After King David defeated the Aramean mercenaries who were helping Ammon, he returned to Jerusalem, leaving Joab in the field to besiege the Ammonite fortress. The Bible says it was spring, the time when kings go to war, but David remained in Jerusalem.

One night David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. From that vantage point he looked into his neighbor Uriah’s place and saw Uriah’s wife Bathsheba taking a ritual bath. She was beautiful and intriguing to David.

David Takes Uriah’s Wife

Bathsheba was following the Law of Moses regarding cleansing for women. It involved a ritual bath, which she performed after dark when she might have privacy. She probably didn’t know that David had seen her until he sent messengers to bring her to him.

Could Bathsheba have said no to David? Her husband Uriah was one of David’s mighty men, so trustworthy that he built his house next door to David’s palace. He was a loyal soldier who pledged his life to David many years earlier. Uriah loved his king and obeyed him without questioning.

With all of that background, King David probably dazzled Bathsheba. She must have felt powerless to resist him.

This act of adultery betrayed David’s many wives as well as Uriah. David was used to marrying any woman who appealed to him or helped his cause. He formed alliances through marriages. We don’t even know the total number of wives and concubines he finally had, but taking Bathsheba was different. She was another man’s wife and David couldn’t marry her.

Later David’s son Absalom showed the same kind of shameful disregard for women when he slept with David’s concubines in public. David’s actions taught his sons to use women and not to respect them.

David Summons Uriah

It’s painful to read how cold-blooded David was when he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant with his child. His only thought was for himself. He betrayed one of the most important men in his life, a man he should have respected, but David felt no loyalty to Uriah who had pledged his life to him.

If only David had confessed his sin right then! He could have repented and tried to make things right with his friend Uriah – and Uriah could have lived.

Instead David tried to induce Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba and make it appear that the child was his. Uriah had too much integrity to forsake his duty and sleep with his wife while his comrades were still at war. His king summoned him from the battlefield and he waited at the palace entrance for further orders.

“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 can 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.’” 2 Samuel 11:11

Uriah showed David what integrity looked like, but still David didn’t repent. He advanced from betrayal and deception to murder. He sent Uriah back to Joab carrying his own death warrant. Uriah, faithful as ever, did as he was told not knowing what was in the letter to his general.

Joab Arranges Uriah’s Death

It’s a testimony to the king’s power that Joab followed David’s orders and arranged for Uriah’s death. David’s sin spread from Jerusalem to the battlefield where Joab, his top general, became complicit in it. The mighty men of David were successful because they always had each other’s backs in war. Joab broke that code and sacrificed Uriah on David’s orders.

Joab sent a report to David about the battle that revealed what a faulty strategy he had followed by getting too close to the wall of the city. He recited the old story every Israelite soldier knew, about the death of Abimelek who got too close to a wall and was killed by a woman with a millstone. Joab was angry at being ordered to follow a bad strategy and sacrifice a good soldier like Uriah. He ordered his messenger to make a point of reporting Uriah’s death to David.

Still David didn’t repent. He minimized the death of Uriah, and the betrayal of Joab who had to carry out his order.

“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.’” 2 Samuel 11:25

Bathsheba mourned for her husband. David waited until the time of mourning was over and then married her and she bore his son.

“But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” 2 Samuel 11:27

Nathan Rebukes David

Nathan the prophet had a tricky assignment from God. He had to confront his powerful king who had just demonstrated he was capable of murder against the most innocent and loyal of subjects. Nathan also knew what lengths David had gone to in covering up his sin. It wasn’t going to be easy for him to tell David that God expected him to repent.

So Nathan made up a story to make the point. It included a little ewe lamb such as David may have known while he was a shepherd. She was a pet that her owner loved. The story also included an arrogant rich man who stole the lamb and slaughtered it without regard for the loss to the owner.

David was incensed about this injustice. His heart was so warped that he excused adultery and murder in his own life, but condemned to death a man who stole a lamb.

“Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’” 2 Samuel 12:7-10

David Repents

“Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’

Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.’” 2 Samuel 12:13-14

These verses seem like an abrupt turnaround in the situation between David and God, but when we read Psalm 51 we see the soul-wrenching process of repentance David actually went through. This Psalm is the model for how to acknowledge sin and ask for forgiveness.

How to Repent from Sin

Here is David’s model for repentance in Psalm 51.

1. Confess your sin. Name it and be specific. “For I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me. Psalm 51:3
2. Acknowledge that all sin is against God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” Psalm 51:4
3. Ask for God’s cleansing power in your life. “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7
4. Seek a new heart that will avoid sin in the future. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
5. Recommit yourself to God. “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” Psalm 51:11-12
6. Tell others what you have learned. “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.” Psalm 51:13

The Aftermath of Sin

God forgave David, but there remained consequences for his sin. The first baby born to Bathsheba died. David prayed that it wouldn’t happen, but it did and he accepted this loss from the Lord. God honored Bathsheba later by giving her another son who succeeded his father David and became King of Israel.

David’s sons were growing up in the jumbled household he created, with many different mothers and many, many half-siblings. Life was bound to become more complicated than David ever imagined.