Read through the Bible in 2 Years: 2 Samuel 11

Have you ever gone to a corn maze (or a sorghum maze if you’re in the south)? I’ve taken my kids a few times and discovered I really don’t like them. I hate how easily one wrong turn can lead you down the wrong path, forcing you into another wrong turn and another, until you finally find yourself at a dead-end where you then have to try retracing your steps to get back where you were 30 minutes ago. I’m just not a fan. How about you?

In reading 2 Samuel 11, I couldn’t shake how many times someone could have made a different choice and changed the whole course of events. Chapter 11 begins with the words, “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.”

• What if David simply had gone to battle instead of staying home?

Then David “arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of his home late in the afternoon.”

• What if David had been commanding his armies or counseling his people?
• What if David had spent the afternoon in prayer and Bible study?
• So often in life it’s how we spend our leisure time that really trips us up!
• When we’re worn out, worn down, and trying to relax, what do we do? What do we turn to? Food, Facebook, or the phone? Sex, shopping, or scrolling? How differently things could’ve been in David’s life if he’d spent his afternoon differently.

Then David sees a beautiful woman bathing.

• Accidentally seeing someone bathing is not a sin, but what if this wasn’t the first time David had gone up to his roof and noticed Bathsheba.
• Had David made an intentional choice to go up on his roof, hoping that he would see Bathsheba?
• And what about Bathsheba? Was it really just an accident that she was bathing in the afternoon in such a place that the king who lived nearby would see here?
• We don’t know, but how different things could’ve been if Bathsheba had bathed somewhere else or had been more careful to shield herself from David’s view.

And then David sent a messenger to find out more about the woman, and he is told that she is the wife of one of his mighty men, Uriah the Hittite.

• Why did David send someone to find out more about her? Was he planning to take her as another wife or maybe a concubine?
• But then, I wonder, how did David not know who she was? Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah, one of his chosen mighty men (2 Samuel 23:8-9) the daughter of Eliam, also one of David’s chosen mighty men, (2 Samuel 23:34) the granddaughter of Ahithophel, one of David’s chief counselors (2 Samuel 23:34, 2 Samuel 15:12), and she lived near enough to David’s home that he can see her clearly from his roof. Did he really not know who that bathing woman was?
• What if David had never inquired of her? David had more than enough wives already. Surely he didn’t need to find out anything about this beautiful young woman.

Next David sends someone to take Bathsheba to his palace and she becomes pregnant.

• What if the messenger had refused to help David?
• What if Bathsheba had refused to come, preferring shame, imprisonment, or even death to breaking her marital vows?
• What if she had fled like Joseph had when Potiphar’s wife tried to get him to lie with her and he ended up in prison? (Genesis 39)
• By the way, this phrase, “David sent messengers and took her,” reminded me of 1 Samuel 8 when the Lord warned the Israelites through the prophet Samuel about the troubles that a king would bring upon them. This same Hebrew word for “take” is used again and again in 1 Samuel 8. The king will take their sons and their daughter, their fields and their grain, their servants and their donkeys. And here, David, the king, has taken even the wife of one of his most valuable warriors.

Then David asks Joab to bring Uriah back home, hoping that Uriah would spend some time with his wife, so no one would find out how she had become pregnant.

• Like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden after they had taken the forbidden fruit, David chose to hide his sin.
• Maybe David was afraid of hurting his friend, Uriah.
• Maybe David was afraid of losing his position as king.
• Maybe David was simply afraid of losing face.
• What if David had come clean at this point and repented of his sin?
• What if David had brought Uriah home so that he could confess his sin to him and seek his forgiveness?
• Proverbs 28:13 ESV says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Think of how differently this story would’ve ended if David had confessed his sin and sought mercy from Uriah and Bathsheba.

Next when Uriah refuses to go home to be with his wife, then David tells Joab to “set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die.” (11:15) and Uriah was killed in battle.

• What if Joab had refused to be a party to this?
• People might say, “Joab HAD to obey the king,” like they say that Bathsheba had to obey the king.
• Don’t believe those lies. You DON’T have to do it. You don’t. Sure, you might get in trouble. Yes, you might face some embarrassment or other consequences, even severe, or life-threatening consequences, but no one ever has to choose sin.
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) because they refused to bow down to the king’s golden idol.
• Daniel was thrown into a den of lions (Daniel 6) because he refused to stop praying.
• God will always provide a way of escape (even if it’s death) that you may be able to withstand temptation. Read 1 Corinthians 10 for more on this.

David’s sin hurt lots of other people: Uriah, Bathsheba, the child Bathsheba bore, not to mention David’s other wives and David’s other children, as well as Joab and the Israelite army and the list goes on and on. But so does ours.

When we lie or cheat or boast or complain, we hurt other people.

When we think malicious thoughts about others and make plans in our minds to hurt them, we are hurting them as well as ourselves and others. We have got to remember that those people were made in the image of God and when we put our desires above them, it hurts them and it hurts God.

David knew that what he was doing was wrong. David knew the Ten Commandments. He knew it was sin to covet his neighbor’s wife and commit adultery, but he did it and then tried to cover it up. He knew God had said DO NOT MURDER. That’s why he had Joab arrange the murder for him.

Your sin might not look like David’s sin. Maybe you will never get another man’s wife pregnant or have anybody killed, but your sin separates you from God just as much as David’s sin did.

“For from within,
out of the heart of man,
come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Mark 7:21-23

God was displeased with David’s sin, and God is displeased with our sin, too. God made a way for David to be saved, and God made a way for us to be saved, too.

As we will read tomorrow, David’s innocent son died, but so did God’s. God sent His own Son in the flesh, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to be born as a human baby, to live a perfect and sinless life and to die on the cross to pay the punishment that our sins deserve. And He promises to us eternal, abundant, new life in Christ – AS SOON AS we trust in Him His Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, to be our ever-present help, our ever-present counselor … and for all eternity to dwell in heaven with Him.

David needed to repent, to turn away from his sins, and so do we. The only way we can do that is to place our trust in the Lord and seek Him for strength to overcome temptation moment by moment and day by day. David fell because he had stopped seeking God; his eyes were on earth instead of on heaven.

Let’s pray and ask God to help us to resist the devil and submit to Him.

Heavenly Father, I need Your help. I can’t do it on my own. My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak. Help me to trust You moment by moment. Help me to be so careful how I spend my leisure time. Help me to get the rest I need so I can be strong in the moment of temptation. Help me to resist the devil and submit to You. Help me to see that way of escape that You will provide for me each and every time. Help me to be in Your Word day after day, remembering that it is my weapon to fight against the devil. Help me to hold up that shield of faith so I can extinguish all the flaming darts that the evil one throws my way. Help me to fasten the belt of truth firmly around my waist and strap the breastplate of righteousness tightly to my chest. Give me the strength and courage I need to stand firm and fight this battle, so that I will not bring shame to Your name. I love You, Lord. You are worth the fight. Death is not the worst thing. Denying You whether in word or deed is. Help me, Lord, for the glory of Your Name. Amen.