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Abimelech was the son of Jerubbesheth (Jerubbaal also called Gideon). In Judges 9:53 we hear of the death of Abimelech, crushed by an upper millstone thrown by a woman. A woman was the death of Abimelech the first king in Israel. Now Joab hints that a woman is the cause of their losses at Rabbah. But David is not at all interested in the loss of the life of his soldiers as Joab had predicted, David is acting like Abimelech, concerned only for his own power and prestige. This is not how the LORD's anointed should be acting! His servant Uriah is dead. But rather than mourn, David can only think that soon Bathsheba will be his. How the mighty have fallen! 4. David and Nathan (12:1-15a) But still David doesn't get it. And so the LORD sent Nathan the prophet to David, and he told him a story (read v1-4). Stories can be a useful means to make a point, especially if you are trying to get someone as important and powerful as David to admit his own sin! David falls right into Nathan's trap: As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die... David here reveals that he still has the ability to discern right from wrong. He has simply blinded himself to his own sin. And don't get all self-righteous on me! Don't for a moment think that you are any different from David! You do exactly the same thing! You blithely condemn those who are guilty of your sin. You are the man! (Read v7-9) Nathan pronounces God's judgment on David. You are guilty. I gave you everything but you refused to be content with everything! (What does it prosper a man to gain the whole world if he loses himself?!) Having pronounced David's guilt, Nathan goes on to pronounce his punishment: (read v10-12) Nathan predicts the events of the subsequent chapters. This will happen as judgment upon David. When the LORD's anointed fails to act like Yahweh then God's rod of discipline will be wielded against him! Finally David acknowledges his guilt. I have sinned against the LORD. As Ambrose of Milan pointed out more than 1600 years ago there is nothing surprising about the fact that David sinned that is common for kings what is unique about David is that he repented. How many rulers do you know who have admitted their error and asked for forgiveness? David is guilty of murder and adultery. He deserves death. But who has the authority to execute judgment against the king? According to the law? Only God. And Nathan, God's mouthpiece, says to David, Yahweh also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned Yahweh, the child who is born to you shall die. It is in this light that we can sing Psalm 51. David acknowledges his sin before God and before man. This song is very personal, and yet it became a part of Israel's songbook. David asks God to "blot out" his transgression. Even as Bathsheba had been washing away her impurity, now David asks God to cleanse him wash me thoroughly from my imiquity. And David acknowledges that his sin was against God alone. That is perhaps the strangest part of the Psalm. David had sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah, the whole clan of Ahithophel, and indeed against all Israel by bringing their king under divine judgment. But he says that he has sinned against God alone. If you repent of your sin because you are concerned about what others think, then your repentance is only half-hearted. It is only when you are truly grieved at what God thinks of you that you can be truly penitent. And we can sing this Psalm only through Jesus. He was the one who took our sin upon himself. He sang this Psalm. Yes, Jesus sang this Psalm not regarding his own sin, but regarding ours. But even as he took our sins upon himself, he is the one who asks God to blot out our transgressions through his own atoning work. [Sing Psalm 51] 5. David and the LORD (12:15b-25) And the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. This offends our modern sensibilities. How can God make the child pay for David's sin? David is the one who sinned. David is the one who deserves to die. Why does God declare that David's son must die for David's sin? Watch how this plays out? David sought God on behalf of the child. David fasted and prayed all night. He would not yield to the entreaties of the elders of his house, but remained fasting and praying for seven days. On the seventh day the child died. God has an interesting sense of timing. We are led to believe that the child died seven days after he was born. What about to happen on the eighth day? Ordinarily, the child would have been circumcised on the eighth day. But the child dies on the seventh day. The seventh day was the day when man was supposed to enter God's rest, by resting on the seventh day as God rested from all his work of creation. The child does not make it to the eighth day. There is no symbolic entrance into the new creation rest. (Am I saying that the child went to hell? No! But the death of the child is a powerful symbol of the wages of sin. The lack of the sacrament will not affect the child's eternal destiny rather by having the child die on the seventh day, God is showing that this is what David's sin deserves. David's sin deserves not only death but a seventh day death a death that falls short of the new creation.) But David's servants do not understand this. They stand there whispering: You tell him! NO way! You remember what he did when someone told him that Saul was dead! I'm not going to tell him... But David understood what this meant. And so he asked, Is the child dead? He is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went home and ate. His servants were very confused. Normally the time for mourning is after the person dies! But David appears quite at peace going about his daily routine. They were expecting some big show of mourning perhaps even some self-mutilation! That's what a pagan king would do. But David explains his actions: While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said "Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?" But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. David understands the point that God is making to him. He understands that the wages of sin is death. He does not object to God's justice. Did you catch how I put it a minute ago? David's son must die for David's sin. If you object to this little child dying for the sin of his father, you are, in effect, rejecting the principle of covenant headship. You will, in the end, find it impossible to allow Jesus, the greater son of David, to die for the sins of his father! Why can David accept this so calmly? Because David understands that death is not final. I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. It is not obvious from this statement how well David understood the resurrection, but it is clear that David saw that his life would end the same way as his child. It makes very little difference whether you live 80 years or seven days. Death comes to all. Why do modern folk find it so horrific when "innocent" children die? Because they only have hope for this life. For them the lack of opportunity in this life is the only real opportunity. David is not a modern man. He is surrounded by death. Whether infant mortality, or death in battle, or sickness and disease David sees that whether sooner or later, he will receive the just penalty as well. He will join his son in death. And nothing he can do will bring him back. So David washed and anointed himself, and he went into the temple and worshiped God, and then he went home and ate. God had promised forgiveness, so he believed God's promises. And he goes home to Bathsheba and "comforts her." She had lost her child her son the child of their illicit affair. And he comforted her and lay with her, and she conceived and bore a son, and David called his name Solomon from shalom peace. And we are told that the LORD loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So David called his name Jedidiah (which means loved by the LORD), because of the LORD. The death of Bathsheba's firstborn is indeed a sign of judgment upon David's sin, but the birth of Bathsheba's second born is a sign of God's mercy. The first son of Bathsheba died for his father's sin; the second son of Bathsheba will be the promised son from 2 Samuel 7 the one who will build the temple of Yahweh. Here we see the strange and marvelous providence of God turning the sin of David into a channel of his amazing grace (Even as he used the sin of Adam to prepare the way for the Son of God to undo Adam's sin) God will use even the sin of his people for the glory of his holy name. We don't know when Psalm 32 was written, but it fits well here. David reflects on God's forgiveness. He admits that his silence his refusal to confess his sins led him to waste away. And even as Israel took this into their hymnal, admitting that this was true of them as well, so also we must admit that when we try to hide from God, we waste away God's hand is heavy on us and we cringe under his instruction. We must confess our sins. So let us sing Psalm 32 as those who come in the joy of the forgiveness of sins. God has dealt with our sins once for all in our Lord Jesus Christ . . . (Sing Psalm 32) Conclusion: David Takes Rabbah (12:26-31) 2 Samuel 12:26-31 then reminds us of our context. We are returned to the siege of Rabbah. It may be that all of the events of chapters 11-12 took place first (which would mean that the siege of Rabbah lasted around 2 years). But there is no reason to assume that. Joab sends messengers saying I have fought against Rabbah; moreover I have taken the city of waters. Now then gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name. Joab's rebuke pushes David to fulfill his God-ordained role as king of Israel! Finally David returns to his proper place at the head of the army. The repentant king is now portrayed as restored to his glory. So remember: 1) when you stray into sin, the reason is that you have failed to do what God calls you to do. 2) Jesus is the LORD's anointed (the Messiah) who never strayed from his path 3) therefore when you stray, repent and believe in Jesus! and repentance means returning and doing what God called you to do in the first place.