2 Samuel 11:1-27
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,a 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 Joabb 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 followedc 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 made him drunk: and at even he 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 wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottestd 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 displeasee 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 displeasedf the LORD.
Now in chapter eleven.
It came to pass, after these things that Joab, and the army in the springtime when it was a good time to go out and fight, after the winter rains were over, Joab with the forces went again against Ammon. [Or the Ammonites.] And David one evening, after his afternoon siesta, was taking a stroll on his roof: and from this vantage point, [up on his roof, looking over the city,] he noticed in the courtyard of a neighboring house a beautiful woman bathing. [David began to lust after this woman.] He said to his servant, Who is that woman that lives in that house over there? And the servant said, That is Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So David commanded his servant to go over and to bring her to him [There David committed adultery with her. After awhile she sent a message to David that she was pregnant.] (2 Samuel 11:1-5).
So David sought to cover his sin.
His son Solomon later wrote, "He who seeks to cover his sin shall not prosper, but whoso will confess and forsake his sin, he shall be forgiven".
David sought to cover for his sin by sending for Uriah who was in the army fighting with Joab.
He sent a note to Joab, Send Uriah back from the battle. So Uriah came back, and David said, How's the battle going, how's Joab, how are the troops? [Asking a lot of questions concerning the battle.] He said, Go home, spend the night with your wife tonight. And David sent after him a mess of meat, so they could just feast (2 Samuel 11:6-8).
He figured that he'd go home, and go to bed with his wife, and later on when his wife would say, "Honey, I'm pregnant," that no one would ever know the difference, except for David and Bathsheba, and he figured that the whole thing could be covered over. But Uriah seemed to be a very honorable man.
[Instead of going home,] he slept that night on David's porch with David's servants. In the morning it was told David that Uriah didn't go home, he spent the night there on the porch. So he called Uriah in, and he said, Hey man why didn't you go home and spend the night with your wife, I mean after all you've been out fighting and you have a chance to spend the night with your wife, why would you sleep on the porch? He said, Well Joab, and all of my buddies are out there in the fields, they're sleeping out in the fields at night: and it wouldn't be right for me to enjoy my wife, and my own bed [when my buddies are out there in the trenches, I just couldn't do that.] And so David said, Well tarry with me to day and tomorrow. And so he kept filling the guy's wine glass; got him pretty drunk, [Figuring that if he was drunk enough maybe he would go home.] but he staggered out to the porch of David's house and there he was asleep again (2 Samuel 11:9-13).
So, as sin so often does, it leads to something worse. It begins to compound, it begins to develop in its insidious manner. So David turned to a second plan, more dastardly than the first. That plan was to deliberately have Uriah killed in battle.
And so David sent a message to Joab, sealed orders by the hand of Uriah which said, When the battle gets hot, put Uriah in the front line of the hottest spot, that he might be smitten, and die. [So Joab began to assault the city of the Ammonites, and he sent an assault troop up towards the wall pursuing the Ammonites. And as they got close to the wall, the archers from the wall began to shoot at them,] and Uriah was shot and killed along with some of the other troops. So Joab sent a messenger unto David to tell him of the battle and how things were going. He said, If David gets angry because we approached the wall too close, then tell him that Uriah also is dead. And so the fellow came and told David of the battle, how that some of the men had fallen. They had been shot by the archers on the wall. [And David became sort of angry, because he said, That's foolish come so near the wall? Joab knows better than that!] The messenger said, Well Uriah the Hittite was also killed. And David said, Let the matter rest, it is okay. Bathsheba mourned for her husband. And after her period of mourning, David took her as his wife, [figuring things were all right. But things weren't all right. God could not allow David's sin to go unnoticed, or to go unpunished.] The child was born (2 Samuel 11:14-27).
David figured, "Well, that's great!" He no doubt came to love Bathsheba. His first experience with her was not an experience expressing love. It was an experience just expressing lust, but he no doubt came to love.
Even as I believe that many couples are attracted by certain physical characteristics, and later on they actually learn to love each other. Many times you're attracted to another person by certain physical characteristics, and later on you'll learn to hate them, as you really get to know them. So love doesn't always follow an attraction, a physical attraction. But people say, "Love at first sight". No, it doesn't really happen that way. Interest at first sight, attraction maybe, but love is something that grows. Love is something that develops in a relationship. "