II Samuel 11
1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house:and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
3 And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
4 And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness:and she returned unto her house.
5 And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
6 And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king.
9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
10 And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house?
11 And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
12 And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. 13 And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he (David) made him (Uriah) drunk:and at even he (Uriah) went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house.
14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he (David) wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.
16 And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. 17 And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab:and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; 19 And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, 20 And if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
22 So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for. 23 And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. 24 And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
25 Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another:make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it:and encourage thou him.
26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
II Samuel 12
1 And the Lord sent Nathan (a prophet) unto David.
And he (Nathan) came unto him, and said unto him,
There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up:and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
5 And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; 8 And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. 9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
11 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For thou didst it secretly:but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
15 And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.
16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
17 And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth:but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.
18 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead:for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice:how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?
19 But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead:therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
20 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped:then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
21 Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
22 And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept:for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? 23 But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
24 And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her:and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon:and the Lord loved him. 25 And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.
26 And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. 27 And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters. 28 Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it:lest I take the city, and it be called after my name.
29 And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. 30 And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones:and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.
31 And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln:and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.
Comments by Joan Boney
David tried to hide his sin from the people ... but God saw David's sin and God sent a prophet to confront David with his sin.
People today have, in many cases, no fear of God ... but God sees.
Here is a remarkable story that happened to Pam Padgett. I will ask Pam to put this story in her own words.
Pam Padgett ... teacher
During the last months of college, I rented a room in a house owned
by a woman I met in the singles group of the church group I attended at
the time. This woman had been divorced twice and had a young daughter.
At first she seemed content to remain unmarried and raise her
daughter. But then she started looking for another husband. I
shared with her scripture that tell us that a divorced woman commits
adultery if she remarries, such as
Matthew 5:31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 32 But I (Jesus)
say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the
cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever
shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Mark 10:11 And he (Jesus) saith unto them, Whosoever shall
put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another,
she committeth adultery.
Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the
law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she
is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so
that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
After sharing these scriptures, I was shocked when she told me that
she didn't care what the Bible says, she knew what she believed. I moved
from her house shortly after this.
The place I moved was quite a distance from where this church group
met. Although I continued to attend the Sunday services and would sit
in the area of the auditorium where the singles group sat, I no longer
attended the singles meetings.
Some months later I heard this divorced woman was
engaged to a man I also knew from the singles group. I went and spoke
with him, sharing scriptures such as Matthew 5:31-32 showing that they would commit adultery if
he married her since she was divorced. He said he would consider these things, but he did not stop the engagement.
Then I heard that the maid of honor at the wedding was to be a woman I
also knew. I went and spoke with her, sharing scripture about the
adultery that would be committed by this marriage. She said she knew it was wrong for them to marry but they
would get married whether or not she was the maid of honor, so she was
going to do it.
About this time, I went to one of the Sunday morning services. I
arrived before any of the other singles, and sat in the area where we
usually sat. But no other singles came to sit there. Right before the service
began, I looked around and saw that the singles were sitting a few pews
behind me. I thought this strange, but didn't think a lot about it.
The next Sunday I sat in the "new" singles area, but they sat in the
"old" singles area.
The following week, I got there shortly before the
service began, and went to where the singles were sitting. Without
saying a word, those I sat next to got up and moved away from me.
It
was obvious they wanted nothing to do with me, but I had no idea why. I
cried out to God asking what was going on? Had I done something
wrong? For a few weeks I didn't hear anything, and didn't know why I had become an outcast from the singles.
Then after the service one Sunday morning, a woman I didn't know very
well stopped me and said she had a message from God for me. The
message she delivered was that God knew how I was being treated by those
in the singles group, and that I needed to know it was because of what I
had spoken about this divorced woman remarrying and that this was what
HE had wanted me to do.
I was so helped by this message, now knowing
why I was being shunned and that it was for doing good in the sight of
God. It was also very helpful to realize so strongly that God was
watching over me, and the mercy and kindness God had shown to me in
having this woman deliver this message to me.