The Life and Times of

A Problem Pregnancy (11:5)

It looks as though Bathsheba never enters David's mind after their encounter described in verses 1-4. It certainly does not seem that David wants to continue the relationship, to carry on an affair, or to marry her. David simply puts this sinful event out of his mind, until a messenger is sent by Bathsheba informing the king that his night of passion has produced a child. Bathsheba informs David that she is pregnant, not that she is afraid she might be. This means that she has missed at least one period and probably another. All in all, several weeks or more have passed. It will not be long before her pregnancy will become obvious to anyone who looks at her. This is David's sin and his responsibility, and so she informs him.

Plan A: Enable Uriah To Do What Comes Naturally (11:6-9)

David's plan is simple and, at least in his mind, foolproof. In short, David will entice Uriah to think and to act as he himself has done. David does not wish to endure the adversities of the war with Rabbah, and so he goes to Jerusalem, to his home, and to his bed. He does not wish to deny himself, so he takes the wife of another man and sleeps with her. David will give Uriah the same opportunity, except that it will be his own wife he will sleep with. After Uriah has sexual relations with Bathsheba, all will conclude that he is the father of the child which has been conceived by David's sinful act. Only one thing is wrong with David's plan: he assumes Uriah is as spiritually apathetic as he, and that he will act to indulge himself, rather than act like a soldier at war.

David sends word to Joab, ordering him to send Uriah home to Jerusalem. I take it from the context that Uriah is sent to Jerusalem on the pretext that he is needed to report directly to David on the state of the war. I doubt David wants Uriah to know he has ordered Joab to send him. I am certain David does not want Uriah to know the real purpose of his journey to Jerusalem. David is orchestrating this homecoming to appear as though it serves one purpose, while it actually serves David's purpose of concealing his own sin. Even at this level, the order for Uriah to return home has a bad odor. You may remember that when David's father wanted to know how the battle with the Philistines was going (three of his sons were involved), he sent David, the youngest son, as an errand boy to take some supplies and return with word about the war (1 Samuel 17:17-19). One does not need to send a military hero as a messenger (nor is it good practice).

I should also add that Joab is already being drawn into the conspiracy. Joab obeys David's command to send Uriah, and my guess is that Joab knows something is up. He may even have heard about David's liaison with Bathsheba. When he sends Uriah to Jerusalem, he has to give him some mission, some task to perform. Joab and Uriah may have sensed that this was no “mission impossible” (as you would give a mighty warrior), but that is a “mission incredible.” In any case, the web of deceit and deception is already being woven, and more people are being drawn into the conspiracy.

When Uriah arrives in Jerusalem, he reports to David, who acts out the charade he has planned. He asks Uriah about the “welfare of Joab and the people,” and the “state of the war.” It troubles me that David needs such a report at all. If he were with his men in the field, this would not be necessary. But even worse, David does not really care about Joab, the people, or the war. David's one preoccupation is to cover up his sin, to get Uriah home and to bed with his wife, and thus to get David off the hook. How sad to read of David's hypocrisy. The king who had compassion on the crippled son of Jonathan now lacks compassion for the whole army, and specifically for Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.

David goes through all the right motions with Uriah. He listens to his reports, and then he gives him the night off, some time to go to his house and “wash his feet.” David is not worried about this soldier's personal hygiene; he is worried about his own reputation. When one entered his house, he usually took off his shoes and washed his feet, in preparation for eating and for going to bed. David very delicately encourages this man to go home and go to bed with his wife. Uriah knows it; our author knows it; and we know it.

Uriah leaves David's presence. Now David adds a further touch. He sends a “present from the king” after, or with, Uriah. How we would love to know just what that “gift” was. Was it a night for two at the Jerusalem Hilton? Was it dinner and dancing at a romantic restaurant? I think we can safely say this: (1) We are not told what the present was. (2) We are not supposed to know, or it would not add to the story for us to know what it was. (3) Whatever it was, it was very carefully planned to facilitate David's scheme of getting Uriah to bed with his wife, as quickly as possible.

Uriah has to understand what the king is suggesting. Who wouldn't want to go home and enjoy his wife after some time of separation, thanks to the war with the Ammonites? Instead, we are told that Uriah never leaves the king's house. He sleeps in the doorway of the king's house, in the presence of a number of the king's servants. I am inclined to understand that at least some of these servants, if not all of them, are the king's bodyguards (compare 1 Kings 14:27-28). Uriah is a soldier. He has been called to his king's presence, away from the battle. But as a faithful servant of the king, he will not enjoy a night alone with his wife; instead, he will join with those who guard the king's life. This is the way he can serve his king in Jerusalem, and so this is what he chooses to do rather than to go home. The irony is overwhelming. The king's faithful soldier spends the night guarding the life of the king, the king who has taken his own wife in the night, and who will soon take his life as well.

Plan B: Be Clearer and More Emphatic With Uriah (11:10-11)

David has his spies watching Uriah as though he is the enemy. They know what David wants; he wants Uriah to go home and sleep with his wife. If they do not know all of the details of what David has done with Bathsheba (which is hard to believe) and what he intends to accomplish by Uriah's visit, they certainly know something out of the ordinary is taking place. One way or the other, David is making these servant-spies co-conspirators with him.

The servant-spies come to David in the morning with an amazing report: “He didn't do it. He didn't even go home!” David then seeks to gently rebuke Uriah. The hypocrisy of David's actions and words are hard to accept. He plays the role of a benevolent master. Uriah, his servant, has “come home from a journey” (verse 10). Is this not the time for him to concern himself with his needs and desires? Is this not the time to concern himself with his wife's needs? How insensitive of Uriah not to go home to be with his wife and to sleep with her. “Shame on you, Uriah!” Uriah has a lot of explaining to do, or so it seems to David.

And explain he does; Uriah's words to his commander-in-chief are as stinging a rebuke as David receives from Nathan in the next chapter. Uriah clearly understands that what David once encouraged him to do (i.e. go to be with his wife) he is now strongly urging -- even commanding -- him to do. Uriah humbly but steadfastly refuses to do this:

Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, 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? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing” (2 Samuel 11:11).

Uriah first points out to David that his terminology is inaccurate. David speaks of Uriah returning from a journey (verse 10). The truth is that Uriah has been called from the field of battle. He is not a traveling salesman, home from a road trip; he is a soldier, away from his post. In heart and soul, Uriah is still with his fellow-soldiers. He really wants to be back in the field of battle, and not in Jerusalem. He will return as soon as David releases him (see verse 12). Until that time, he will think and act like the soldier he is. As much as possible, he will live the way his fellow-soldiers are living on the field of battle. There, surrounding the city of Rabbah, are the Israelite soldiers, led by Joab. They, along with the ark of the Lord, are camping in tents in the open field. Uriah cannot, Uriah will not, live in luxury while they live sacrificially. He will not sleep with his wife until they can all sleep with their wives.

With all due respect, Uriah declines -- indeed Uriah refuses -- to do that which would be conduct unbefitting a soldier, let alone a war hero. I think it is important to see that there is no specific command here which Uriah refuses to disobey. To my knowledge, there is no specific law in the Law of Moses which forbids a soldier to have sex with his wife during times of war. (Had this been true in the earlier days of Israel's history, there would not have been another generation of Israelites, since Israel was almost constantly at war with one of their neighbors.) This is the conviction of Uriah as a soldier, and he will not violate his conscience, even when commanded to do so by the king.

To fully grasp the impact of Uriah's words, let us turn back a few pages in Samuel's writings to recall David's own words, spoken to Ahimelech the priest, as they relate to this encounter with Uriah:

1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, 'Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.' 3 “Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” 4 The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest and said to him, “Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?” (1 Samuel 21:1-5).

You may remember that when David first fled from Saul he went to Ahimelech the priest and asked for some provisions and a sword. The priest had nothing but the sacred bread, which he would allow David and his men to eat, if they had only “kept themselves from women” (verse 4). The priest assumes they may have conducted themselves otherwise. David's answer, and especially the tone of it, is very pertinent to our text. He confidently assured the priest that he and his men had kept themselves from women, almost incensed that the priest would think otherwise. And the reason David gives is that he and his men are on a mission for the king. The inference is that this is a military (or at least official) mission.

Now here is a most amazing thing. David, years earlier, was adamant about the fact that those on a mission for the king should keep themselves from sexual intercourse. Now, years later, David is amazed that a man on a mission for the king is willing to abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife. Worse yet, David sets out to convince -- even to compel -- Uriah to go to do so, even though it will cause him to violate his conscience. This is not “causing a weaker brother to stumble;” this is cutting off a stronger brother's legs at the knee. Uriah is an example of the commitment expected of every soldier, and of David in particular -- at least the David of the past. Uriah is now acting like the David we knew from earlier days. Uriah is the “David” that David should be.

Uriah's words should have shocked David into a realization of the depth of his sin. The author uses these words in an ironically pivotal way. Uriah has just told David that he will not go to his own house, that he will not eat and drink and sleep with his wife.³ He has put this matter emphatically: “By your life, and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing” (verse 11). In the very next verses, David compels Uriah to “eat and drink” with him, with the hope that he will lie with his wife. And when Uriah swears by the life of the king that he will not do so, the king ends up taking Uriah's life. How ironic! How tragic!