David and Bathsheba, Uriah's Death and the Child's Lossby KalebRosendahl
11:142 Samuel 11:14
And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah himself, and that letter set in motion Uriah's death. The letter directed Joab to place Uriah where the fighting was fiercest and then to withdraw support from him, so that the Ammonites would strike him down. Uriah thus carried his own death warrant without knowing what he bore. David resorted to murder to conceal his adultery, to avert suspicion, and to preserve his royal honor.
The act was an exercise of royal authority and a commander's power to sacrifice a subordinate for his own purposes and to carry out his own plan. That authority came from God and was to be exercised in harmony with God's law, but this command stood against that law, so that in obeying the king rather than God, Joab also sinned. David's idle, unoccupied time led him into this evil deed, and useful, purposeful occupation with work would have kept him from it. Led by appetite and passion, he entered upon a course that incurred God's displeasure.
Having turned from God's word, he sullied his once-fair reputation. The account belongs to the record showing that even a man entrusted with great responsibility and highly favored by God could fall into temptation. The crime involving Uriah and Bath-sheba was heinous in God's sight, neither justified nor excused. It brought upon him divine reproof and punishment.
Nathan rebuked him, and David acknowledged his guilt with sincere grief, and God forgave him and spared his life, yet still punished him because by his deeds he had given the Lord's enemies occasion to blaspheme. He was called a man after God's own heart when he walked with God, not while he persisted in sin. The faithful record of his wrongdoing stands as a warning and not as an excuse for sin, teaching that God's law and justice demand regard for His commandments. At the same time the record of his failure gives encouragement to sinners, showing that those who have fallen may take heart again and overcome through God's grace.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah himself, and that letter set in motion Uriah's death. The letter directed Joab to place Uriah where the fighting was fiercest and then to withdraw support from him, so that the Ammonites would strike him down. Uriah thus carried his own death warrant without knowing what he bore. David resorted to murder to conceal his adultery, to avert suspicion, and to preserve his royal honor.
The act was an exercise of royal authority and a commander's power to sacrifice a subordinate for his own purposes and to carry out his own plan. That authority came from God and was to be exercised in harmony with God's law, but this command stood against that law, so that in obeying the king rather than God, Joab also sinned. David's idle, unoccupied time led him into this evil deed, and useful, purposeful occupation with work would have kept him from it. Led by appetite and passion, he entered upon a course that incurred God's displeasure.
Having turned from God's word, he sullied his once-fair reputation. The account belongs to the record showing that even a man entrusted with great responsibility and highly favored by God could fall into temptation. The crime involving Uriah and Bath-sheba was heinous in God's sight, neither justified nor excused. It brought upon him divine reproof and punishment.
Nathan rebuked him, and David acknowledged his guilt with sincere grief, and God forgave him and spared his life, yet still punished him because by his deeds he had given the Lord's enemies occasion to blaspheme. He was called a man after God's own heart when he walked with God, not while he persisted in sin. The faithful record of his wrongdoing stands as a warning and not as an excuse for sin, teaching that God's law and justice demand regard for His commandments. At the same time the record of his failure gives encouragement to sinners, showing that those who have fallen may take heart again and overcome through God's grace.