2 Samuel 11:1-15 ~ When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”

David's Palace is circled on the lower right side of this map of Jerusalem

Israel rural wilderness



David's Palace was built using Phoenician architecture, drawing by Eilat Mazar




View from David's Palace - artistic rendition

Phoenician Column found in David's Palace

View looking outside from David's Palace archaeological dig

View of Old City Jerusalem Today Views from David's Palace archaeological dig. You can imagine Bathsheba on the roof below.


 Views from David's Palace archaeological dig. Kidron Valley. As if you were looking from David's window.
This view is very similar to what David would have seen from this window.



Looking into David's Palace Excavation, before the roof was put over it


Looking at the David Palace Excavation currently

Biblical Archaeological Review Magazine did a great article.
http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/king-davids-palace.asp Many More Archaeological Artifacts are Found and Displayed in The Link.

2 Samuel 11:1-15

English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio         

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.  2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. ( Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”   

6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. 

9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab 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? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. 

 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.”     

We live in a time when people do and say crass things.  It is almost inconceivable to me that David didn't think Uriah wouldn't guess when he asks him, "Why haven't you gone home?"

We find out, later, from Nathan the prophet, that David had no idea how wife proud Uriah was.  Uriah surely knew he was David's neighbor. And it really is not normal behavior to get drunk with a king who stays home.  Why didn't David, who was so famous for being honest, tell Uriah. Arrange something, anything. David had avoided being a murderer for so many years.   

If you've raised teenagers, we all have a horror of getting a phone call about a teenager accident. Having bad news. Worse news to find your child drove. It is something every parent thinks of when it is time to see your child drive away. Put yourself in God's place. What would you do if David where your child? And you knew your child had deliberately run down a bully or a rival. David did just that. How would you hold your head up. And God did what we would do and we would feel terrible about forgiving our child. Forgiveness with guilt. Forgiveness with anger. Forgiveness with shame.  

Instead God Forgives David.  And lets David have the natural consequences of his own children thinking about how they had not seen the 22 years of bravery, but instead the known moral failure of David.  His children do not see a natural order of Dad as the man, but Dad as a 'natural' man. 

We live in a natural generation.  Living with broken homes and parents who didn't do as we hoped or children who have done the same.  So often Christians speak of David was a murder, but we really forget Uriah was an actual person. Me, I'm looking forward to at least getting a good look at David someday, or his autograph, but it is flat out astonishing to remember Uriah lived down the hill from David and probably admired David going off to fight the battle.  And so it is with God. He Loves us that much.  We don't often even contemplate murdering someone, but we neglect Him and we dishonor His Love with just plain selfishness.  

And He forgives us.  In His Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus, we are washed clean. To start again, to walk the path He gives us with Love and Hope.     


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