Day 121 – 2 Samuel 11:5-6

Scripture Review

2 Samuel 11:5-6

"And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child."

(2 Samuel 11:5)

The harvest of the sin is now here. "And the woman conceived." What David thought could be done in secret has now begun to be exposed. Bathsheba sends word to David, and her message is only four words, "I am with child." That sentence must have struck David harder than any spear he ever faced in battle. That message is consequence arriving at the door. David does not fall on his face here. Right now, the king who once enquired of the LORD is about to enquire how to manage the scandal. Immediate concealment would have seemed necessary, both for David's honor and for Bathsheba's safety, because adultery under the law carried death as its penalty. The king has placed another man's wife in peril, and now the weight of that guilt sits in his lap. The sin was exposed enough that he could have stopped the downward run. But instead of confession, he chooses control.

That repeated word "sent" is a reminder to Daivd. He used sending as the tool of lust, and now God allows a sending to come back to him with the fruit of what he has done. When sin finds me out, do I run to God or start arranging furniture to hide the mess? Do I confess, or do I begin rehearsing explanations? David's trouble in this verse is not only that Bathsheba is with child. His greater trouble is that he is still not broken.

"And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David."

(2 Samuel 11:6)

Here David sends again. He sent Joab to battle while he stayed behind. He sent and enquired after the woman. He sent messengers and took her. Now he sends to Joab for Uriah. The machinery of the throne is being used to cover the sin of the throne. "Send me Uriah the Hittite." David does not say why. Joab does not ask why, at least not in the text. Joab is at Rabbah, continuing the war that began back in chapter 10 when Ammon rejected David's kindness and hired Syria against Israel. David likely used some military pretext to bring Uriah home.

Think about this, In 2 Samuel 9, David searched for Mephibosheth so he could show covenant kindness for Jonathan's sake. In 2 Samuel 11, David searches for Uriah so he can hide covenant deceitfulness. Same king. Different heart-condition. That is why we cannot live on old victories. We can have a beautiful yesterday and a rotten today if we stops walking in the fear of God.

The saddest part is that David had a better path open to him. The door of confession was not locked. The God who had spared him from Saul, established him in Jerusalem, given him victory over the Philistines, and promised him a house in 2 Samuel 7 had not changed. But sin makes a man suspicious of mercy. It tells him, "Cover it. Manage it. Fix it yourself." And every time he obeys that voice, the lure line tightens.

A heart after God never covers sin with more sin. That sounds simple until your reputation is on the line. But the Bible says,

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."

(Proverbs 28:13)

David is about to try the first half of that verse before he finally learns the second.