FALLING IN A PALACE BED

Sunday, June 09, 2013
 
2Samuel [GW] 11:1-15 In the spring, the time when kings go out to battle, David [instead] sent Joab, his mercenaries, and Israel's army to war. They destroyed the Ammonites and attacked Rabbah, while David stayed in Jerusalem. 2 Now, when evening came, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the royal palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, and she was very pretty. 3 David sent someone to ask about the woman. The man said, "She's Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite." 4 So David sent messengers and took her. She came to him, and he went to bed with her. (She had just cleansed herself after her monthly period.) Then she went home. 5 The woman had become pregnant. So she sent someone to tell David that she was pregnant. 6 Then David sent a messenger to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the troops were and how the war was going. 8 "Go home," David said to Uriah, "and wash your feet." Uriah left the royal palace, and the king sent a present to him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace among his superior's mercenaries. He didn't go home. 10 When they told David, "Uriah didn't go home," David asked Uriah, "Didn't you just come from a journey? Why didn't you go home?" 11 Uriah answered David, "The ark and the army of Israel and Judah are in temporary shelters, and my commander Joab and Your Majesty's mercenaries are living in the field. Should I then go to my house to eat and drink and go to bed with my wife? I solemnly swear, as sure as you're living, I won't do this!" 12 David said to Uriah, "Then stay here today, and tomorrow I'll send you back." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 David summoned him, ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But that evening Uriah went to lie down on his bed among his superior's mercenaries. He didn't go home. 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, "Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is heaviest. Then abandon him so that he'll be struck down and die."

  When did David’s wilderness journey begin? Though today’s title may lead one to think it began with abuse of authority in bedding Uriah’s wife, it did not. The title simply pictures culmination clutch and tumble scene as in today’s Hollywood passionate fornications.

  Though a mere shepherd boy, Jehovah choose David as he lived responsibly trusting Him; courageously protecting sheep from wild animals, challenging and defeating Goliath, submissively serving a failed king, patiently waiting for God’s timing, and in other ways.

  We don’t know exactly when David chose to be king of his life but he obviously did. And as always is with attitude change upscale or down, results show. (Does anyone else hear echoes of the Serpent’s now contemporary “Find yourself.” “Take control of your life!” “Self-actualization.”? Gen.2:8-9; 3:1-7)

  David or God’s people 40 years in the wilderness did not live or die without God. He doesn’t “leave nor forsake us”. (1Cor.3:9-15; Heb.13:5) If we reject responsibility to follow His direction we lose blessed place here though not blessed eternal place. For the wilderness multitude of rejecters it was never entering their promised homeland, dusty plodding, setting up camp, breaking camp, unpacking, packing, moving on, stooping for manna every morning for hours, and finally dying in the wilderness. (Num.14:29-34; Ez.2:15)  For David it was remaining as king until he died, loss of credibility with remorseful destruction of personal and public life. (Begin David’s sad tale with reading 2Sam.12:1)

  Whether peasant or tsar, proletariat or aristocracy, public or president . . . the choice of accepting the King’s direction or attempting kingship ours is ever before us. Knowing this how now shall we live?

EBB4