David and Bathsheba

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites while he remained in Jerusalem. This first detail is significant—David was where he shouldn't have been. Instead of leading his troops as a king should, he stayed home, creating opportunity for temptation. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From there he saw a woman bathing, and she was very beautiful.

David sent someone to find out about her and was told, 'She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.' Three facts should have stopped David: she was someone's daughter, someone's wife, and that someone (Uriah) was one of David's mighty men—a loyal warrior fighting in the king's army while David was in the palace. But instead of fleeing temptation, David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. Then she went back home.

Some time later, Bathsheba sent word to David: 'I am pregnant.' David now faced a choice: confess his sin and face the consequences, or try to cover it up. He chose the latter, beginning a descent into deeper sin. David summoned Uriah from the battlefield under the pretense of wanting a battle report. He urged Uriah to go home to his wife, hoping everyone would assume the baby was Uriah's. But Uriah was more honorable than the king—he refused to enjoy his home and wife while his fellow soldiers were camped in the open fields.

When David's first plan failed, he tried again, getting Uriah drunk, thinking he would then go home. But even drunk, Uriah maintained more integrity than the sober king. Finally, David crossed a line from which there was no return. He sent a letter to Joab—carried by Uriah himself—with orders to put Uriah in the front lines where the fighting was fiercest, then withdraw from him so he would be struck down and die. Joab obeyed, and Uriah died in battle along with other Israelite soldiers.

After Bathsheba mourned for her husband, David brought her to his palace, and she became his wife and bore him a son. The text states ominously: 'But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.' David may have thought he had successfully covered his sin, but God had seen everything. The Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David with a parable about a rich man who stole a poor man's only lamb to feed a guest, rather than taking from his own large flock.

David was furious at the injustice and declared the rich man deserved to die and must pay back four times what he stole. Nathan replied with four words that shattered David's pretense: 'You are the man!' The prophet detailed how God had given David everything—the kingdom, multiple wives, victory over enemies. If that hadn't been enough, God would have given him even more. Why, then, did David despise God's word by doing evil? Nathan pronounced God's judgment: the sword would never depart from David's house, evil would rise against him from his own household, and the child born to Bathsheba would die.

David's response marked the difference between him and Saul: 'I have sinned against the Lord.' He didn't make excuses, blame others, or minimize his actions. He took full responsibility. Psalm 51, written in this moment, reveals David's broken heart: 'Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love... Against you, you only, have I sinned... Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.' Nathan assured David that the Lord had taken away his sin and he would not die, but the consequences remained.

The child became ill, and David pleaded with God for the child's life, fasting and lying all night on the ground. On the seventh day the child died. When David learned of the death, he got up, washed, worshiped God, and ate—confusing his servants. David explained, 'While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, "Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live." But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.' Then David comforted Bathsheba, and she later bore another son, Solomon, whom the Lord loved. David's sin had devastating consequences, but God's grace offered restoration and a future through Solomon's line, which would eventually lead to the Messiah.