2<\/strong>. arose from off his bed<\/em> ] In the cool of the afternoon, after his midday siesta. Cp. ch. 2Sa 4:5<\/span>.<\/p>\n walked upon the roof<\/em> ] The flat roofs of Oriental houses “afford a most delightful promenade. During a large part of the year the roof is the most agreeable place about the establishment, especially in the morning and the evening.” Thomson’s The Land and the Book<\/em>, p. 39. David’s palace on Mount Zion (ch. 2Sa 5:9<\/span>) commanded a view of Uriah’s house, which was in the Lower City ( 2Sa 11:8<\/em><\/span>, go down<\/em>).<\/p>\n 2 5. David’s adultery with Bath-sheba<\/p>\n It is one object of Holy Scripture to paint sin in its true colours. No friendly flattery, no false modesty, draws a veil over this dark scene in David’s life. It is recorded as a warning (1Co 10:11-12<\/span>), that even holy men may yield to temptation and fall into gross sin; that one sin almost inevitably leads to others; that sin, even when repented of, brings punishment in its train.<\/p>\n With stern simplicity the inspired prophet-historian describes how “the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death” (Jas 1:15<\/span>). The king who but a few years before had sung of “clean hands and a pure heart” (Psa 24:4<\/span>), and vowed to exclude from his palace all workers of deceit (Psa 101:7<\/span>) is dragged by his passion into meanness, ingratitude, dissimulation, treachery, murder. “These things were written for our admonition Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1Co 10:11-12<\/span>).<\/p>\n But if the history is a stern record of the enthralling power and the inevitable consequences of sin, it is no less a testimony to the liberating power of repentance. “Sicut lapsus David cautos facit eos qui non ceciderunt, sic desperatos esse non vult qui ceciderunt” (Augustine on Psalms 51<\/span>): or in the words of Bishop Hall: “How can we presume of not sinning, or despair for sinning, when we find so great a saint thus fallen, thus risen.”<\/p>\n It is the necessary key to the history of the rest of David’s reign. It explains the sudden overclouding of his life; the change from triumph and prosperity to sorrow and failure. See further in the Introduction, ch. VI. 10, p. 36, and 16, p. 41.<\/p>\n This narrative is altogether omitted in the Book of Chronicles, for reasons which are explained in the Introduction, ch. III. p. 22.<\/p>\n An eveningtide – <\/B>The evening began at three oclock in the afternoon.<\/P><\/p>\n 2Sa 11:2-24<\/span><\/p>\n And it came to pass in an eventide.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n The fall and punishment of David illustrated<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It may teach us to guard against declension in grace, and watch against temptation. If temptation is urgent flee from it and think of the fall of David.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Charity and tenderness in judging of those who fall. Call them not, as the world are too apt to call them, hypocrites. David was no hypocrite–but David fell.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Finally, let us beware of employing the fall of David as a plea for sin, and of presuming that such a restoration as his to favour and holiness will be granted to ourselves. Before we can build upon the hope of a restoration such as his our circumstances must be those of David. (J. Venn, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Davids great trespass<\/strong><\/p>\n How ardently would most, if not all readers of Davids life have wished that the first verse of this chapter had been–And David died, and was gathered unto his fathers; and his son reigned in his stead. The golden era of his life has passed away; his sun has begun to go down; and what remains of his life is chequered with records of crime and chastisement, of sin and sorrow. What we now encounter is not like a spot but an eclipse; it is not a mere pimple that slightly disfigures a comely face, but a tumour that distorts the countenance and drains the whole body; of its vigour. There is something quite remarkable in the fearless way in which the Bible unveils the guilt of David; it is set forth in all its enormity, without an attempt to excuse or palliate it; and the only statement introduced in the whole narrative to characterise his proceedings are these quiet but terribly expressive words with which the chapter ends–But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. In the bold and fearless march of Providence, we often see the hand of God. What mere man, framing the character of one designed to be a pattern of excellence, and to bear the designation the man after Gods own heart–would have dared to ascribe to him such wickedness as this? The truth is, that though Davids reputation would have been far brighter, if he had died at this point of his career; the moral of his life, so to speak, would have been less complete. In some way that we cannot rightly explain, he does not appear to have been duty sensible either of the guilt or of the danger of this tendency. He does not appear to have watched against it as against other sins, nor to have taken the same pains, through grace, to subdue it. In the passage now before us we find a catastrophe, resulting from this state of things, which was truly the beginning of sorrows. The king of Israel becomes familiar with sorrows and trials, compared to which any that he had suffered when flying and biding from Saul were light indeed. The lust which he has spared and indulged, re-appearing in his children, introduces incest and murder into the bosom of his family; it violates the sanctity of his home; and in place of the comely order, and the sweet tranquility of brothers and sisters dwelling together in unity, his palace becomes an abode of brutal appetites and murderous passions–the stain and horror of which time can neither lessen nor remove. Such a fall as Davids could not have been altogether instantaneous. It must have been preceded by a spiritual declension, probably of considerable duration. The likelihood is that the great prosperity that was now flowing in upon David in every direction had had an unfavourable effect upon his soul. For a long period the very extremities of his situation had driven him to dependence on God–necessity was laid upon him; but now that necessity was removed. Add to this the fact mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, and so mentioned as to imply that it is a significant one–that at the time when kings go forth to battle, David allowed his army to go without him, and tarried still at Jerusalem. This seems to imply that the king had fallen into a luxurious, self-indulging mood; that he was disposed to sit still and enjoy himself rather than accompany his brave soldiers to the self-denying labours and dangers of the field. Next, let us notice the manner in which David was led on from step to step of sin. His first sin was–suffering himself to be arrested by the sight of the woman; his fall began with a sin of the heart; had he made a covenant with his eyes, like Job, he would have nipped the temptation in the bud; he would have been saved a world of agony and sin. Let us try to gather up briefly, first, the principal kinds of sin of which David was guilty on this occasion; and then, their chief aggravations.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> There was the crime of adultery, including, as it always does, the sin of robbery, and the murder of character, and constituting, according to the criminal law of the Jews, a capital offence, the punishment of which for both parties was death.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Attempted deception, in his efforts to prevent his crime from being known.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Tempting Uriah to drunkenness–braving the curse afterwards denounced by the prophet.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> Ingratitude and injustice to Uriah, whose noble services in the cause, of his king met with a cruel return.<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> Meanness and treachery; it was mean to take advantage of Uriahs absence in the first instance; it was mean to attempt, through him, to conceal the crime; it was mean to try to <\/em>intoxicate him; and it was incredibly mean to make him the bearer of a letter detailing a plot for his death.<\/p>\n (6)<\/strong> Commanding another person (Joab) to do an unjust and atrocious action. And,<\/p>\n (7)<\/strong> The crowning sin of murder–slightly masked, no doubt, and less atrocious in appearance as the mode of death was-what every soldier was exposed to, but, in substance, deliberate murder.<\/p>\n The aggravations of these sins were great.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> All this was done by the <\/strong>king of the nation, who was bound not only to be an example to his people in general, but especially to discountenance crime, and to encourage and reward bravery in his service.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> God had shown singular goodness to David; he had been rescued by God from all his enemies, placed upon the throne, and surrounded with every species of lawful enjoyment.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> The very profession made by David, and for the most part so consistently–his reputation as a good and holy man–made his offences the greater.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> He had reached a mature or almost advanced age; he was long past the boundary of youth, and therefore the more inexcusable in giving way to youthful lusts. And<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> There was the example of Uriah–so eminent a pattern of faithfulness to his duty as a soldier–of firm aversion even to lawful indulgences that might indispose him for the hardships of a soldiers life, or be unsuitable in the comrade of brave, self-denying men. Such was the labyrinth of guilt and wickedness into which King David was now betrayed. How, then, it may be asked, can the thing be accounted for at all? It may serve, in some slight degree, to account, for it, if we bear in mind the source of the spiritual life and the mode of its operation. When a man is converted, two opposite principles begin to struggle in his heart–the old man and the new: The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit lusteth against the flesh. In some natures, both the old man and the new possess unusual vehemence; the desperate energisings of the old are held in check only by the still greater vigour of the new; and if by any means the new man lose his vigour for a time–if the communication with the great Source of that vigour be interrupted, frightful havoc may be wrought by the old. Some men are giants every way: Luther, for example, was a giant in intellect–a giant in animal force and power–a giant in gracious affections; and when in such men the native inclinations burst the restraints of the new nature, it is no common wickedness that may be looked for. It was so with David. But it is one thing to account for Davids sin–it is another to excuse it. These remarks are designed for the one purpose, not the other. The whole transaction bears the character of a beacon, and the beacon is one of the darkest even in the faithful records of Scripture history.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> First of all, it shows the frightful danger of interrupting, however briefly, the exercise of watching and praying–of discontinuing communion with the great Source of spiritual strength, especially when the evils that first made us pray earnestly are removed. An hours sleep may leave Samson at the mercy of Delilah, and when he awakes his strength is gone.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Further, it affords a sad proof of the danger of dallying with sin even in thought. Admit sin within the precincts of the imagination, and there is the utmost danger of its ultimately mastering the soul. The outposts of the spiritual garrison should be so placed as to protect even the thoughts, and the moment the enemy is discovered there the alarm should be given and the fight begun.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Still further, his fail exemplifies the frightful risk of tolerating anywhere in our hearts a single sin. One sin leads on to another and another; especially if the first be a sin which it is desirable to conceal. (W. G. Blaikie, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Transgression: its progress and, consummation<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>And first, as we saw the steady, onward progress of sin, from the almost imperceptible germ of indolence and luxury, to the actual crime of murder, and the utter infatuation of all spiritual sense and judgment, let us hence, I say, beware of the least compliance with iniquity. We often trifle with sins of small account, set limitations to our compliance with the follies or luxuries, or harmless indulgences of the world, as they are termed.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Reflect with horror on the complication of sin. For our self-gratification alone it is that we are led on to crime at first; that gratification must have victims; aye, if the besetting evil within us be but pride or covetousness, it must have victims. Some must suffer for our indulgence, many will become hardened by our example in guilt; for often the man who is called, in the false language of the world, his own enemy alone, will have to answer, perhaps, for the eternal death of others.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Trust nothing to your own shrewdness of discernment between good and evil your own spiritual-mindedness and holiness, about the external objects and other men. Our profession is worth nothing, our spiritual attainments no proof of personal approbation with God, of personal holiness, while they range beyond self. We must deal with self, prove self, pass judgment on self, and live in communion, secret union with Christ, or our religion is but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.<\/p>\n Sloth and sin<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Prosperity enervated him. Prosperity is a danger to men of Davids mould. Contrast the readiness with which he went forth in the old days when Saul hunted him as a bird! He was standing in high places! He needed clinging grace.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Prosperity induced sloth. Our inner life is very responsive to our outward condition.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Close the doors of imagination against carnal imagery; make a covenant with your eves and keep it. There was a prepared plate in the camera of Davids mind, or the beauty of Bathsheba had been as nought to him. Take heed where you go for your recreations. Idle strolling may in some moods lead to pitfalls. He concealed when he should have confessed. Better to have crept to the mercy-seat covered with his filth than, as he did, wait in the palace with his sin. (H. E. Stone<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n David and Bathsheba<\/strong><\/p>\n After <\/em>so many splendid victories achieved by David, after such frequent triumphs over his enemies, nothing remained but the subjugation of those passions that are excited by prosperity and wealth: but these were enemies more difficult to subdue than the Philistines and the other powerful nations whom this valiant warrior had vanquished. He that ruleth his spirit is stronger than he that taketh a city. David was smitten with the charms of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, a brave and generous soldier, who was at that time fighting the battles of his country, and engaged at the siege of Rabbah. Contrary to the laws of God, to every sentiment of honour, and every dictate of generosity, he led her to violate her nuptial engagements. What shall we say to this conduct? Shall we with some well-intentioned but injudicious commentators extenuate the crimes of David? No; he himself, when his eyes were opened to behold the depth of the abyss into which he was fallen, would not attempt to diminish the horror of his transgressions. He was guilty of crimes than which none more enormous are to be found in the black list of sins.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Are there any who are ready to justify their enormities from the example of David? Who are saying to themselves, If David, notwithstanding these enormous crimes, was a saint of God, and obtained pardon, I am safe? Let such consider his habitual conduct, his splendid virtues, and his deep repentance. In examining his habitual conduct, we behold a heart devoted to God. He fell into acts of the greatest wickedness; but these were not permanent, but diametrically opposite to his general walk and conversation. Justice requires also that we should contrast his murder and adultery with the splendid actions of his life. David, says the sacred historian (1Ki 15:5<\/span>) did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Think of his confidence in God; of his trust in the everlasting covenant; of the magnanimity and clemency that he so often displayed; of his zeal for the glory of God; of his humility; of his acquiescence in the severest dispensations of providence; of the pious emotions which glow in his psalms, and were felt in his heart; and after taking this general review of his life, say if there are many who from the bed of death can look back to more numerous or more splendid monuments of piety and virtue. Consider, too, the depth of his repentance. Behold him prostrate in the dust, dissolved in tears, pleading for the life of his soul; looking back with unutterable anguish to his conduce; bearing the agonised remembrance of it to the grave; never palliating his crimes; fleeing for pardon to unmerited grace.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>This subject teaches us that one sin gradually leads us to another; that he who enters upon a criminal course knows not where he shall stop in his course; that he who indulges impetuous passions and inordinate appetites will shortly be deprived of the power of saying to them, Hitherto shall ye come and no farther; and that, therefore, our only safety is to be found in resisting the first approaches to crime, and abstaining from all appearance of evil. Oppose, then, the beginnings of evil; beware of cherishing one sinful thought; you know not to what lengths of guilt and shame it may carry you; you cannot tell where its destructive consequences will end.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>This subject addresses those who, like David, have departed from the ways of the Lord; have violated their engagements; have wounded their consciences; have grieved the Spirit of God and His saints. There is a sacrifice which has sufficient virtue to expiate all your accumulated guilt. By the application of the blood of Jesus, and the communication of his Spirit, you shall obtain the restoration of peace with God, and strength to serve Him in time to come; like David and like Peter recovered from your falls, you shall again participate of his favour and love.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>In reviewing this history, we are naturally led to ask, Why did Providence permit this shameful fall in David? or, to extend the question, Why does God allow sin to remain, and sometimes to break out forcibly in his regenerate children? This question cannot easily be answered. It is not for want of power to prevent it; for He could perfectly sanctify them. It is not for want of hatred to their sin; it appears as odious, more odious in them than in others. It is not for want of love to them; he regards them as his friends and his children. Why, then, does he not render them immaculately holy? The following are, perhaps, some of the reasons of this dispensation. These do not at all justify the offender, though they vindicate the providence of God, and show its omnipotence in educing good from evil itself.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> By them, the grace of God, in justification, is illustriously, and will be eternally magnified.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> They are thus taught the depth of that iniquity which is in them, and rendered humble and dependent.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Thus they are taught to value more dearly the advocacy and intercession of the Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> The remembrance of the anguish of soul which they endured before God restored unto them the joy of His salvation; the recollection of the wormwood and the gall inspires them with additional fear of sin, and makes them more studious to mortify it. They tremble at the disease they have already felt, and walk in holy fear.<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> They are thus, by the wonderful providence of God, fitted for service. When thou art converted, says Christ to Peter, after predicting his fall, strengthen thy brethren. By the bitter experience of the power of sin they can admonish others against it.<\/p>\n (6)<\/strong> The sins of believers make them tong for heaven. They are made ready to drop this body of flesh if with it they may drop the body of sin and death. They groan, being burdened, and sigh for that land of perfect holiness, where they shall no longer offend their God. (H. Kollock, D. D<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Davids fall<\/strong><\/p>\n What led to Davids great sin? He did by another what he ought to have done himself. Notice verse l, When kings go forth; David sent Joab; David tarried still.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The indulgence of the flesh in a little thing led to indulgence in a greater. (Rom 13:12-14<\/span>; Rom 8:12-13<\/span>; Gal 5:16<\/span>.)<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>One sin leads to another, or requires another to cover it.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>See the hardening effect of sin! The tender-hearted David becomes a monster of cruelty! (Read, after 2Sa 11:26<\/span>; 2Sa 12:26<\/span> to end.)<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The degradation of sin! Joab taken into counsel.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>The Lords unseen contemplation of mans actions. (Verse 27. Heb 4:13<\/span>; Pro 15:11<\/span>.) I, the great onus of the crime. For Christians the terrible ingredient of wilful sin is this: They crucify Christ afresh. They cause His name to be blasphemed. (Rom 2:24<\/span>.) This makes our responsibility; hence 1Pe 2:12<\/span>; 2Co 6:3<\/span>.<\/p>\n Davids dark days<\/strong><\/p>\n If the heart is lifted up, if pride and self-conceit take the place of humility and manly self-forgetfulness, the soul is likely to lose its hold upon God and its close communion with Him, and there is danger of temptation prevailing over high principle, danger of the natural man usurping the place of the spiritual man, danger of a fall. So it was with David. The height of his success and the splendour of his triumph may have thrown him off his guard. He was a strong man with a passionate nature, and through his passions he fell. It was a true instance of St. Jamess awful statement. He was drawn away of his lust, and enticed; and when lust had conceived it brought forth sin; and sin, when it was finished, brought forth death. One deliberate sin has this terrible property about it, that, unless checked at once, by honest confession and return to God, it is sure to lead on to other sins. Such was the case with David. He tried to cover up the crime he had committed by various efforts to deceive Uriah, and make it impossible for the dark secret to be known.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>A year had passed away since Davids fall. He had returned to Jerusalem in triumph. The dead Uriah was probably forgotten. The child of guilt was burn, and loved by David with a passionate tenderness. The dreadful story, however, was not, we maybe quite certain, all forgotten by the king himself. However much the commission of the crimes of adultery and murder had injured or blinded his conscience–as wilful sin always does–still, the man after Gods own heart, the man who had shown through many temptations an honest and good heart, the man who had loved and trusted God so faithfully, could not have rested quite at his ease under the terrible memory that he had allowed base passion to conquer his better self.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>God was looking in mercy upon His servant, and Nathan was sent to him to bring him to the fulness of a sincere repentance, and to restore trim to peace with God. Nathan did his duty fearlessly and completely. Whatever sorrows there are and must be to penitents who have deeply fallen, still God is the God of comfort, and He comforted David. Bathsheba was now his wife. Another child was born to them and David–with the sense of restored peace with God–called him Solomon, the peaceful. (W. J. Knox Little, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Davids downfall<\/strong><\/p>\n This chapter holds out the history of Davids soul downfall from the very pinnacle of the highest prosperity to which God raised him. Davids downfall was double, into two sins (without repentance), namely, the sin of adultery and the sin of murder.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The time of Davids adultery. This has a three-fold description, as<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The time of the year, at springtime;<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> The time of war, when David had renewed his war against the Ammonites; and<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> The time of the day, in an eventide (2Sa 11:1-2<\/span>.) To which may be added<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> The time of Davids age and reign. Common computation makes it Davids seventh year, the forty-ninth of his age, and the nineteenth of his reign. But learned Dr. Lightfoot computes it to be the twenty-sixth of his reign and so the fifty-sixth of his age, seeing he was thirty years old when he began his reign in Hebron, being in the tenth year of Samuel.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The place of Davids sin: it was his own palace where he was indulging himself to ease and pleasure, when he should have been fighting the Lords battles in the field with his army against the Ammonites. While he kept abroad in the wars in his own person he was safe enough. It was at evening tide when David should have been at his devotion, as had been his custom (Psa 55:17<\/span>), seeing he would not be in the field to fight.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Upon the third circumstance, the person, the sight whereof was the occasion of Davids soul fall. She is described here divers ways:<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> A woman washing herself, to wit, from her legal uncleanness (Lev 15:19<\/span>; Lev 18:19<\/span>.) Possibly some window was carelessly left open for air in her chamber, that was near the palace royal, where she could espie no beholder; but lust, being quick sighted, lustful David espied her through the casement that then was casually or carelessly left open.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Very beautiful to behold. This was a strong bait to David, who had been indulging himself with some excess of eating and drinking.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> She is described by her name, as well as by her beauty (2Sa 11:3<\/span>.) David enquired after her, who she was, when he should rather have reproved himself for looking and lusting after a forbidden object; more especially when he found she was a daughter to one and a wife to another of his famous worthies (2Sa 23:34; 2Sa 23:39<\/span>.)<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> David sent messengers to fetch her. Unbridled lust, like the wild vine, will ramble over the hedge.<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> She came from her own house into his palace, not by force but by persuasion, pretending only to speak with her; but she came not so well fortified for resisting a temptation as she should.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>As to David, A man after Gods own heart, yet his unbridled lust had metamorphosed him into a beast, He might now well say in the words of Asaph, So foolish was I and ignorant, and even as a beast before Thee. (Psa 73:23<\/span>.) This teacheth us, that the best of men are but men at the best; and who art thou, O man, that thinkst thou art safe and secure enough from acts Of sin? Surely thou knowest not the plague of thine own heart (1Ki 8:38<\/span>.)<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>As to Bathsheba, some do say she was not free from faultiness upon several accounts.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> That she bathed herself in her garden, so nigh to the Kings court, for Uriah, being one of Davids worthies, had his house assigned him near to the royal palace.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> That she so willingly came with the first messenger without any jealousy of a snare to her, after such too open a washing herself in the view of the court.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> That she so easily yielded unto Davids tempting her without any reluctancy, forgetting her fidelity to her honourable husband, choosing rather to be a base harlot to a king than an honest wife to a good subject.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>First, Davids contrivement to congeal his sin from the eyes of men, in the meantime not regarding the all-seeing eye of God, etc.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> He sends for Uriah, that he, returning home and lying with his wife, might believe this now begotten child, to be of his own begetting.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> The discourse betwixt David and Uriah upon his return at royal summons (v. 7.)<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> David deals still with Uriah while sober, and dissemblingly gives him an amicable dismission (v. 8) bidding him go home and refresh thyself after thy travail, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth (Pro 5:18<\/span>.) Not doubting but he would converse with his wife, and so cover both their sin and their shame.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> Davids expostulation with Uriah, occasioned by his not embracing the Kings leave to go to his house, but sleeping all night, among the kings guard (v. 9.)<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> Uriah still holds his resolution (v. 11) neither the dignity of the king (saith Peter Martyr) nor the beauty and importunity of his wife could reclaim him from his refractory humour. Thus the providence of God did counter-work all the policies and projects of David, who designed all along to have his sin concealed, when the most wise God will have it revealed; and lest the king should think it was too saucy a sullenness in a subject to be thus peremptory he renders a most pregnant reason for so persisting in his resolve.<\/p>\n (6)<\/strong> Still David, instead of repenting, proceeds from bad to worse (2Sa 11:12-13<\/span>), when he found himself crossed in his former contrivances with Uriah while sober, he will try one trick more in making Uriah drunk, that when intoxicated he might forget his oath and lie with his wife, putting off all his former austerity.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The last, but worst link of that doleful chain of Davids lust: So far was David still from repenting of his sin that, seeing his craft (for concealing his adultery he failed him in all the other fair means he contrived, now) resolveth upon cruelty in the use of foul methods to get this good Uriah cut off insensibly, and so to cover his adultery with murder, that so he might not live to accuse the adulteress.<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> In order hereunto he wrote a letter to Joab (v. 14), not with black but rather with blood, and Uriah must carry this sword to Joab for the cutting of his own throat.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Uriah must be set in the hottest battle, and then lurched (v 15). Joab must believe this most excellent person had some way deserved death, and he must be the executioner; yet could he not be ignorant of the law, that no criminals should die without two or three witnesses against them; therefore, he was too obsequious in obeying so tyrannical a command (v. 16, 17), but Joab haply hoped thereby to ingratiate himself with David for the murder of Abner, which he had not yet answered, for now David was like to be no less guilty than himself. Right or wrong, hell please the king.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Tidings hereof are dictated by Joab in what order the messenger must tell David (v. 18, 19), and if the king object any rashness in the enterprise, he must answer Uriah is slain also, and that answers all objections.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> David was pleased, saying Let not Joab be displeased, etc (v. 25), where he smootheth up his general, slights the slaughter of so many gallant men, and deeply dissembleth with the messenger, that so neither his bloody command nor Joabs fawning obedience might be discovered to him. David had, been still striving against the stream in the use of fair means, and none would do to his content; but, having found success in this foul policy, oh how he hugs himself under hardness of heart.<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> Bathsheba mourned for the death of her husband (v. 26), and no doubt it was a feigned and a merry mourning. She was inwardly pleased, both as freed from fear of his rage and punishment of an adulteress, and: as hoping now to be made a queen. Had she been sensible of her sin (afterwards doubtless she was) she would have mourned like a dove, as Queen Huzzah did (Nah 2:7<\/span>.) But after seven days of mourning (saith Josephus) the ordinary time (Gen 50:10<\/span>, Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>The circumstances of David previous to His fall. For several years he had been in a state of great trouble: But it was not in this state of trial and affliction that he offended. During this period we see him exercising, in a remarkable degree, the faith, the resignation, the humility, the patience, the meekness of the servant of God. But now God had brought his troubles to a close. For some years he had been the most powerful monarch in that quarter of the world. These were his circumstances when he fell.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Consider the peculiar temptation which is suffered to present itself to David, and the way in which he encountered it. The temptation arose, a temptation sudden and great. He gives way to the seduction. He calmly descends from his palace with a determination to bring the evil of his heart into act, and to perpetrate the crime which the tempter had suggested to him. This we may conceive to have been the turning point in Davids career. Oh! had David paused but for one moment; had he retired a while to deliberate upon his Conduct; had he put up one prayer for Divine help; had he passed on even to the duties of his kingly office so as to divert his thoughts into a different channel; the snare might have been broken, and he have escaped. But, alas! David is left a melancholy monument of what the best man may become when he forsakes his God, and when his God, in consequence, abandons him.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The state of David after his first sin, and his progress to new offences. What must David have felt after the perpetration of the first crime? Immediately the sense of the Divine presence, the inspiring hope of Divine favour and eternal glory, would withdraw from him. The consequences of his crime were becoming visible, and the once noble and generous David now resorts to low artifices to conceal his guilt. He sends for the injured husband. He treats him with a subtlety unworthy both of himself and of his loyal subject, endeavouring to impose upon him a spurious offspring. When deceit, however, would not prevail on Uriah, a fresh crime must compel him. Crime leads on to crime. David, therefore, urged by a dread of detection, determines to add murder to adultery.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>The criminal schemes of David had now taken effect, and Uriah could no more disturb the bed of his seducer and murderer. But when there remained no obstacle to enjoyment, the Divine Hand suddenly arrested him in his guilty career. God sent Nathan the Prophet to convince him in his guilt.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>The dreadful consequence of this transgression. Where God forgives, He does not always wholly spare. He may so pardon the sin as not to inflict upon the sinner eternal condemnation, and yet punish him severely. And such was the case of David. Besides the wound his soul had sustained, and which, perhaps, might never afterwards be entirely healed, we find the remainder of Davids life harassed by perpetual sorrows.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The origin of Davids transgressions. Seldom, if ever, is it the case that crime, to any enormous extent, is perpetrated by men even of the common Stamp, upon sudden and momentary impulse. There is almost invariably to be observed a regular gradation in sin, until it towers in all the fierce and frightful ascendancy of open guilt. Thus was it here. Despise not the fear of extreme iniquity, as if you were incapable of such a thing. If David fell, who once stood so high and holy in Christian character, to what a depth may we yet fall, we who have never yet attained to any thing like his early piety:, his primitive godliness.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The progress of sin now opens before us. Indolence and sensuality worked out their regular and invariable effect upon the erring monarch. He rises from his bed in the evening time–the bed of luxury, every passion pampered, every avenue to sin wide open, nothing further necessary to bring about his ruin than some external object to move the overt act of evil. The wife of Uriah, one of his principal and most faithful generals, becomes the object of temptation. The temptation triumphs, and the first work of iniquity is accomplished. Sin now becomes compulsory; the fear of detection and infamy, perhaps of personal danger from the just wrath of Uriah, drives the royal culprit to every mean and despicable expedient in order to conceal his transgression. Sin now drives on the soul to violence; and with cold and unfeeling treachery Uriah is made the innocent messenger of his own destruction. What a series of close-linked iniquities–indolence, luxury, lust adultery, hypocrisy, falsehood, treachery, murder! And this is not all; we have here but the single series of crimes; there is a complication likewise which we must not overlook if we would read off the history in all its forcible and solemn instructiveness. Bathsheba is made an accomplice in sin, a moral victim to the guilty passion of the king, while her husband is sacrifced to his fears. Here are souls and bodies of men, precious lives, sported away under the hellish dominion of triumphant guilt! What complicated crime! What an awful history!<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The consummation of evil. All that we have hitherto looked at belongs only to substantial guilt; guilt branded, it is true, with atrocity, but the consummation of evil still remains for our reflections. Many months had elapsed since the commencement of this wretched business, and a long period of time, too, had intervened between the death of Uriah and the visit of Nathan, to awaken the royal transgressor to repentance. Throughout this whole interval, there was no movement of remorse towards heaven in the heart of the king; he feared the reproof of man, and the wrath of man, as we have seen, and laboured by murderous efforts to avoid them; but there was yet no remorse towards God, no recognition of his turpitude, as viewed by the Most High, no fear of Divine censure, of Divine indignation, no effort to arrest or even deprecate the wrath of Jehovah. Thus, then, David had fallen into practical infidelity; every active consideration of Gods existence, omniscience, and justice had vanished away. What a mystery is sin; it possesses us to self-destruction, while it diminishes nothing of our sagacity or skill in arraying and condemning the guilt of others. It is enough for satanic malice and purpose, if the soul be filled with every holy sentiment, and wisdom, and quality for external occupation, provided it remain dead to its own interests, unmoved by its own guilt! This prostration of judgment, this death of conscience, consummated the spiritual misery of the fallen monarch. How long should such a state have lasted, if God had not specially recalled the sinner to repentance? For ever! There was no human power, no natural remedy left for his restoration. To reclaim him, fear had failed, and conscience had failed, and memory of past obedience had failed. Reason was stupified, and stupified for ever, if God had not, in his faithfulness and mercy, sent a special waffling to his soul, calling forth repentance. Let us pause here one short moment, while we collect together the admonition, which may be adduced from what we have now perused.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>The return to virtue. Mark the proof; here is a king, with all the powers of life and death over his subjects, in his own will, in his own hands. He is confronted by a man of humble state, of lowly lot, a man devoid of ally earthly influence. By this man he is accused of a grievous murder, and that, too in broad noon day, before his courtiers and counsellors, on his very throne of judgment; and so far from yielding to resentment at so daring an intrusion, or expressing the least displeasure at the abrupt and public accusation with which he is so assailed, he sinks at once into contrition, and confesses his iniquity–I have sinned against the Lord. This is what we need, a thorough conviction of our sins now; we shall have it certainly in the world to come, if it be not here attained. But conviction there is too late for anything but eternal torment; we must have it here, that under a thorough sense of our lost condition, we may apply to the rich mercies of the Redeemer for pardon.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>Pardon I And may pardon be had for such iniquities as adultery and murder–for such extremes of crime? Yes, for all transgressions; the vilest may hope; this history is for our encouragement, to seek that grace which never was denied to suppliant man–Christ is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.<\/p>\n
VI. <\/strong>No encouragement to careless sin, and fruitless admission of criminality, with the secret or avowed purpose of continuance in crime. That from which nature shrinks with more alarm than all the threatenings of eternal misery can inspire is present suffering; that was inflicted, in all its severity, upon David. (C. M. Fleury, A. M<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>David at this time enjoyed great prosperity. The promises made in adversity have not been forgotten. His devotion to God is fervid and growing. There were no rebellions at home. The land was quiet. The great wish of his heart had been formed into an avenue through which the service could be rendered to God.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>When opportunity and temptation meet there is struggle. Without reserve the Bible tells the shameful story–shows how one sin drags after it another until it compels you to write against the name of the man (not free from the weakness of human imperfections, yet sincere and upright)–to write against that man the horrible list of crimes, deception, adultery, injustice, treachery, and murder.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The influences which sapped the wall of his will. You feel instinctively such a fall could not have been instantaneous–fifty years old, a devoted, upright man of God to so fall. The tempest has not strength in it to snap such an oak if the heart of the tree is sound. The sacred narrative shows the weakness, reveals the secret decay.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Davids repentance. Notice immediate confession on conviction of his sin. His confession brief, heartfelt, going to the root of the matter. (R. E. Faulkner<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Remarks upon the concomitant circumstances Are:–<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Let us turn aside with Moses to take a little prospect of this, a great wonder,<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Davids adding murder to his adultery, instead of repenting for his sin.<\/p>\n