Have you ever heard a piano with a broken key or two played? The music twinkles off the keys, and sometimes even the emotion carries you away to another place when suddenly “clunk” and you come crashing back to earth as the piano hits a wrong note. Perhaps the key is never played again in the piece, but the dull note carries on in your head.
The story of 2 Samuel plays a little like that piano with a broken key. We have seen things largely go from strength to strength, and God working through David to secure the place of his people, until suddenly it goes terribly wrong.
Because David is a sinner, just like you and me. And in 2 Samuel 11, David directly breaks four of the Ten Commandments because of his lust. An innocent man murdered, adultery, lying, and coveting in 27 verses. What a “clunk.” What a reminder of how easy it is for even the greatest of us to fall into sin, even unseen ones. A warning to take heed, because God sees. A reminder to look to Christ.
In 2 Samuel 10 we saw that Israel and Ammon were at war. In chapter 11, the war continues, but David is not at war but at home, unlike the other kings who go out to battle (v.1).
One afternoon David was idly walking on the rooftop of his palace when he saw a good looking woman bathing (v.2). What followed was not covenant love, but sinful lust. There is no conversation, no affection, no care for the marriage of Bathsheba to Uriah (v.3). David saw, David liked, David “took her and she came to him, and he lay with her” (v.4).
Covenant obedience through ritual cleansing (Lev. 15:19-30) leads to covenant disobedience through breaching the Moral Law. The woman went home, but she had conceived; now David has a problem (v.5). What will he do about it?
Confession is an option, but not what David pursued. Instead, Uriah is brought back from the front, wined and dined, and dispatched home to enjoy its comforts (vv.6-8). Unfortunately for David’s scheme, Uriah slept with the servants not his wife (v.9).
When asked by David why, Uriah replied that “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” (v.11).
David’s heart should have sunk in repentance. Instead, it switched to Plan B. Uriah was to wait at the palace, where David tried to get him drunk enough that he stumbled home (vv.12-13). Failure.
Plan C. Back to the Front Lines with orders for General Joab (v.14). Uriah carried back his own death warrant; Joab was to ensure that Uriah did not survive contact with the enemy (v.15). And it was so (vv.16-17). Uriah was murdered to cover up David’s sin.
Then it came time to report Uriah’s death to David. Joab primed the unlucky reporter on what to say (vv.18-24). David took it surprisingly well, sending a message back to Joab that “war happens” (v.25). Wink wink.
Then a funeral for one of David’s “Thirty” (2 Sam. 23:39). Bathsheba mourned her husband’s death (v.26), whether heartfelt or obligated. Then she moved in with David as his latest spousal addition (v.27). A son is born. The whole mess tidied up; outward appearances kept.
“But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD” (v.27). Secret deeds were seen.
The focus here is David, and David’s sinful acts. Compare and contrast to Uriah, who shows more covenant faithfulness than David in this sorry chapter. Compare it to the kindness and goodness of David to Mephibosheth and even Hanun, and it is a “clunk.”
David thought the thing was sorted. Practical acts, not faith, rule David’s heart in this episode. But God still saw; it was evil in God’s eyes.
Here is a warning to us all. No matter how good we might seem, we must take heed lest we too fall (1 Cor. 10:12). It could happen to “the best of us.” It happened to David (or rather, David happened to it). We might keep it a secret. We might tidy it away quietly, unseen. But God sees.
Since God sees, we all will have to face God and account for what he has seen. And since we all sin (whether for lust or something else), we all fall short of God’s glory.
So this passage also reminds us of Christ, the true man after God’s own heart. David was a sinner. Jesus was not. David embraced the temptation of his desire, Jesus was tempted but resisted. Jesus offered himself up as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. God saw. God was pleased with Jesus.
So flee temptation. Flee to Christ.
