The Path of Destruction
2 Samuel 11:1-27
Essential 100 Series
February 24, 2008
Morning Service
Introduction
Remember Vinko Bogatej? He was a ski-jumper from Yugoslavia who, while competing in the 1970 World Ski-Flying Championship in Obertsdorf, West Germany, fell off the takeoff ramp and landed on his head. Ever since, the accident has been used to highlight "the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" on ABC’s "Wide World of Sports." Bogatej was hospitalized after the spill, but he recovered and now works in a foundry in Yugoslavia. Doug Wilson, a producer for ABC, interviewed him last year for a special anniversary edition of the show. "When we told him he’s been on the program ever since 1970," says Wilson, "he couldn’t believe it. He appears on television 130 times a year."
Thomas Rogers in N.Y. Times, quoted in Dec, 1980, Reader’s Digest.
The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat could accurately describe this section on the life of David. David had defeated Goliath, become king of Israel, returned the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and was the most powerful man in not just Israel but the world. He had more than his share of victories but his greatest defeat did not come from some enemy force but started within.
If you have your Bibles with you, open them with me to 2 Samuel 11, as we look at one of the saddest chapters in the life of King David.
Sin finds its roots in Dormancy
1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
There were very few instances when battles occurred in late fall, winter or early spring. The weather conditions would have made it close to impossible to move armies to a field of battle. Most battles in that time were conducted in late spring, summer and early fall. Late spring, in the ancient near east was one of the best times to conduct war. The lands and roads would be dried out from the rains and some of the early crops would be coming out so there would be food to collect. This would be the time when kings would lead their armies out for battle. They might even be able to catch their enemies unprepared and make easy conquests.
This entire sad chapter of David’s life could have been avoided. In fact, it should have been avoided. David was meant to be on the battlefield leading his soldiers. However, David sends Joab out to command the troops and to fight the battle. We do not know the reason that David remains behind but do see the results.
Sin takes on its form in Disobedience
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."
David is in the palace in Jerusalem and is in the upper chambers. Many of the ancient palaces would have had at least two floors. The upper floor would have contained the royal bed chambers with a rooftop patio that would have allowed the king or queen to look over the city. It would seem that David may have had this type of set up for his palace.
As David walks around the rooftop, he feels the light spring breeze, he hears the splashing of water. He moves to investigate and looks down and he sees a woman taking a bath. The next phrase is important to understand the situation. This woman was not only beautiful, she was very beautiful. We might say today that she was drop dead gorgeous.
This leads me to a question: why is she taking a bath in her backyard? Bathsheba is not acting in appropriate standards of Hebrew modesty. There is a good reason for that, she wasn’t Hebrew. Bathsheba knew that she could be seen from the upper walls of the palace. David cannot help but notice her and that is exactly what Bathsheba wants, noticed. There is no other way to say it, Bathsheba did this intentionally.
David sees her but does not know who she is and so he begins to ask around, not discreetly either. David gets one of the servants and asks who she is. The servant tells David her name, her father’s name to signify her family and her husbands name to signify that she was married. The servant seems to be trying to tell David to forget this because she’s married.
David becomes the aggressor in this situation. David sends messengers to summon Bathsheba to the palace. Many people say that she could not have denied a summons by the king, she had to go to the palace. This is true. The moment the messengers arrive at her home Bathsheba knows what is going on.
Many times people excuse Bathsheba of any wrongdoing here and that is clearly not the case. David is without a doubt the aggressor but Bathsheba was equally guilty in the sin. It was a mutual act that cost them both dearly.
It would seem that David had forgotten the entire incident until Bathsheba sends word to him that she was pregnant. Sin works that way. It leads people into passionate actions where the consequences are forgotten until later. Temptation never shows you the cost or consequences of the actions, only the momentary gratification.
Sin continues its corruption in Deceit
6 So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 10 When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?" 11 Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!" 12 Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
David knows that he is in trouble and will be found out. This is where he should have admitted his guilt and confessed before God. Instead, David begins a scheme of cover up. David brings Uriah to the palace and the plan is to have him go home. The problem is that Uriah has more integrity than David and refuses to go home to his wife.
Uriah will not go home while his fellow soldiers are out in the field. He wants to be where David should have been. The contrast between these two men could not be clearer. David compromised and is seeking to get Uriah to compromise but when that plan fails, David turns to plan B. David decides to get Uriah drunk and get him to go home but even that does not work. With the first two options exhausted David turns to plan C.
Sin eventually leads people to Death
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die." 16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. 18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: "When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, `Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, `Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ "
David sends Uriah back to the front lines with written orders for Joab. Little does Uriah know but he carries his own death sentence in his hand. Notice that David places complete trust that Uriah will not open the orders before he arrives at the front.
David places trust in Uriah because he was a trustworthy man. Uriah misplaces his trust in David and it will cost him his life. Joab follows the king’s orders and places Uriah at the high point of fighting. Joab places Uriah where the fighting is the heaviest and makes it appear that it was just a normal casualty of war. Not only does Uriah die in this situation, David sends other soldiers to their death with him.
Sin makes its way to the place of Denial
22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, "The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance to the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead."
25 David told the messenger, "Say this to Joab: `Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab." 26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.
David acts as if nothing has happened after his orders were followed. Clearly he seems to be in denial over his actions. There was no reaction and no remorse over what he had done. In fact, David wastes no time bringing Bathsheba into his harem. He waits only a matter of days before he officially marries her and brings her to the palace.
David seems more worried about the morale of his troops than the moral decline of his own heart. The evidence is the final phrase of the passage: David displeased the LORD. Remember this is the man after God’s own heart and he failed miserably.
Conclusion
Sin always ends with destruction
The old saying that our actions affect no one but ourselves couldn’t be further from the truth. Look at how many people pay the price for David’s sins. There is no such thing as a victimless sin.
Who paid the price for David and Bathsheba’s sin?
First, Uriah and the other soldiers are murdered by David
Second, their child would die.
Third, David’s family would begin to disintegrate
Fourth, the nation of Israel
Sin leaves a path of destruction in its wake. More often than not, innocent people pay the price for the sinful mistakes of others.
