Category: Love

Verses 1

Much has been made about the context set in verse one. I had been taught that David put himself in trouble by avoid war and sending Joab. The lesson being, if we're doing the right things, we can avoid temptation.

But in the recent previous commentary of Wiersbe, he was saying that David had previously been in a battle I'll read about in I Chronicles and there had been a near miss with David being killed or something and his leadership team told him he needed to let his warriors fight the battles. That makes sense. Our President doesn't mount a tank and head to the front lines.

Now I am ambivalent. I agree that idle hands leaves us vulnerable to sin; but I also see that the Proverbs talk about the wisdom of much counsel. The truth is, sometimes God spares us from a curse, like He did with Balek and Balaam, only to have the enemy find a way for us to volunteer for our own trouble- as Balaam was able to orchestrate later.

Either way...here we are. David is home while the war was raging and he had a great view from his mansion roof.

Verses 2-13

So...mt ambivalence fades pretty fast after verse one.

It seems like Bathsheba was just living her life. She waited until night to bath, when people were sleeping. And she was on the roof, where people bathed. I'm guessing most others couldn't see her on her roof, but David's mansion probably had higher elevation. There are assumptions on my part. I'm be curious if Ryrie or Wiersbe corrects me on anything.

David was out of routine. It sounds like he was awake int he middle of the night and checking things out from his roof. When he saw a naked form, he should have averted his eyes, but he looked long enough to evaluate her form and found it pleasing.

Then he asks about her and finds out she's married. But he doesn't miss a beat. He bring her over and has sex with her.

She cleanses herself and returns to her life, only to find out she is pregnant. This is super bad news because her husband is off at war, so adultery is the only way she could have conceived- making her eligible for stoning to death. And would cause problems for David as well.

So, our very flawed hero first tries to just cover up his sin. He brings home the husband from war with the hope that the husband will have relations with Bathsheba close enough to David's sin that everyone will assume the child belongs to the husband. In this first plan, David was content to let another man raise his baby to cover up his sin. And to let another man be cuckolded.

But David has a problem. Uriah is an honorable man. Or at least a man focused on his military mission. He knows he should be back at the battle with his brothers-in-arms. He can't go home and live in luxury (including sex with his wife) while his crew is in the thick of it. Even when David gets him drunk, he's still not interested in heading home.

That means Bathsheba is marching closer to her stoning and David his scandal.