5/10/23 - 2 Samuel 11: 1-27

2 Samuel 11: 1-27

Observation:

David sends his army including Joab and his servants to destroy the sons of Ammon and lay an assault on Rabbah while David stayed behind in Jerusalem. One night from the roof top of David's house, he noticed a beautiful woman bathing and requested to know who she was. A servant informed David that the woman's name is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and David sent messengers to retrieve Bathsheba. When Bathsheba came to David, he would have sex with her and after cleaning herself up, she would go back to her home. 

At some point, Bathsheba became pregnant to which she informed the news to David, and upon hearing the news, David requested for Uriah's audience. When Uriah arrived, David instructed Uriah to go back to his home; however, Uriah refused to go home and stayed as there's a war going on. David again attempted to get Uriah to go home by getting him drunk yet still was unsuccessful. David came up with a plan and wrote a letter to Joab instructing him to put Uriah in the front line. Uriah was eventually killed in battle and when news struck Bathsheba, she mourned Uriah's death. When Bathsheba's mourning has passed, David took Bathsheba as his wife and gave birth to a son, but all that has happened was taken into account as evil under God's watchful eye.

Interpretation:

It is stated in verse 1 that "David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah" yet we see David staying behind, it's referring to how David should have been with his men instead of staying behind at home. One night David simply could not sleep therefore he was walking around in his home and by chance, he peers outside and finds a beautiful woman taking a bath. I believe Bathsheba was not innocently taking a bath at night with everyone asleep. I think she was trying to get the right the pair of eyes at the right time and in her case, it worked. The Word does not state her true intention, but simply looking at it from a certain point of view, one could conclude her motives that being pure or simply taking a bath for the purpose of taking a bath. Here's the real test for David, instead of looking away, he's allowed temptation to seep in and explode like wild fire. David allowed his temptation to marinate and grow at an exponential rate where he requests his servants to tell him who the woman is. David is told the woman's name is Bathsheba as well as being a wife of one of his warriors, Uriah the Hittite. David now wants to purse his temptation further. He knows Bathsheba is married, he knows the husband is off fighting a war with the Ammonites and now the simple thought comes up in his head thinking "I can get away with this." When Bathsheba arrives, David cannot withstand himself and ultimately has sex with her. We need to point out the fact that David has already committed adultery through his thoughts alone but now he has committed adultery in practice is far worse of a sin. Several warnings were sent to David and he had the opportunity to repent before he took action yet he chose to ignore them and went straight into the pits of sin or "of no return".

David's sinful action leads to the consequence of Bathsheba becoming pregnant. Already committing one sin in adultery, now, we get to see David committing another sin to cover up his previuos sin. Going back to David being brought the shocking news, he started to scheme his way out the sin where he committed adultery, and at first he tried to have Uriah go home and make love to his wife to give a reason to her pregnancy that way it'll hide or cover up the sin he committed. Uriah did not do what was requested by his king; instead, he stayed with the servants. This shows Uriah's integrity as a war is taking place, he did not feel it being right for him to go home and make love to his wife and act as if everything is fine. One other thing to point out is that Uriah is a Hittite meaning he's not a native Jew; therefore, Uriah's action speaks volume on his allegience to Israel and to King David. After another failed attempt on getting Uriah home, he decides to take Uriah out completely by sending him to the front of the battle lines. So David gets Joab to do it by writing Joab a letter and within time Uriah does indeed die with Bathsheba eventually finding out of Uriah's death. Bathsheba would mourn her husband's death and once she was done mourning, Bathsheba became David's wife and she gave birth to a son. At the end of the passage, it states on how David's action was deemed evil (sinful) and not forgotten by God.

Personal Reflection:

There's quite a bit to pick from this passage on David and what lead to him sinning. There's several questions that can come out of this one passage alone. 

• Have you ever saw someone and started to have lustful thoughts?
• Did you know that simply having thoughts can be a sin even though you do not act on them?
• Right when you're tempted to act on a sin, have you ever ignored the signs? Were you even aware there were signs?
• When committing the sin, did you feel the guilt?
• After committing the sin, did you try to cover up the committed sin with another sin? For example, in this classic case, commit adultery then use murder to cover it up? If this example is too drastic, then another example is, you have an addiction like alcohol and you go out for drinks with your friends when you're not supposed to and when you come back home, you lie to whoever about it and have your friends help you cover it up, too. (And no, I'm not speaking from personal experience)
• Right when you're being tempted, have you ever asked God to help you fight the temptation?
• After committing the sin, have you ever felt the guilt and shame of committing the sin?

There are several other questions that I know that I have missed but as anyone can see, this one passage alone confronts numerous type of sin, personal reflection topics and deep conflictions one would have or go through from a day-to-day basis. Speaking from a personal experience, I was tempted to have sex numerous times during college but I did my best to refuse giving in. It wasn't until I met my current wife where I was tempted. Without going into too much details, at the time when I first met June, she was not a Christian so she did not really understand of keeping my virginity until after marriage. It was not an incredibly easy conversation to have, but it was something she understood to a certain degree. But a year into our dating relationship, because June not being a Christian and her living in a secular world with awfully popular worldly point-of-views, June would bring up the ever so common statement "I thought you love me". I prayed to God numerous times to help me avoid this temptation; I even thought of breaking things off if things went too far. But I liked June too much and I eventually caved and gave into the temptation. I lost my virginity to June and we would often have sex whenever I visited her due to us being in a long distance relationship (Norcal-Socal). Finally, the consequences of my sins finally caught up to me where one day June told me she was pregnant. Long story short, we contemplated about abortion for a month and we made the final decision to do right in the eyes of the Lord by not committing another act of sin to cover up our original sin. We repented by first having June become a believer and understand what Christianity is about. Second, I had to come before the church confess my sins to them and let the church know that I will be repenting by marrying June and having the child. Third, we bore the child and raised the child as if she was planned since day one. It's easy to commit the sin but it's incredibly difficult to repent them; what's even more difficult is trying to cover it up all on your own. My challenge is to help my kids understand that. When they know they're not supposed to do something, they need to own up to their mistakes, take responsibility and learn from them.

Application:

As both my children are getting older especially my eldest going into sixth grade next year, it's my duty and responsibility to teach my children to learn that temptation will be around us wherever we go. It's really easy to fall into the temptation trap. I do not want my kids to have the mindset like numerous self-proclaimed Christians have where as long as they have accepted Jesus into their hearts, they're always will be forgiven and that gives them the license to continue their secular, sinful ways. I need to do a better job on being that leader as the father of the household and the guide for my children. This is one area I'm starting to notice my daughter and son falling into where devices have become their addiction and they're losing focus on other aspects in their lives. Don't get me wrong, they're still able to maintain their grades but I do not want them to think that just because they're able to maintain their grades gives them permission to constantly be on their devices whenever and however long they please. This upcoming summer my plan is to give them other activities at the same time, I'm looking forward to having my eldest join the youth ministry once she becomes of age. I want them to get into the habit of enjoying church more and have them understand that reading is a necessity in growth so I'll try to have them read more.