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17 September 2011
Idleness caused King David to commit adultery & murder. Thus Yahweh God stirred up evil for him out of his own house as retributions; even he repented eventually.
Extracted from 2 Samuel, Chapter 11:
The 2nd Ammonite Campaign, David’s sins of adultery & murder
1 At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go campaigning, David sent Joab and with him his guards and all Israel. They massacred the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites. David, however, remained in Jerusalem.
2 It happened towards evening when David had got up from resting and was strolling on the palace roof, that from the roof he saw a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.
3 David made enquiries about this woman and was told, 'Why, that is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.'
4 David then sent messengers to fetch her. She came to him, and he lay with her, just after she had purified herself from her period. She then went home again.
5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, 'I am pregnant.'
David trying to conceal his sin of adultery
6 David then sent word to Joab, 'Send me Uriah the Hittite,' whereupon Joab sent Uriah to David.
7 When Uriah reached him, David asked how Joab was and how the army was and how the war was going.
8 David then said to Uriah, 'Go down to your house and wash your feet.' Uriah left the palace and was followed by a present from the king's table.
9 Uriah, however, slept at the palace gate with all his master's bodyguard and did not go down to his house.
10 This was reported to David; 'Uriah', they said 'has not gone down to his house.' So David asked Uriah, 'Haven't you just arrived from the journey? Why didn't you go down to your house?'
11 To which Uriah replied, 'The ark, Israel and Judah are lodged in huts; my master Joab and my lord's guards are camping in the open. Am I to go to my house, then, and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As Yahweh lives, and as you yourself live, I shall do no such thing!'
12 David then said to Uriah, 'Stay on here today; tomorrow I shall send you off.' So Uriah stayed that day in Jerusalem.
13 The next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk. In the evening, Uriah went out and bedded down with his master's bodyguard, but did not go down to his house.
David planned to commit murder to have his faithful Officer Uriah killed in the battle
14 Next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.
15 In the letter he wrote, 'Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest and then fall back, so that he gets wounded and killed.'
16 Joab, then besieging the city, stationed Uriah at a point where he knew that there would be tough fighters.
17 The people of the city sallied out and engaged Joab; there were casualties in the army, among David's guards, and Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.
18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle.
19 To the messenger he gave this order: 'When you have finished telling the king all about the battle,
20 if the king's anger is aroused and he says, "Why did you go near the town to give battle? Didn't you know that they would shoot from the ramparts?
21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?" you are to say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too." '
22 So the messenger set off and, on his arrival, told David everything that Joab had instructed him to say. David flew into a rage with Joab and said to the messenger, 'Why did you go near the ramparts? Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?'
23 The messenger replied to David, 'Their men had won an initial advantage and then came out to engage us in the open. We then drove them back into the gateway,
24 but the archers shot at your retainers from the ramparts; some of the king's retainers lost their lives, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.'
25 David then said to the messenger, 'Say this to Joab, "Do not take the matter to heart; the sword devours now one and now another. Attack the town in greater force and destroy it." That will encourage him.'
26 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband.
David married Uriah’s wife to make himself appear as a benevolent and noble person
27 When the period of mourning was over, David sent to have her brought to his house; she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done displeased Yahweh.
Extracted from 2 Samuel, Chapter 12:
David was rebuked by Nathan, ‘...For this, your household will never be free of sword…’
1 Yahweh sent the prophet Nathan to David. He came to him and said: In the same town were two men, one rich, the other poor.
2 The rich man had flocks and herds in great abundance;
3 the poor man had nothing but a ewe lamb, only a single little one which he had bought. He fostered it and it grew up with him and his children, eating his bread, drinking from his cup, sleeping in his arms; it was like a daughter to him.
4 When a traveler came to stay, the rich man would not take anything from his own flock or herd to provide for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead, he stole the poor man's lamb and prepared that for his guest.
5 David flew into a great rage with the man. 'As Yahweh lives,' he said to Nathan 'the man who did this deserves to die.
6 For doing such a thing and for having shown no pity, he shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb.'
7 Nathan then said to David, 'You are the man! Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "I anointed you king of Israel, I saved you from Saul's clutches,
8 I gave you your master's household and your master's wives into your arms, I gave you the House of Israel and the House of Judah; and, if this is still too little, I shall give you other things as well.
9 Why did you show contempt for Yahweh, by doing what displeases him? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword, you took his wife to be your wife, causing his death by the sword of the Ammonites.
10 For this, your household will never be free of the sword, since you showed contempt for me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite, to make her your wife."
11 'Yahweh says this, "Out of your own household I shall raise misfortune for you. Before your very eyes I shall take your wives and give them to your neighbour, who will lie with your wives in broad daylight.
12 You have worked in secret, but I shall work this for all Israel to see, in broad daylight." '
David repented but the child born of his adultery act died and he would need to bear the serious repercussions of his sins as Yahweh God raised misfortune for him out of his own household.
13 David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against Yahweh.' Nathan then said to David, 'Yahweh, for his part, forgives your sin; you are not to die.
14 But, since you have outraged Yahweh by doing this, the child born to you will die.'
15 And Nathan went home. Yahweh struck the child which Uriah's wife had borne to David and it fell gravely ill.
16 David pleaded with Yahweh for the child; he kept a strict fast and went home and spent the night lying on the ground, covered with sacking.
17 The officials of his household stood round him, intending to get him off the ground, but he refused, nor would he take food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David's retinue were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. 'Even when the child was alive', they thought, 'we reasoned with him and he would not listen to us. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do something desperate.'
19 David, however, noticed that his retinue were whispering among themselves, and realized that the child was dead. 'Is the child dead?' he asked the officers. They replied, 'He is dead.'
The misfortunes that happened to King David and his household after he committed adultery with Uriah’s wife and murdered Uriah:
· David’s son Amnon raped David’s daughter Tamar (2 Samuel 13: 1-22), · David’s son Absalom (Tamar’s brother) killed Amnon (2 Samuel 13: 23-38), · Absalom’s rebellion and plotting to kill his father David (2 Samuel 15: 7-37), · Absalom pitched a tent and slept with his father David’s concubines in view of all Israelites · (2 Samuel 16: 20-23) & · The death of Absalom when he was on the way to kill his father David and caused great grief to him (2 Samuel 18: 9 to 2 Samuel 19: 8).
17 September 2011
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