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From: Jeff Harrison (:Jeff@totheends.com)
To:  heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: To The Ends Of The Earth--Teaching Letter #18

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH--Teaching Letter #18

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DAVID AND BATHSHEBA

David's great sin is set "at the turn of the year, when the kings go out [for war]" (2 Sam. 11:1).  This 
meant springtime, the time of blossoming flowers and ripening grain, when the cool winter growing season 
had passed (Song 2:11-13).*  Military campaigns required firm footing for the troops, which first became available 
in the springtime, when the sun dried up the winter muds.**  A springtime raid before harvest meant that 
crops standing in the fields could be seized by an invading army, which would also weaken the defender 
by reducing his food supply.  

* In David's day, the year was considered to begin with the springtime month of Aviv (the first month, 
later known as Nissan), which falls in March or April. Only in later Judaism did the new year come increasingly 
to be celebrated in the fall, as it is today, at the Feast of Trumpets (today's Rosh Hashannah).      

** In the wetter, agricultural areas, where there is more rain.

This year, David's army went out against the Ammonites, descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham (Gen. 19:38). 
 The Ammonites lived east of Israel, in the territory of the modern nation of Jordan, around their capital 
city, Rabbah (Rabbat-Ammon, the "Great city of the Ammonites").*    

* The remains of Rabbah can be seen in the center of downtown Amman, the capital of modern Jordan, which 
preserves the ancient tribal name (Ammon/Amman).  The Ammonites were idol-worshippers, whose god Molech (or 
Milcom) had a taste for human blood--specifically the blood of children, a Biblical claim proven by the discovery 
of an ancient worship site at the Amman airport with evidence of child sacrifice (Lev. 20:2-4, 1 Kings 11:7). 
 The modern/ancient city is 38 miles from Jerusalem, high up in the hill country east of the Jordan River.

David's war with the Ammonites had started the year before, when their new king, Hanun, insulted David's 
ambassadors by shaving off part of their beards and cutting off their tunics at the hips (2 Sam. 10:4,5). 
 David responded with an invasion to the gates of Rabbah, where Israel faced the combined forces of the Ammonites 
and 30,000 mercenaries from Aramean kingdoms in the Golan and modern Lebanon (10:6-13).  Israel's victory 
here led to an even greater clash at Helam, east of the Sea of Galilee, with the main forces of these kingdoms, 
in which Israel was again victorious, and all these Aramean kingdoms were subdued  (10:15-19).  With this 
important victory, David suddenly found himself the most powerful king in the region.  

Now, in the following year, David's troops returned to beseige Rabbah in hopes of taking the city.  But 
David himself was not with the army.  He remained behind in his palace in Jerusalem (11:1).  David's absence 
from what now seemed by comparison a minor campaign may reflect his new status as a regional overlord. 
 His impressive victories had extended his dominion as far as  the Euphrates River in the north, over most 
of what is today Israel and Lebanon as well as parts of Syria and Jordan.  This was a heady time for the 
humble shepherd boy from Bethlehem.  

On rising from an afternoon siesta, David took a stroll out on the palace roof (11:2).*  From here, he had 
a view over his capital city, which he had wrested from the Jebusites (2 Sam. 5), another reminder of 
his new-found fame.  The fragrant spring air and golden sunlight provided an intoxicating setting, in which 
his new-found glory had every opportunity to eclipse his former humble devotion to God.      

* The hours from 1 to 4 in the afternoon are an ideal time for a nap in Israel.  Most businesses close because 
of the heat.  Roofs, which often served as an outdoor living room, were flat with a low wall built around 
them for safety (Deut. 22:8).

The palace sat at the top of the hill on which Jerusalem was built, giving David a commanding view over the 
entire city.*  The houses built along its steep-sided flanks had their entrances at the same level as the 
roofs of the houses below--and so on down the hill.  This meant that from the roof of the palace, David 
could see most of the houses in the city, including one in which he caught sight of a beautiful woman bathing--Bathsheba.

* David's Jerusalem occupied the hill known today as the City of David, which slopes down to the south of 
the Temple Mount.  The palace probably sat above the "stepped structure" discovered by archeologists on 
the top northeast corner of this hill (Area G of the excavations in the City of David).

David's ability to recognize Bathsheba's beauty ("and she was very beautiful in appearance," 2 Sam. 11:2) 
indicates that she was not so terribly far away.  Since her husband, Uriah the Hittite, was among David's top 
warriors (one of "the Thirty," 2 Sam. 23:24,39), this would likely put his residence up near the palace, 
assuring that the line of sight from Bathsheba's bath led to only one higher rooftop.

When David sent for her, there is no indication that she objected to his advances--evidence that she was 
a willing participant in all that followed (11:3,4).  His lying with her constituted adultery, which bore 
the penalty of death both for the man and the woman involved (Deut. 22:22).  This was a deliberate and 
willful sin, a sin of the "uplifted hand," for which no sacrifice could atone in the Temple (Num. 15:30).

Bathsheba remained in the palace until she "purified herself from her ritual uncleanness" (2 Sam. 11:4),* 
that is to say, until sunset, likely the next day, when the one-day uncleanness that results from sexual 
activity expired.**  How strange that she should be so careful to obey this minor precept of the Law just 
after violating one of its greater commandments (Ex. 20:14).  Jesus noted a similar inconsistency in the 
Pharisees, whom he rebuked for carefully observing the minor matters of the Law, while neglecting its 
more important provisions (Matt. 23:23). 

* Unlike the King James, which translates the phrase "for she was cleansed from her impurity," implying 
that David lay with her because her menstrual impurity had passed (Lev. 15:19).  Even less likely is the New 
Revised Standard (NRS), which implies that she was in her menstrual impurity at the time of their union.

** The uncleanness resulting from marital relations was remedied in the Law of Moses by bathing in water, 
and remaining impure until evening (Lev. 15:18).  In later times, this "bathing" was interpreted to refer 
to ritual immersion in a "mikvah" bath.    

When Bathsheba later discovered she was pregnant (2 Sam. 11:5), David formulated a plan to hide their sin: 
 He sent for Uriah, her husband who was at the seige of Rabbah, to return so it would appear that he was 
the father of the baby (11:6-8).  But after reporting to David, Uriah slept at the gate of the palace, rather 
than return to his home (11:9).  "Why did you not go down to your house?" asked a frustrated David the next 
morning (11:10).  "The Ark [of the Covenant] and [the armies of] Israel and Judah are staying in temporary 
shelters, and my lord Joab [the general in charge] and the servants of my lord are camping in the open 
field.  Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?" (11:11).  

Uriah's devotion to God and to Israel is in dramatic contrast to the behavior of David.  Uriah wouldn't 
even take legitimate comfort for himself while the battle was going on.  This is all the more remarkable 
considering that Uriah was not an Israelite, but a Hittite, a member of one of the Canaanite peoples that 
lived in the land from before the conquest of Joshua (Gen. 15:20).  But Uriah or his family before him had 
joined in the worship of the God of Israel, for his name is Hebrew:  "Uriah" means "YHWH is my light."* 
 Uriah, the foreigner, acts with perfect faithfulness to God, while David, the native king of Israel, is 
grossly unfaithful to God.

* Uriah was, therefore, a proselyte, or a descendant of proselytes.  YHWH is the four-lettered name of God 
(the tetragrammaton), sometimes vocalized "Yahweh" or (incorrectly) "Jehovah."  The original pronunciation 
has been lost.    

For two more days, David tried to get Uriah to return home (11:12,13).  But when he remained true to his 
commitment to God and to Israel, David formulates another, more destructive plan:  to have Uriah killed.  The 
next morning David sent Uriah to the battlefield with a letter for Joab in his hand:  instructions to put 
him in the front lines of the fighting to be killed (11:14-16).  

The camp of Israel to which Uriah returned probably looked down on Rabbah from one of the hills that make 
a circle around the city.*  This served not only to protect the camp, should the enemy venture outside 
the city walls, but also provided a strategic view for coordinating the attack.  The city itself, in the 
middle of the valley, was built on a steep-sided hill, surrounded by a huge, strong stone wall.  From the 
top of the wall, Ammonite defenders shot down arrows or threw rocks at any Israelite that got too close. 
 Against such a well-defended city, only a seige could starve out the inhabitants when more direct military 
action failed.   

* This was standard procedure, followed by the Assyrians in their seige of Lachish (2 Kings 18:14), and the 
Romans in their seige of Jerusalem.  

The battle that took place after Uriah's return is described three times in the verses that follow (11:16,17; 
20,21; 23,24).  If we harmonize them, it appears that the Ammonites made a sudden charge out of a city gate, 
pushing back the Israelite line.  But the Israelites soon gathered their forces and forced the Ammonites 
back to the gate.  This put the front line of the Israelite army in range of the bowmen on the wall, who shot at 
and killed some of them, including Uriah.  David's plan had succeeded in destroying an innocent man.  

You may wonder how David could live with himself, knowing the horrible crimes he had committed--crimes that in 
God's eyes were worthy of death.  But that's the question, isn't it?  How are we so good at covering up our sin? 
 As it says in Proverbs, "Every man's way is right in his own eyes..." (Prov. 21:2).  But God looks at our 
motives:  "the Lord weighs the heart."  And what does he find?  "For all have sinned and fall short of the 
glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).  A godly person recognizes this, and is willing to openly confess and admit his 
sin before the Lord.  The natural man and the sinner resist admitting or even recognizing that their actions 
are sinful (1 John 1:8-10).  If God did not intervene to reveal our sin to us, we would probably never repent 
and be delivered.  

In David's case, God used Nathan the prophet to convict him with a parable.  Nathan told the story of a rich 
man who took the only sheep of a poor neighbor, rather than one from his own flocks (12:1-4).  The parallel 
was direct:  while Uriah had only one wife, David already had many (5:13).  David was quick to recognize the 
sin of the rich man in the parable.  He declared him worthly of death, and decreed a fourfold restitution 
for the lamb he had taken (12:5,6).  David even identified the heart problem of the rich man:  no compassion, 
which was in fact the problem of his own heart.  

The four-fold restitution ordered by David is exactly what the Law of Moses provides as the penalty for the 
theft of a sheep (Ex. 22:1).  This proves that David knew the Law of God--he knew what is right and wrong. 
 But though he was willing to impose the Law on another, he was not willing to do so to himself.    

That's when God intervened.  "You are the man!" Nathan charged, as he outlined the incredible blessings David 
had been given by God--blessings far beyond what most men could even dream (2 Sam. 12:7-9).  But for these 
blessings, David had returned evil in God's eyes. So Nathan went on to prescribe God's punishment for 
David's evil deeds.

In Nathan's prophecy of judgment, we see the nature of God's justice:  David had a man killed, therefore 
the sword would never leave his own family (12:10).  He had violated another man's wife, therefore his 
own wives would be taken from him and violated in broad daylight (12:11-12).*  The same areas in which he had 
sinned were those in which he would himself be punished.

* This took place in the rebellion of Absalom several years later (2 Sam. 16:22).  

Only then, after hearing the punishments decreed against him, does David repent:  "I have sinned against the 
LORD" (12:13).  In this simple confession was an admission to sins worthy of death, for which he deserved to die. 
 But the prophet immediately spoke out again, and pronounced forgiveness from the Lord.  The Hebrew says literally, 
"The Lord has caused your sin to pass over; you will not die" (12:13).  Like the angel of death that passed 
over the Israelites in Egypt, David is spared destruction. The forgiveness of David, who is himself a symbol 
of the Messiah, points to the forgiveness brought by Messiah:  pardon for sins, and rescue from the destruction 
of eternal death.

David had finally faced and admitted his sin.  He had turned from being a sinner, hiding and covering his 
sins, to being a man of God, confessing and repenting of his sins--sins to which he never again returned.

But there was one additional consequence for David's actions:  "Since you have caused the enemies of the 
LORD to greatly despise him because of this matter, the son born to you will also surely die" (12:14). 
 David had given the enemies of God a reason to reject God, a sad reality repeated today when God's people 
sin.  But God cannot let it appear that sin is acceptable to him.  Therefore, David's son born to Bathsheba would 
die.  

To some, this is a very difficult passage of Scripture. How could God allow this innocent son of David to 
die for David's sin?  But this, too, points to the ministry of Messiah, the greater "Son of David," who 
died for the sin of the world.  The suffering of the innocent for the guilty is the basis of the entire 
sacrificial system of Israel, and its perfect fulfillment in Jesus.  There is a price to pay for sin.  Jesus, 
the "Son of David," himself innocent of sin, had to die to pay that price.  

All this is wonderful at the symbolic level.  But what about this particular child?  Why did it have to suffer? 
 This same question can be asked of the millions upon millions of innocents, including Christians, that have 
suffered over the years.  Why does God allow the innocent to suffer, and the wicked to prosper?  David himself 
answered this question long ago:  "Do not get angry because of evildoers...for they will wither quickly like 
the grass.... Evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.... and 
will delight themselves in abundant prosperity" (Psa. 37:1,2,9,11).  Like many other places in Psalms, this 
points beyond this life to reward in the next.  The suffering of the innocent is a testimony against the 
wickedness of this present world, and reason for punishment of the wicked in the next (2 Thess. 1:6).  But those 
who suffer in godly innocence risk nothing from death. They will be raised even as Jesus himself was, to 
inherit the kingdom of God.

But what about the "ungodly" innocents, that is to say, those like this child, or aborted babies, or other 
infants who died before they had any opportunity to hear or understand the gospel?  What will happen to 
them?  Here we must first draw the line between humanity's idea of innocence and God's.  For the Bible says "all 
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).  "There is none righteous, not even one" (Rom. 
3:10).  "All our righteous deeds are as a filthy garment" (Isa. 64:6).  In God's sight, all of humanity is worthy 
of death, and none deserves the "right" to salvation.  "Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?... Or 
does not the potter have dominion over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another 
for dishonor?" (Rom. 9:20,21).  It makes us uncomfortable to see the world from God's perspective.  For to recognize 
the world's completely fallen condition is to recognize our own completely fallen condition.  

But do all such children have no hope?  The Bible provides no specific instruction in this situation.  The bottom 
line is that we don't know what will happen, and must leave these infants completely in God's hands.  He 
is the righteous judge, not we.  And he will have mercy on whom he has mercy, and compassion on whom he has 
compassion (Ex. 33:19, Rom. 9:15), not because of any works that we have done, but because of him who calls 
(Rom. 9:11-17).

A ray of hope, though, can be seen in the way God extended mercy to the Old Testament saints, like David, whose 
salvation resulted from their interaction with and belief in the Son of God manifested directly to them 
(as in the case of Abraham and Moses) or by the Spirit of Messiah within them (as in the case of David and 
the prophets, see 1 Pet. 1:11, Luke 13:28, Matt. 22:42-45). There are also the rare testimonies of people being 
saved through a vision of Jesus even in non-Christian societies.  These facts leave open the possibility 
that God may choose to extend mercy through Jesus to some of these children, too, even as he did to David.*

* Though God chooses to use the church in extending salvation to the nations, ultimately the work of salvation 
is under his sovereign control.  The sower sows the seed, but only God can lead a soul to salvation.  

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Copyright c 2001 by Jeffrey J. Harrison.  All rights reserved.  

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To The Ends Of The Earth Ministries is a Christian (Messianic Gentile) teaching ministry bringing you 
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of Teaching Letters #1-11 and #14 are now available in the Articles section of the Classroom page.    

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