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This study has several long passages - it is probably best to give people prior warning if you are going to ask them to read.

Read 2 Samuel 11:4

4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

What options does David now have?

(Display or provide a copy of this list)

David could:

• Pray for guidance

• Ask Nathan the prophet for advice

• Ask his advisor for advice

• Tell Uriah you were taking his wife

• Get Uriah to come home to his wife so that hopefully he might think the child was his.

• Do nothing and deny any involvement

• Kill Bathsheba

• Kill the baby

• Kill Uriah

Read 2 Samuel 11:6-9

6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going.

8 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. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

As far as Uriah was concerned, he was on a military mission, instructed by his Commanding Officer to report the course of the war to his King. He was on duty, not on leave, so he spent the night with the servants – who were also soldiers. It would never have occurred to him to sneak back home for the night. In the morning he would expect to return to his unit.

Read 2 Samuel 11:10-27

10 When David was told, “Uriah did not go home,” he asked him, “Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?”

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

12 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. 13 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.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die.”

16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 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.

18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 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? 21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw 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, ‘Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ”

22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 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 to the city gate. 24 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.”

25 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.”

26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

27 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.

But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

Have we ever been in a situation where the thing we have done has displeased the Lord? May be we considered it a small thing; something that could be swept under the carpet, no-one else would know or be affected.

But it displeased the Lord: the immediate effect will be that we stop talking. We stop talking to God, God stops talking to us. But God may well take the initiative and force us back into his presence. It is no light thing to displease Almighty God.

Yes, it is a fact that because of Jesus’ sacrifice this sin also is forgiven, our walk with God can be restored and our place in eternity is still secure, but there may well be consequences to face here and now.

God sent Nathan the prophet to David with a message.

Read 2 Samuel 12:1-14

1 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

4 “Now a traveller came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

7 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. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 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. 10 Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ”

13 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. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”

Having taken Bathsheba, the consequences now start to build. She becomes pregnant. David attempts a cover-up and has Uriah brought to the Palace in order that hopefully he will spend the night with his wife and Uriah may then accept that the child is his.

When that scheme fails, in desperation he has Uriah killed.

By the time Nathan the Prophet comes with God’s message, not only does just about all of Israel know what David has done, but as Nathan says in v14 ‘by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt’.

Who are the enemies of the Lord?

Not necessarily the nations that David has warred against – their kings would probably have done the same and worse without any thought.

Read Ephesians 6:12

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Read Job 1:6-8

6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it.”

8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

What did Nathan say?

‘By doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt’

When we sin we sin against God. This is how sin is recognised: not by whether or not one of our rules has been broken, but whether what we have done has caused God’s glory to be held in contempt.

David’s sins have been forgiven but such a public sin needs to be addressed publicly.

Read 2 Samuel 12:15-19

15 After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.

18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”

19 David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realised that the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.

“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”

Let’s look again at what David could have done.

• Pray for guidance

  He didn’t So God had to tell David what would happen

• Ask Nathan the prophet for advice

  He didn’t So God had to send Nathan to David with his judgement

• Ask his advisor for advice - that would have been Ahithophel. 2 Samuel 16:23 says 'Now in those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who enquires of God. That was how both David and Absalom regarded all of Ahithophel’s advice'.

  That was impossible – Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather.

• Tell Uriah you were taking his wife

  He couldn’t bring himself to tell Uriah the truth, so he contrived a lie

• Get Uriah to come home to his wife so that hopefully he might think the child was his.

  Well yes – he did that, but because Uriah was a righteous man, it had no effect

• Do nothing and deny any involvement

  It soon became common knowledge anyway

• Kill Bathsheba

  Not really likely

• Kill the baby

• Kill Uriah

  We have already seen that David’s actions caused both of these last two.

Now his child had died, what were David’s feelings?

David wrote Psalm 51:1-19

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.

14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

From verse 17 I believe David felt a broken man, and in verse 11 David also acknowledged that he had been away from God and needed restoration.

God had already told David through his prophet Nathan that his sin was forgiven, (2 Samuel 12:13) but Nathan had also told him that there were ongoing consequences which he would now have to face.

Also don’t forget that his country is currently at war with the Ammonites.

Another thing to remember is that Saul had been from the tribe of Benjamin, and there were many Benjamites who strongly felt that David had wrongly taken the throne from the Lord’s anointed. A source of unrest right next to Jerusalem.

Unfortunately that was not all as we shall discover next time. Even the smallest sin always brings consequences. What may to David have been a little mild titillation as he watched Uriah’s wife, brought consequences which had an effect on his very position as King.

God’s command to us is very simple: be holy as I am holy.