2 Samuel 11:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is David’s honor in pressing on with the war against the Ammonites (2 Samuel 11:1). We cannot enjoy this great deed as we have enjoyed David’s earlier victories, because sin has stained it. Even so, we can still notice David’s wisdom and courage in following up his victory. After he had defeated the Ammonite army in the field, he sent more troops, as soon as the season allowed, to ravage the land and further avenge the insult done to his messengers. Rabbah, their capital city, held out for a long time. Joab laid close siege to it, and it was during that siege that David fell into this sin.

Here is David’s shame, being conquered and carried away by his own desire. The sin he committed was adultery, a direct breaking of the seventh commandment. In the judgment of the older patriarchal age, it was a grave crime, one that deserved punishment by the judges (Job 31:11). It is the kind of sin that takes away a man’s peace, brings him disgrace, and leaves a lasting stain.

Notice the things that led him into this sin. First, he neglected his duty. When he should have been out with his army, fighting the Lord’s battles, he left the work to others and stayed in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 11:1). When David had gone in person to fight the Syrians (2 Samuel 10:17), he was out of the path of this temptation. When we step out of our duty, we step into danger. Second, he loved ease and gave way to a lazy spirit. He got up from his bed in the evening (2 Samuel 11:2), which means he had spent the afternoon dozing away in idleness. He should have used that time for good work, for his own growth, or for helping others. Idleness gives the tempter a great advantage. Still waters gather filth, and a bed of laziness often becomes a bed of lust. Third, he let his eyes wander. He saw a woman washing herself, likely because of some ceremonial uncleanness under the law. The sin entered through the eye, as it did with Eve. He did not guard his eyes as he should have, whether by the rule, “Turn my eyes away from worthless things,” or by Job’s example of making a covenant with his eyes.

Then sin moved forward step by step. When David saw her, desire was already at work. He asked who she was (2 Samuel 11:3), perhaps thinking that if she were unmarried, he might take her as a wife, as he had other wives. But when he was told that she was married, and whose wife she was, he still sent for her. Maybe he first meant only to enjoy her company and conversation. But when she came, he lay with her. She seems to have consented too easily, because he was a great man and also known for his goodness. She may have thought that what such a man proposed could not be sin. This shows how sin goes downhill. Once people begin to do evil, they often cannot stop quickly. Lust, like strife, starts like a small leak that soon becomes a flood. Wisdom says to turn away before you touch it. A foolish moth flies into the flame and burns itself to death.

The sin was made worse by several things. David was now an older man, at least fifty, and perhaps more. These passions are usually thought to belong to youth, not to his age. He also already had many wives and concubines of his own, as is pointed out later (2 Samuel 12:8). Uriah, the man he wronged, was one of David’s own mighty men, a man of honor and virtue. He was away on duty, risking his life in the thick of battle for David’s kingdom, where David himself should have been. Bathsheba, the woman he corrupted, was a woman of good reputation and, until David drew her into this wickedness, had likely kept herself pure. She may never have thought she could be brought to such evil, to leave the path of her youth and forget the covenant of her God. Few besides David, by his position and influence, could have overcome her. An adulterer not only harms his own soul, but, as far as he can, he harms another soul too.

David was also a king, one to whom God had given the sword of justice and the duty of enforcing the law on others, especially on adulterers, who by the law were to be put to death. For him to commit such sins himself made him an example of evil when he should have been a warning against it. How could he rebuke or punish in others what he knew himself to be guilty of? (Romans 2:22). Much more could be said to increase the weight of this sin. The one point that somewhat lessens it is that it was not his regular practice. It was a single fall, not a settled habit. He was not one of those men described by the prophet as lusting after their neighbor’s wife like well-fed horses (Jeremiah 5:8). Rather, God left him to himself for this one time, as he later did with Hezekiah, to show him what was in his heart (2 Chronicles 32:31). If David had been warned beforehand, he would likely have answered like Hazael, “What? Is your servant a dog?” But this event teaches us how much we need to pray every day, “Father in heaven, do not lead us into temptation,” and to keep watch so that we do not enter it.