We are to agree with God, we are to look at life and give God our whole heart.  This stance gives us an advantage when we take this approach before we sin, but this is the stance we must chose to take after we sin.  We have an example in the Holy Bible, David, a man after God’s heart gives us this with the events involving Bathsheba.  We do not see it quickly in the events that happen, in fact, it takes more than nine months and with many more acts of sin before then.

It will be beneficial if you read 2 Samuel 11-12  as we begin.

David had already gone to bed but he got up.  Very likely he was about to tell his attendant to bring one of his wives to him.  The wives lived in different quarters because there were a number of them.  It was standard to decide on a particular wife, have her brought to his quarters and then she would spend the night with the king.  David was already wanting some company, he was at the doorway and sin was crouching there.  David was likely pondering which wife to have them bring to him.  When he steps out onto his roof he sees another option.  He is the king and he can do anything he wants.  When you are the king, you get your way and if you don’t people may die.

2 Samuel 11:2 Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

David sees this woman, he lives in the penthouse and can see out over the other houses.  He has been debating over the wives’ attributes, to help him make his selection and he sees Bathsheba.  He may have even started out thinking: Abigail has shoulders like that and another wife has beautiful hair like that and he is torn.  Then he decides this woman is a blend of what is best of a number of his wives.  In his moment of weakness sin pounces on him.

2 Samuel 11:3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

The facts do not stop David and at times the facts don’t stop us.  We start out wanting to stay in our relationship with God but once sin pounces it devours all of our good intentions, leaving us nothing to defend the right thing to do.

After she spends the night with the king, David perhaps remorseful, sends Bathsheba home.  David does not want a relationship with her, he lusted after her.   After the need was met David along with us can have a moment of clarity, we end what we had started just wanting to forget the whole ordeal.  David could have kept her but he sends her home, David thinks his attendants won’t tell, remember death is an option for anyone that crosses the king, and it is well known that David is fierce.

The sin has happened, it is over, David is not happy with himself over the actions but it is over and he can put it behind him, or at least he plans to forget her and that night.  Then he gets a message from Bathsheba the woman he hoped not to think of again.

2 Samuel 11:5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am pregnant.”

There are severe consequences for Bathsheba, her husband is gone to battle.  If she is caught in adultery, she could be stoned.  She has only one hope, the king, he could somehow protect her or somehow make it right.  There were no abortion clinics back then, the only time you killed the child the mother died with the unborn child as she was stoned.  She knows that the child is the king’s child and perhaps he will want to save his child even if he does not care about her.  She has no other option.

David has an idea, he sends for her husband.  Once her husband has spent the night with his wife he will be taken to be the father of the child. When her pregnancy becomes known no one will count  the months back to when her husband was home.

2 Samuel 11:6-9 David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.  When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war.  Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king was sent out after him.  But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

Uriah is loyal to the king and his fellow warriors.  He cannot with a clear conscience go home to his wife, he cannot enjoy the pleasures of her company thinking about his fellow warriors in danger and at war.  David does try a second time but with the same results.  Since the man will not comply   David has another tactic to use.  He will eliminate him, he even has Uriah carry his own death sentence back to the battle.

2 Samuel 11:14-15 Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.  He had written in the letter, saying, “Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”

It might have been hard for his fellow warriors to leave him alone to die.   They may have questioned the command to drop back knowing Uriah will die for certain if he is  left alone with the enemy but they are not the ones giving the orders so they leave him to die.

David was caught in the sin we get caught in our sin.  David needed the actions to happen swiftly he had the plan figured out.  With the husband dead he could take Bathsheba as a wife and protect her and the child from harm.

David is a man after God’s own heart and yet look at the depth his sins carried him.  Our sins carry us into the depths also.

2 Samuel 11:26-27 Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.  When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

It has all worked out and David can get on with his life.  He has a new beautiful wife with a child on the way, things are good.  Those that know the truth won’t talk and life can go on.   God would not let the sin be forgotten and ours aren’t forgotten either.  David learns the child will die.

2 Samuel 12:14 However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.”

David pleads with God, he does not eat and he is on his face.  David is asking God to spare the child but God will not let the child live.  God will not let the child that could warm his father’s heart live.  As David would look into his son’s eyes he would cherish the sin that brought him to this point.

David is not to the point of agreeing with God, as we look at our own lives are we agreeing with God?

I Did It! will continue next week.

Written by Joyce E Poggensee

Verses referenced 2 Samuel 11-12

An additional entry has been made in Notes and Quotes on the website.