Check out all the previous David readings here.

David Reading | Week 5 | Day 4

Prayer

Take a moment to be silent and still. In order to be fully present in body and mind, take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Do this three times. Ask God to give you His wisdom today.

Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 11

Read these verses three times slowly.

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.

Joab sent David a full account of the battle. He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”

The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”

David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”

When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

Reflection & Questions

We have been reading this week of David’s victories, seasons of rest and remarkable promises God made to him. We could easily get the impression that David was perfect and life was forever good. But as we read today, that is definitely not the case.

In fact, it was at the very moment of dominance in the land, that David let down his guard and fell into a trap. Instead of going into battle with his armies like he’d always done and kings always did, David sent Joab in his place. This left him idle and perhaps not a little bit guilty and restless. Where would he find purpose and fulfillment when he had opted out of what God had placed before him to do? He went to the well of sexual fulfillment. G.K. Cherston wrote that, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.” David was no doubt feeling out of sorts and was vulnerable to temptation. He gave into the temptation, which led to sin, and in trying to cover up the sin, led to even more.

David left himself vulnerable on the sidelines. Whenever we check out of church, fellowship, Bible reading, serving, we open ourselves up to temptation to find our fulfillment and purpose in things outside of God. These might be sinful things (like sexual temptation or other addictions) or they might be good things that were never meant to be God things (like family,work, hobbies, etc.). Unfortunately, the bad things will just end up hurting us. And making good things ‘god’ in our life, will end up crushing them (and ourselves) under the weight of expectations that only God is able to fulfill.

Our soul craves for God. There is a God-sized hole in our heart that only God can fill. We can try to fill it with other things, but it will spell trouble. We weren’t made for the sidelines. We were made to be living life on mission with God at our helm guiding and strengthening us. Galatians 6:9 says it well, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

1. Are you on the field or on the sidelines when it comes to your faith? How do you know?
2. Where are you vulnerable to temptation? How can you guard against it?

Prayer

Talk to God in response to today’s reading.

Worship Song

You might use this song today to worship Jesus today:

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Questions?